Category: Equipment

Catering, Equipment, Food Trucks, News

CRAZY & Co. Food Trucks

25 August 2022
Citroen HY Van Catering Unit

Citroen HY Van

Gone are the days when people were happy to book a ‘burger van’ for their event. Nowadays it isn’t enough for the food to be first class, the serving unit has to look good too. Everyone from the bride to the company director wants something ‘Instagrammable’ as social media continues it’s relentless takeover of the world, so food trucks seem to be the way to go.

To this end we have commissioned and have added, or are adding, a number of fun and quirky vehicles to our portfolio of food trucks.

The first of these is the venerable Citroen HY van. Only it isn’t. We looked carefully at where we operate, which is pretty much nationwide. The Citroen HY vans were last produced in `1981, making the youngest of them 41 years old. Not bad to nip to a local event or two, but a bit taxing for charging up and down the highways and byeways of this green and pleasant land. The size of them also means they are too heavy for our fleet of car transport trailers, so initially we were a bit stuck.

Then we happened upon a Spanish manufacturer, that was creating fabulous copies of the HY, but built upon a trailer chassis, and made from fibreglass and stainless steel, so pretty rot proof.

We ordered one in the middle of last summer, but with the six month waiting list, it turned up in the winter and then had a round a three month fit out period before we actually launched it.

Construction

Some images of the construction phase below. In truth more of a fit out phase, as the actual structure was provided pre made to us.

This one we engaged Fairtrade Fabrications to fit out for us. A protracted build period ended up, with a fabulous piece of kit. We are a bit limited in signage and theming as what we do is different everyday, so it makes it harder to add signs and such, though it looks like it will be appearing at a Christmas Fayre for a protracted period this winter, so that is liable to see a full branding effort.

Finished Van

Citroen HY Van Catering Unit
Citroen HY Van Catering Unit

Check out our other food trucks at CRAZY & Co. Food Trucks.

Equipment

New Equipment – Compact Generator

27 March 2022

When we were involved with the traditional funfair industry, we maintained a number of power generators to provide light and electricity for our equipment. When we gradually moved into the private hire market we sold them off as it was a condition of the hire service that the client provided power. We did keep a single small compact generator, more for sentimental reasons than anything else.

This was used very infrequently when a client couldn’t source power, and we would charge an small extra for taking it with us. Truth be told it was a pain, it took three or four men to man handle it into the back of a van.

Over the lockdown period our business started to change and we were being booked for larger outdoor catering events. More often we found the clients didn’t understand our power requirements, so it was decided to add some large power generators, along with refurbing our single remaining small unit.

We engaged Fairtech Fabrications to custom build a trailer for the small unit. The design brief was that the trailer needed to be large enough to take our bigger gensets. Additionally we wanted to find a way to make the smaller units easier to demount into the back of a van or trailer.

Form Follows Function

The end result was spot on. Whilst not winning any awards for good looks, it made the process of transferring the generator into a van so easy that the young ladies on the team could manage to do it without any fuss.

Compact Trailer For Demountable Gen Set
Compact Trailer For Demountable Gen Set

We also took the opportunity to clean and respray the engine and exhaust system. Along with coating the generator case in our new favourite product. Upol Raptor. A tough urethane coating designed to line the beds of pick up trucks. So far we have coated our freezers and jacket potato ovens with the product, and left them not only looking like new, but also able to take more of the knocks that our staff seem to dish out to them.

Our New Branding

We also took the opportunity to add our branding to the case, along with social media details.

10kva-Generator
10kva-Generator

Many thanks to Fairtech Fabrications for a job well done.

Resources:

Design and Construction Fairtech Fabrications