A guy I worked with out at the warehouse did this every day when the weather was warm. He'd take some tinfoil and make himself a little reflector over on the dash of his truck before he went in to work and set his lunch up there. When he came out 5 hours later, it would be done. It was actually pretty easy to do when the days were 100 degrees or more by 10 in the morning.
Seems like a lota work when you can just roll through Berger King.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked in Florida, I'd leave an apple in my vehicle in the summers, and it would be baked by lunch.
ReplyDeleteFrom the other end of the spectrum, while operating a snowmobile trail groomer, I used to package up a foil pack of sausages, onions, sliced potatoes, and butter.
ReplyDeleteI put them on the exhaust manifold to cook.
You knew when they were done just from the aroma coming up into the cab.
We did the same thing on the manifold of a deuce and a half when I was in the army, but rolled all that up into some canned biscuits for a white boy burrito.
DeleteIt wasn't that bad at the time but I doubt I'd eat it nowadays.
I use the dashboard convection oven when on the road. In wintertime when it's cloudy you can place your lunch on the defroster and turn the fan on high.
ReplyDeleteWhen I ran equipment I'd put lunch either on the hydraulic tank or on the hydraulic pump.
I'd also keep a few pairs of my cotton work gloves on the hydraulic pump so that I always had dry, warm gloves to switch out. On a cold winter day the only thing better than a hot lunch is a pair of warm gloves.
Don't put your can of beans on the engine's exhaust manifold. A loader man I know tried that one time when he was in a hurry. The can exploded and he was smelling burnt beans for a week.
Vent the can first, so it won't explode
DeleteYou could cook under the exhaust manifold and other places on EMD locomotives, but you had to find a place without any grease, gunk, or grime, and you had to watch it or you'd be eating charcoal.
ReplyDeleteEnough guys were cooking on side wall heaters that the BNSF printed a cookbook for a short time, before they got tired of the problems it created.
tallowpot
Always loved winter for the sidewall soup. Nothing better after walking 2mi of train in the snow
DeleteI was a rural mail carrier for 25 years in MI's UP. Sometimes I would wrap my sandwich in aluminum foil and put it on the intake manifold before driving out on my route. A couple hours later when I stopped for lunch it was ready to eat. Never lost or ruined a sandwich either.
ReplyDeleteI remember a cook book years ago that described how to cook various meals, what part of the engine compartments to place them in, for how long, etc.
ReplyDeleteI used this for warming up simple things, but would not actually cook anything unless needed.
3 more years of biden (the democrats) and we'll all be doing this.
ReplyDeleteNever had a C ration can explode on a manifold, but the innards were good and hot.
ReplyDeleteI used to drive OTR.
ReplyDeleteI stopped at the truckstops when I was hungry.