Trailer is here....

oh man chris i am sorry to hear that!!!!!!
we towed ours last weekend for the 1st time and i got experience our first panic stop. little old lady in a geo metro lead to that one. but the electric brakes work for sure and we didnt jack knife.
i still have to get my electrician to balance the load between the left side and the right side since i have 2 power leads coming out. but i did learn if i pack 10 pounds of dry ice in the freezer and bring the reefer on line after the fec and sm i dont pull a redlite that in the end i can get everything to temp no problem.
leakage we have no problem with but i will have to touch up all brackets in the trailer that hold down equipment since they are plain steel and in our salt air they do want to rust.
but we did take 2nd place in brisket at the florida state bbq championships in minneola florida last weekend and made a few bucks vending so i wont gripe too much. plus i am learning how to back up really well. turn right to go left is my new mantra
all that said peg and i are really happy you got the rig and i am sure that greg will make good. just remind him of how many people read this forum!!!!!! worked for us!!!!!
jack
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!

Hey Jack and Peggy~

I'm sure that all the issues can (will) be resolved between TT & us. You bet I will refer them to this forum.

Congratulations on the 2nd place in Brisket! That goes a long way in selling too...."award-winning brisket" just naturally tastes better that "brisket"!!!!

Thanks for the tip on dry ice in the freezer.....I will be trying that out myself.

My $.02 on backing up....put your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel....whichever way the hand goes, so goes the back of the trailer. Lots of little corrections will save you some trouble too. After just a few trips, you all will be old pros.

Best o' luck....keep on postin' and keep on smokin'.....

Prisonchef (or should I say award winning chef)
Congrats on your recent placing!
When I have to run on generator power, I always bring my refrigeration units on one at a time. They just draw too much power at start up. To ease the wear and tear on the compressors I actually bought another small generator (c. $500.00 at home depot)and run two generators. If you can hear the compressors "dragging" at start-up you are shortening the life of your compressors and that could cost you well in excess of the cost of a second generator in the long run. It also gives you a back-up if one goes down. Back when I only had one generator, I actually used to alternate running the freezer and the fridge, so that each unit ran on full juice without have the voltage spikes and browns. I know its more money but it could save you a lot of trips to the ice company and wear and tear on your units.

Just my .02
Mark

mark,
i have two honda eu3000is generators. since most of the competitions are at least 3 hours from me i found that by loading dry ice in the freezer i can ease the start up load on my left hand side. this side has 22 cu ft reefer,7.2 cu ft freezer, fec100, sm150 and 3 well steam table. right hand leg carries only water pump, on demand water heater, lights, hood and a/c which i never use. needless to say i am going to relocate reefer to rh leg on circuit panel.
way i bring power on line lh side is fec100 first as at start up it draws 200 watts and only 50 watts after that. then comes freezer, followed by sm150, followed by reefer which by this point has my chilled food and ice bags from cooler loaded in it. no drag on any compressors. by noon saturday (assuming noon friday set up) i can turn on a/c if i want but with windoews open and rear door open ya can't feel it so why bother lol

chris i tried the bottom of the wheel thing but kept forgetting but i can remember turn right to go left!!!! think alzheimers is not too far away for me which is why i write everything down!!!!
i pay 1.95/lb for dry ice here and as mark pointed out i consider that cheap insurance.
by the way what do you have to do to winerize your rig???? just kinda curious

thanks for the congrats guys
jack
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!

Chris,
Did you get the aluminum siding or the fiberglass on your trailer? We got a little rust on ours already but that's normal for us in FL. We made a batch of Brunswick stew, today, and tested chicken recipe. Everything worked well.
Let us know how your experience with trailertech goes.
Peggy

Hey Peggy-

My trailer is aluminum, anodized red. I was told that the fiberglass would show millions of tiny craks before long at all....nothing that would affect the operational qualities, but would look mighty shabby.

Montana is a pretty dry country (humidity-wise...whiskey is OK) so rust isn't much of a problem here. The underside of the thing is bare plywood though...no undercoating at all. So, even rainwater would eventually degrade it some. I'm having a rubberlike undercoating put on it now.

I'll be sending all the charges to Trailer Tech; we'll see how that goes.

Best of luck to you & Jack in all; keep us all posted.

chris,
is the coating like rhino liner or something like that? also, if i'm not being too nosy about how much does it coast to do??
hope things go well with tt
jack

I think that if I ever get into the concession business that I will probably not consider Trailer Tech. Prisonchef's photos look awesome, but to send a trailer out with bare plywood exposed on the underside is not right. Wouldn't take but a few rains to make that plywood swell and start to rot. Couple that with the DELAYS, Seam problems, etc. and I think that means that something on their production side of the business needs to be addressed. Granted I'm sure that they have produced thousands of perfect trailers but I'm starting to believe that their customer service skills are what keeps them in business.

Hope you can get everything taken care of to your satisfaction.

