KevinD

Garage before and after successful delivery - now the real work (and fun) begins... Use your imagination… The pictures obviously uploaded out of order – LOL!

Very nice...would love one day to sail into one of those slips that appear to be in the upper right of the water area...

Hi Rob - yes I did,,thanks for asking! Well, at least it was part of what Dennis sent incorporated with the KK manual. I did note that the mm size for the bolts were different from what was in the Naked Whiz review - I have both socket sizes ready to go with my driver! BTW, where can I see the picture of your kitchen setup? Another member cited it and I don't recall seeing it in my browsing around the forum...

Ok, no hope for delivery today and I've been told to expect delivery Tuesday late morning...heavy sigh! On a more fun note, I've decided to follow the lead of CKREEF who named one of his KK's after the Titan Prometheus that stole fire from the Gods and gave it to man... I will name my KK after "Pele", Hawaiian Goddess of Fire. I will further tempt fate and get a rack of St. Louis ribs rubbed up and in the refrigerator to be ready for tomorrow late afternoon, by which time I hope Pele will have been set up for her burn in. Of course I will sacrifice some of those ribs in her honor!

BAD MacK - stomping foot - you are NOT allowed to use my own words against me! They did call to tell me they found my grill but now can't find the other stuff - joking; but it doesn't seem beyond the realm of their bumbling. Now I'm nicely trying to convince them they need to make this right and do whatever they have to do to deliver today. I know they don't want to pay any drivers overtime, but that isn't my problem!

Well 90 minutes into their business day and the shipper still doesn't know the location of my grill. Maybe this is an omen that tells me I should call Dennis and go with a BB32 instead? Of course that means changing out the 23" accessories too...hmnnnn? I should go look at the store site and see if my other colors choices are there since the only TerraBlue BB32 there shows it doesn't arrive until later this month, and it is already spoken for...

Love it! Outstanding bit of reasoning going after owners lurking yearnings for bigger and better - good luck in your quest!

Welcome to the KK family! I too am waiting for my TerraBlue though it is a 23. The picture above is nice as are others showing the KK as part of some sort of island or similar structure. What I've noted on a few of them is what appears to be a lack of unobstructed access; or at least partial obstruction from some angle of partial side approach. Mine will free stand next to an substantial grill island I built for my Lynx 42 gas grill. While I have my own ideas that I will share in a moment, I think you would be well served to first cook with your new KK in a freestanding environment so that you can get used to how you yourself will actually be using it, both from an ease of setting it up for individual cooks, putting on the food, moving it around as it cooks on the various levels or positions on the grates, and how you will be removing your food (especially for huge sized meats. Once you have done that, then you can sit down and think about what you might want to build around it and the impact of that structure on your access. Another consideration is cleaning it out and exterior cleaning as needed. While our KK's are on wheels, how easy is it going to be to pull something out of an enclosure that weighs 1000 pounds if you really want/need to get access to all areas of the bottom for cleaning out or doing whatever it is you might need to do? I have seen mention of shop vacs and if you go that route you pretty much can forget about having to get ashes out via the doors at the bottom. Thinking about this begs the question: do you go ahead and build something that surrounds the KK except for the front, or do you build something that is open front and back? In this case it's really not enclosed but is flanked by your island structure? The idea of a tightly integrated KK has a lot of appeal but for the reasons I mentioned above, I wonder how practical it really is?

We need to get Dennis on that!

All I can say is that Dennis' cargo/warehouse company sent me the bill of lading after the issue popped up and it clearly showed the end shipper as having picked up and signed for everything. What they did between picking up and taking it to their terminal for final distribution is beyond me. As of close of business Friday afternoon on the West Coast, the grill still had not been located. They told me to call back Monday and get a status. Nothing I can do and while I am less than happy there is no point in brooding about it... So instead of playing with my new toy over the weekend, I will play with some old toys. Drive the convertible down to the beach and go sailing with some friends enjoying the wind on the water...

I feel like Charlie Brown… I went to kick that darned football and Lucy pulled it away at the last instant and I landed flat on my back – good grief! Just sent delivery driver away having refused the entire shipment because guess what – the grill was not there! Everything else was but no grill. The driver while a nice guy, kept telling me the count of items was correct. I finally got out my iPad and showed him a picture of a crated KK and then he understood the problem. He wasn't willing to write anything on the paperwork indicating a missing item so I rejected the entire shipment. I called Dennis and he was most apologetic and right on top of it, indicating he was going to call his cargo warehouse company that assembles the order for end shipper pick up, and have them deal with the shipper to figure out what the heck is going on. He promised someone would get back to me, but frankly I'm not exactly sure when this will be resolved. I think it is time for a big a** Sapphire gin & tonic, w/lime of course.

