Date:         Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:12:46 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Westy Stove Leveling Ideas Sought
Comments: To: craig cowan <phishman068@GMAIL.COM>
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At 12:40 AM 7/18/2012, craig cowan wrote:
>I agree with the idea of a gimbled stove, but i for one have partial
>fears of them after several pots of Kraft macaronni and cheese have

Gimbals (and even one-axis pivoted stoves like the Seaward Princess
Jim pointed to) can be a real can of worms.  I've cooked enough meals
with the stove waving about over my head to have some pronounced
opinions on the various tradeoffs involved that could run to several
pages, but since I think that that sort of thing for a Westy
is...umm...silly, I'm not going to inflict them on you except for this:

Once you get to the size of a three-burner pivoted stove with a real
oven underneath it and a heavy weight in the bottom, you can afford
to have the pivots just above the cooktop level (about where the
surrounding rail is that keeps the pots corralled) and be reasonably
safe.  And if you have a small fully-gimbaled single-burner sterno/lp
device where the pivots are above the maximum level of food in the
pot, likewise.  Like the Forespar one if you only fill the pot half
full and it's a light pot.  In between those is where I start getting
coyote boring on the subject, so I'll be quiet now.

I am reminded of coming off a cruise (best way I know to make a Westy
seem really fast for a few days) and saying to Sylvan as we were
blasting down the Maine Turnpike at 70 or so "Take over for a minute
while I make some coffee" and actually unbuckling and starting to get
up to do it.  Very odd feeling.

Yours,
David