We thought some of our readers would be interested in learning about the features of our food truck, and how they came to fruition.
Built by us
At the start of 2012, the modern food truck scene in Victoria, was in its infancy, with only a handful of operators. Because of this, we found it very hard to find specialised food truck builders and decided to take on the job ourselves.
With the decision to manage the entire process ourselves, we called on our tradie mates to help within their specialised areas, meanwhile we were able to utilise what skills we had, to fill in the gaps and do the prep work, whilst also juggling with designing the truck, meeting specific regulations, and keeping to our budget.
A Unique Vehicle
Choosing a vehicle was one of the first steps in building the food truck. All of the food trucks we had come across in Australia were a regular flatbed truck with a “box” put on the back to build the kitchen area. We had issues with the appearance of this, and also some practical elements to the concept.
In USA we had seen photos of food trucks based out of old postal vans. We loved this idea and researched what models were available in Australia. We stumbled upon some older Mercedes bus models which were very similar, and just about flew to Sydney to purchase one, however it was not to be.
We came across an extra high roof, extra long wheelbase Mercedes-benz sprinter for sale, otherwise known as a Jumbo sprinter. These types of Mercedes sprinter are very unique as they are only imported into Australia to order. They have a factory made roof extension, giving them extra height, perfect us to stand in the back of. At the time of purchase, there was only around 15 of these in the whole of Australia!
Although the vehicle didn’t have the old school vibes we were originally
looking for, it still had a modern “pimpin” kind of feel to it, and we felt the
reliability benefits of having a new vehicle were something unachievable by an
old school bus,
You can view a feature article about our food truck on the Mercedes-benz website: https://www.myvan.com/en/start-up-culture-en/round-the-way-from-bagels-to-burgers-in-the-sprinter/
A FULLY SELF SUFFICIENT FOOD TRUCK
We created a Food truck which is able to operate anywhere! We inbuilt water tanks, electrical generator and LPG Gas system to supply us with all of the resources required to run a commercial catering kitchen anywhere.
A top the line Honda eu6500i Generator was installed in the food truck which produces around 6.5kw of peak load power for us to work with. The generator weighs around 250kg, so we installed it inside a hatch, and on a heavy duty sliding rail for easy access to refuel and servicing. The Generator is hard wired to be able to operate whilst driving to keep fridges running etc.
We opted for a 2 x 9kg Gas bottle to power the gas equipment in the truck. Alternatively, we could have chosen a heavier, larger and more space consuming 45kg gas bottle system, however we designed the truck in a very efficient way to minimise gas usage, and therefore could reap the benefits of having a smaller gas system.
The water system used is really simple. A 130L Fresh water tank pumped through a 12v pump and 50L electric hot water service feeds a Mixmaster tap and hands free hand wash top. Once drained, the grey water is stored in a separate tank, which can be released once in a suitable location.
Top of the Range kitchen Equipment
We choose to use Skope fridges: https://www.skope.com/
Australian/New Zealand based company known for innovation,
reliability and super cold fridges to meet the high demands of operating in a
food truck.
Can hold enough food for around 800-900 Serves in a festival environment. At
larger events we will use mobile cool rooms to increase capacity when required.
The flattop Grill is the heart of the food truck, and key to producing high numbers of food in a limited timeframe. There was no skimping on cost when choosing a grill for the truck. We ended up installing an Italian made, chrome plated Baron branded grill – Super powerful and reliable. You can find a video on the benefits of the chrome plated grilltop here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1teUXlTEfBs
Our food truck had different requirements to a standard commercial kitchen. Being in a moving vehicle we had to consider weight and space a lot more. We chose to use a Qasair Condari rangheood Exhaust. https://www.condari.com.au/ These are super high powered semi-commercial exhaust canopies that are mainly marketed at high end domestic kitchens. They are super powerful and super slick looking which we loved. The exhaust has withstood 10 years in operation, and hundreds of thousands of meals cooked.
Where are you
Originally based in Ballarat, Australia.
Now based in Brunswick (Melbourne, Australia)