Mark

plywood is marine grade
jack

congrats on the brisket guys!!! maybe some day yall will stop here in savannah. keep on smoking....... but no tobacco.

chris,
so what the heck are you using for undercoating????
still would like to know!!!
jack

quote:

Originally posted by prisonchef313:
[qb] mark,
i have two honda eu3000is generators. since most of the competitions are at least 3 hours from me i found that by loading dry ice in the freezer i can ease the start up load on my left hand side. this side has 22 cu ft reefer,7.2 cu ft freezer, fec100, sm150 and 3 well steam table. right hand leg carries only water pump, on demand water heater, lights, hood and a/c which i never use. needless to say i am going to relocate reefer to rh leg on circuit panel.
way i bring power on line lh side is fec100 first as at start up it draws 200 watts and only 50 watts after that. then comes freezer, followed by sm150, followed by reefer which by this point has my chilled food and ice bags from cooler loaded in it. no drag on any compressors. by noon saturday (assuming noon friday set up) i can turn on a/c if i want but with windoews open and rear door open ya can't feel it so why bother lol


thanks for the congrats guys
jack
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!! [/qb]

Jack, can you provide any additional info hooking up a trailer like this to effectively use two honda generators and still plug into a 30 amp or 50 amp service when available? Most trailers come with a 30 amp or 50 amp plug.

Rootsman

I see from another post that

"coming out of the trailer are two 30amp 125 volt male 3 prong twist lock connectors."

I think that is a smart design and adds greater electrical flexibility. How do you like the Honda's? Did you get the wheel kits? I'm considering them or the equivalent Yamaha's.

rootsman,
i have been working the hondas hard doing the farmers market on saturday which means i start smoking on friday around 11am. i change the oil in them every 3rd week which is about after 72 hours running time, it might be overkill but that is how i am doing it. as a funny aside people always talk to me about how quite they are and want to know about them and after that peggy always seems to make a sale . the smartest thing i ever did was listen to chateaubeyound in this forum. he makes his living doing catering on the bonneville salt flats of all places for movie and commercial work. he told me how well the hondas work and how expensivew they are. sure glad we listened to him
hope this helps
jack
ps. this october they will be 1 year old but have been run hard. pouring rain in both ockeechobee and callahan and about half the time on fridays before the farmers market and they have never missed a lick. good florida generator lol

Thanks Jack!

Can't afford two right now, so I'll have to make do with one and juggle the breaker. Called around and the best online price is $1670 delivered (commercial address)and best Orlando area price is $1790 plus tax, so far. A few are holding out at $1,999 still, but most are $1,799. I was also considering the Yamaha EF3000SEC and SEBC, which are similar in quality, reliability and price and come with the wheel kit but the running in parallel down the road is a big sell for me.

So they run in pouring rain with no ill effects? WOW.

Rootsman,
We can lift the generators ourselves to get them in and out of the truck. Maybe 10 years from now, it will be too much weight for us, or maybe, we'll be all muscle at that point! I think, instead of wheels, a hoisting device might be a great idea!
One thought is, we tried getting generators when we got our trailer, which was in the middle of all the hurricanes. If you are wanting one soon, either buy it now, or wait til the season is over. They will be hard to get if we have another year like the last one. And electric wiring and plugs and stuff was even tougher to find.
They seem kind of loud to me, but I remember how loud the neighborhood generators were during the canes. I think the exhaust fan might actually be louder than the generators. Constant dull noise can get on my nerves a bit. So I just get Jack to sing for me!
Peggy

Are these generators that much better/quieter that the ones by Troy Bilt??

The quiet inverter type generators are supposed to be more reliable and have a longer life that the standard generators. You get a lot less power for your dollar, but their noise level is bearable (i.e., it doesn't sound like noise pollution or annoy the hell out of you and your neighbors like the standard generators). You can in fact carry on a conversation beside it. It is about as quiet as a well tuned Japanese car, whereas the other generators sound like a chain saw or old lawn mower.

I just returned a 7500KW Troy Bilt to Lowes. Boy was it load!

dawg,
it is my understanding that the hondas meet the motion picture associations rules for on location film noise production.
more importantly for us they meet the florida folk festival's noise requirements which are really tough.
that is our goal for next year to be accepted to cook at that event.
the other consideration was peggy's sm150 and making sure we had a clean power source for that.
troy bilt makes really good equipment so to say the hondas are better quality then them would be wrong. but i doubt they are quiter from rootsman post
hope this helps some
jack

dawg,
almost forgot
we got one of our hondas from camping world in midway florida just west of you (and thanks ocala bill i still owe you big time for that one!!!)
if you pay the 20 bucks for a presidents card you get an automatic 10% discount and they carry all the honda eu is series from eu1000is to eu3000is and have the parrallel (sp) kits too.
jack

I've got a Troy-Built and the Honda is much quieter. The Troy-Built sounds like a mower and can be annoying to some. When I use it on the RV trailer I park as far away from others as I can and put the trailer between the generator and the "public". At cook offs it provides some background noise which helps me sleep better! When using it at a remote location for my Kingfisher rotisserie cooker I just run a 25' cord and put the generator behind a bush or something to help screen the noise. I looked hard at a Honda but just can't justify the cost yet. My Troy-Built gets the job done but it is noisier.

I have a 7500w Generac and it is not too noisy. In fact, right now I can't get it to make any noise at all.....it's in the shop.

I'd like to have a Honda...do they make a 7000 or 7500 watt model that can go in my trailer?

chris,
go to american honda's website and pull up generators.
if i remember right the largest eu series that they make is an eu6500is (inverter and really quite and mucho dinero) i think on their eb series they go as high as 10,000 watts.
you might also want to go to porter-cable website. their power tools are great and they do make generators that are powered by the same honda motor (or bigger) i have in mine.
glad to hear that you are too busy. peggy is starting her marketing strategy and we are hoping it gets us as busy as you. she is concentrating on the city and county fire depts and a discount program for them at the farmers market.
hope this helps some
jack