Monday, September 24, 2012

Food Truck, part 3: The hood

July 12. 2012

It's another hot day and the truck is sitting in the sun.  Doug and I decide to move it to the other side of the building so he has a handy electrical outlet and can work in the shade.  Since the truck had been set up as a camper we start looking at the improvements the previous owner had made.  There was a sink and some 5 gallon water tanks and a dump tank under the truck.  It looks to be about 25 gallons.  The truck also has 4 different electric receptacles that have either a normal plug or a cigarette lighter power source.  We open the hood and find there are two batteries.  One battery runs the motor and the second is for all of those cigarette power sources.  The engine compartment also has a plug in receptacle.  We plug an extension cord into that and find we can run any electric power tool off of the normal plug receptacles.  That will be what I plug my generator into to get power for the back of the truck.  This is a wonderful discovery and saves me tons of time and money creating something like this.  I can get a refrigerator or hood or french fryer and just plug them in and turn on the generator-instant power!  Doug continues demolition and asks about the grill I am going to use.  I tell him it's at my house and he says "lets go get it!"

July 13, 2012

Doug and I take his truck to my house and load the grill into the back of it.  When we get back to the shop we lift it into the truck.  This is the first moment I feel like this could be a real food truck.  "Where do you want it?" Doug asks.  We try the front up by the passenger door, but decide on the back.  He says that our next task is to get and mount the hood I am going to have in the truck.  We head over to Lowes to look at hoods.  Most of them pull about 150-200 cubic feet a minute and I am apprehensive that I need more draw than that.  We decide to investigate further.

July 16, 2012

Doug has pulled all of the paneling off of the interior walls.  Underneath is some Styrofoam insulation that looks pretty shopworn and pieced together.  I say that maybe it will be OK.  He looks at me and says "No, you don't want something that is half-assed like that in the truck."  I begin to get nervous again-more expense and who is going to see it.  But actually I agree with him.  I think we should just insulate it correctly which will make a huge difference in the comfort level inside the truck.  Before I can even tell him OK he is ripping out insulation.  Once he gets done he says "lets take everything out and clean out the truck before we start adding anything to it.  A clean workplace is a happy workplace!"  So I get the hose and some soap and clean out the truck.  Doug is happy.

July 17, 2012

Doug calls me and tells me to look at Craigslist for hoods.  I go online and find four different hoods right away.  I call all four asking them to call me back.  One is a custom hood that looks very promising.  The seller of that hood calls me back.  It draws 600 cubic feet a minute.  We talk some more and make a deal.  He is even going to deliver it to my shop.  Doug has been putting in the new insulation.  It looks good.

July 18, 2012

The seller shows up with the hood.  It is brand new and was leftover from a building project.  Doug and I lift it into the truck and hold it up over the grill.  It is larger than I thought but will work perfectly.  We are pumped up!


2 comments:

  1. Haha.. Very interesting article, one of the reasons I think trucks are awesome.

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