Yes, AS IF I we're a Zen Master in control, not effected by emotions...not!

HaHa- it is only 12:19 PM here on the west coast...still a bit to go. Patience Grasshopper!

Ok - had a great morning getting commitment from the shipper to get me in today instead of Monday next week! My KK is due to arrive between 10am-2pm today! Obligatory delivery/unpack/setup & first cook pictures to follow as the weekend progresses... I appreciate all that have shared their experiences and wisdom on this forum as it will help me get this done with minimal difficulty!

Ok - perhaps a stupid question from the newbie... Themchar appears to be fairly large and is uniform in size. Does anyone take a hammer and bust these up and then load the firebox or is this really more dependent on whether your are after a hot/fast cook vs. low/slow?

If I am lucky I might have my KK 23 TerraBlue sometime on Friday and if not, then certainly should see on Monday. Almost certainly would've had it today but for the 14 boxes of charcoal that took me past one pallet worth of goods, which delayed shipment due to lack of room on the truck - that coco & coffee char sure as heck need to be stellar stuff! Big grins!

I hope so - l've been on pins and needles since completing the purchase process with Dennis on 7/1....like you, had I been able to make up my mind on color and a few othe decisions earlier, no doubt by now my KK would be here already!

I think Dennis is on his own for a bit as his employees are on a post-Ramadan vacation. I'm 50 miles from his southern CA inventory site and while his staff yesterday was supposed to have sent pickup/shipping orders to the delivery company, he is struggling to locate those records. As part of that process I was to have been sent an email from KK so I could proactively reach out to the shipper and make final delivery instructions, but I've not yet received that information. From my own interactions with Dennis and all of the feedback from others on this site, Dennis is on top of things quickly. You and I have had the misfortune of 4th of July (in my case) and Ramadan slowing things down...heavy sigh!

Thanks CC! I appreciate the feedback and look forward to all of the fun and results soon to be enjoyed from KK use!

Ok MacK, you sound just as bad as some of the people in my Corvette club that claim red is the only color "Real Corvettes" come in and that they of course, are also the fastest...LOL

Nice job and I do have a question for you and the KK community as my 23" KK is pending delivery so this info will be useful for my first cook: I noticed that the point end was placed back towards the hinge of the cooker – is that the hotspot (if you could call it that) for the 23 inch KK? Thank you!

Does this mean a roti with the more traditional "spear type" that you have to thrust through whatever you're cooking? I can see pluses and minuses for the traditional and Dennis's version. My perception to the down side to Dennis's version (without having yet received mine) is that you might have some small issues with balancing the weight but since good motors make some provision for off center weighting, shouldn't be a big problem. I ordered his 8inch version that included a reducer and I'm expecting great versatility and ease with it considering the flexibility of the securing pieces. Having "speared" many large pieces of meat for roti cooking on my Lynx gas grill, I can comment about how hard it can be to shove through a large breastbone to better achieve a good mounting and centered weighting. The largest turkey I cooked on my 42inch Lynx was a 25lb. bird that turned out spectacularly well... In my mind, a "wash" between the two types - it will ultimately come down the size and flexibility of each equipment set and the perseverance of the cook to master what they have... Happy cooking to us all!

Better not feed the varmints, else they will soon look like this one:

As others have said, what a great setup you've been able to create! The view out of the window is great but the two other things that caught my eye were: the storage for some of your spices and mortar and pestle & and your espresso machine. Much more to be admired as well...

OTB = ??? Haven't yet run across anything to clue me in on the acronym...help please, for the NooB... Just sausages today for this 4th, my last grilling prior to arrival of my 23" Terra Blue KK. I don't yet know where I will place the KK? It may be that when not in use I store it by the house where the old offset smoker sits to the left (not pictured) side of the house. We will see what my tolerance is for pushing the KK around from the house to the circle the is in essence the open side of my grill island area. When working it will either be directly opposite the Lynx or sit in the spot of the covered 15+yr. old Weber performer. The Weber and offset smoker will be gifted to someone or an organization that can put them to use.