sorry for the cruddy cell phone pic.

First I removed all of the front clip:

And yes, there’s some stuff hanging down that’s going to be moved. Here you can see where my old tow hook brackets mounted. One tug and they bent:

While I was taking care of this, I decided to add a additional transmission cooler to the system. With our travel plans for the future, and the addition of a trailer, it made sense. I mounted it in front of the condenser, towards the side where the mechanical fan is:

Here you can see where I plumbed it into the return line to the transmission:

Continued in part 2..

For now, this is what I’ve finished up with:

Still to come is mounting the new firestone NDT’s:

It’s down to the bare frame now:

A bunch of surface rust mainly, nothing rotted through. I’ll be putting a completely new spring set-up in.The old springs, shackles and such would only come out with a cutting wheel. Looks like I’ve got a few days of grinding ahead of me. After grinding, the frame will be cated in POR15, then painted in a chassis coat… probably black. Just because.

The parts bin is growing:

The two biggest areas of concern for me (besides rust of course!), is that the lunette has been cut off and had a 1 7/8 hitch welded over it. Not such a bad thing, except they also welded the lunette into the receptacle. My two options are to find a new lunette housing (preferred), or just cut off the remaining length of lunette and use the upper lunette mount. My hold backs to that are that a) it will look bad and b) the upper mount will probably give me difficulty in height for my hitch.

The other “modification” was to cut the rear panel out and replace it with a slide in tailgate. To make matters worse, the individual also welded angle iron to brace the sides. Unfortunately, he also welded them to the frame. So getting the tub off will require a bit of cutting. I’m still planning on how to attack that issue. I don’t mind a tailgate, I just would like it to come down and function as a table of sorts.
Check back for more progress!

Traveling the state almost completely by class 4 roads, or “ancient roads” as they are classified by the Vermont government, the group hopes to bring to light the need to retain these roads for public use.

The State of Vermont has given the local governments until July 1, 2009 to identify and declare any unmapped corridors. If these roads aren’t mapped and declared as byways by 2015, they will discontinued.

The Vermont Expedition Society took up the cause to help map and substantiate these byways realizing that maintaining these byways for public use only helps build the community. Also, they show that responsible off-highway travel is both obtainable, and quite the nice daily outing for families.

The trip was an overwhelming success. The journey took 4 days, and traveled 286 miles. For more information and photographs, visit the website of the Vermont Expedition Society.

One priority consideration should be storing your utensils so that they do not bounce around the inside of the cabin. They should be secured and knives sheathed to prevent damage and injury.

During my years in professional kitchens, I transported most of my tools in hardware toolboxes. Below is a picture of one of three I used to use.

Now this is a bit extreme for vehicle dependent expeditions. The room needed for this can be better utilized, not to mention the excess tolls that aren’t needed and the box itself is heavy, rust-prone and just outright dangerous.

In my experience, the best solution is to utilize a pelican case for your camp hardware. They come in a multitude of sizes, seal against the elements and are pretty much indestructible. Below is a shot of the case I use to carry my knives, cookware and such in. I also use a case to hold all of my dry (non-refrigerated) ingredients.

My knives are kept in a knife roll(we’ll discuss knife selection in another article). Each knife also uses a edge protector. The reason for this is two-fold: It keeps the blades from getting damaged by banging into one another, and it also protects from injury. I keep some other essential tools in the roll also — microplanes, whisks, thermometers, spatulas, peltex, cooking spoons and so on.

Also inside the tools case is cookware — assorted camping style pots and small saute pans. Eating utensils, cups, wraps, foils, bags and mixing bowls. I keep two different sized cutting boards and some quarter sized sheet pans.

Oh, and lets not forget a stick blender…. because I just have to have omelettes in the morning outdoors!

Don’t forget the power inverter!

Enjoy!

]]> http://www.newenglandoverland.com/general/whats-in-your-toolbox/feed/ 1 http://www.newenglandoverland.com/general/kitchens/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kitchens http://www.newenglandoverland.com/general/kitchens/#comments Tue, 08 Aug 2006 00:37:29 +0000 admin http://pastrypros.com/blog/2006/08/08/kitchens/ Ok…, I’ll admit it…, I’m a kitchen geek. One thing I’d like to do is travel around and take a look at the kitchens of some of the more well known restaurants (or even not-so-well known). I love tinker with layout (much to the dismay of the guys that have worked for me), get into spec’-ing new equipment, seeing everything sparkle….. it’s just real cool to me.

I have a good friend in NJ, one of the best cooks you’ll come across, and he opened up a new place a little over a year ago. I was down and took some pix that I’d thought I’d share with you. It’s a small restaurant, seats around 50, so the kitchen’s not huge. But it’s well laid out, and has got some great equipment.

first up, a view down the line from the pass:

This shot is of the meat and garde manger station:

Over here is pastry:

Thanks for looking