Mobile Oven Question

[KiwiPete]

A friend of mine here in New Zealand is thinking about building a mobile pizza oven, using a Casa 110 or similar.

Here is a very preliminary question for all the engineers out there:

Assume that the trailer has been properly designed to take the load.
He is thinking about welding a steel tray into which you fit the insul board and then build the oven on top.

I was thinking: would it be better to suspend the tray (using either springs or maybe a very stiff piece of rubber) to insulate the tray and oven from shocks?? I know the suspension of the trailer is supposed to take up the shocks, but just in case...

What do you think?

[james]

Originally Posted by KiwiPete

A friend of mine here in New Zealand is thinking about building a mobile pizza oven, using a Casa 110 or similar.

Great to hear from you Peter. I hope you and your oven are doing well.

Or similar??? :-)

James

[nissanneill]

Hi Pete,
having built plenty of trailers, both single and tandem axle, I would build a trailer with a tandem axle to carry the total weight which would be around a ton, with the oven, base, trailer, wood and ancillary equipment. I would not use the cheap 'slipper spring' suspension setup as they are cheap and inferior, ie, when you go over a speed hump, all of the weight is taken by the front axle and when the back axle goes over it, all of the weight is then on that axle. This causes the trailer and load to bounce twice. Using a rocker type set-up, the load is always balanced on the 2 axles and share it over humps and bumps giving the smoothers ride possible.
The tyres are important, pressure and profile all should be considered for the smoothest ride possible. Don't get too heavy rated springs as they will stiffen up the ride and cause potential risk of damage. Certainly put brakes on the trailer, I aways use disk brakes but then I build quite a few boat trailers because you want it to stop without pushing you into an accident especially when the brakes are wet, - they are cheap insurance but I imagine that your transport regulations demand these.
I would not cushion the base of the oven but would ensure that the whole oven construction cannot slip nor slide, as sudden braking will cause the most hassles as it is unpredictable. Towing, road conditions, load are all controllable and require common sense to reduce damage to a minimum.
You should not need shock absorbers as the driver should not be traveling at speed over rough or corrugated roads.

Neill

[TDVT]

Originally Posted by KiwiPete

I was thinking: would it be better to suspend the tray (using either springs or maybe a very stiff piece of rubber) to insulate the tray and oven from shocks?? I know the suspension of the trailer is supposed to take up the shocks, but just in case...

What do you think?

I had thought about the same thing.

I was envisioning a "trailer on a trailer" with the secondary oven platform separately sprung & maybe even having shock absorbers to dampen vibrations, but not having done it I don't know if it's really even necessary.

There are a few out there, though I think many are pre-cast in larger pieces, not individual bricks.

Hopefully some one with first-hand experience will weigh in.

[david s]

I have a mobile oven (see pic in finished ovens) It is a small one and weighs about 160 kg I've lightened it up as much as I could. It rolls on to the trailer on wheels and is secured by chains and turnbuckles at each corner of the trailer. It sits nice and snug and the spring rate seems about right for the weight, but I'm worried that the thing will shake to bits so I'm planning to add shocks to the trailer when I get a chance. I cast my oven dome in one piece, the floor also in one piece so its chances of survival from vibrations should be reduce- time will tell.

[PizzaPolice]

Look up Inferno Catering dot com. This dude seems to have a handle on it.

[Wiley]

Just checked out his site but unfortunately I could not find a photo of his mobile oven. I have actually toyed with mounting my steel dome oven on a trailer. What with having a steel liner the idea of arriving somewhere with a pile of broken bricks would not be so much an issue. Steel liner and steel outer shell would be perfect with brick hearth of course!

My neighbor is in the final process of scrapping out and old mobile home (he just moved into his new stunningly beautiful... glad I don't have to pay the taxes on log home) and has a three axle frame w/tires free for the taking. He has stripped and recycled everything but the steel frame and it sits awaiting the haul to the recyclers.

So far my better sense has kept me in check...as in "Exactly why do I want my oven mobile?" I'm retired and wouldn't/don't want the hassle of starting a business and other than that why would one want a mobile oven?
Wiley

[Frances]

Build one and then sell it? Or maybe so you can take it with you when you go on holiday? Build it just to show you can?

Plenty of good reasons if you look hard enough...

[PizzaPolice]

I have photos from his previous website. I tried to post them but am restricted to 18K. Sorry.
We need to set up a mutual P2P that everyone agrees on just for these instances.

[Wiley]

PizzaPolice, if you have photos that are defined files rather than links of some sort, try opening them using a photo manipulation program. I used to use Adobe Photo Deluxe when I ran a iMac and now use Paint Shop Pro to mess with photos (ever since I went to the "Dark Side" and run a WinTel platformed machine:-)

Usually one can resize and degrade the photos to be a size acceptable to the Forums standards/limits. Odd that they are loo large since most online photos are 72dpi. Perhaps you could try separate replies to post each with a photo. I'm curious on what he's using as a suspension system: leaf springs? coil springs? lots of shock absorbers? Air shocks?


Wiley