Hey Wintem, start you own post and ask the question,don’t come into another persons post and get pissed because no one answers you. The Forum has been slow for the last few weeks………….BillyB

Thanks for all the input. I am out of this site. I hope you all feel good in your superiority.

… but the problem is getting the cart to the location and back home without the water freezing.

Okay, it’s not THAT cold in TN. We used to live there for several years (Chattanooga area and Whitwell… outside of Jasper & South Pittsburg).  You shouldn’t have a problem with your water lines freezing up during the day, just overnight. The tanks will stay thawed just from the motion of the water sloshing around. The lines should all be inside your trailer. For overnights, I would do to the cart what we did to the RV when we stayed over the winter in Elizabethton (outside of Johnson City)… Heat tape and pipe insulation! If you do use heat tape and pipe insulation… figure a size larger than your pipe to allow for the heat tape (we use Frost King brand).

Stubby,
 
Just saying high. Whatever you do, I’ll bet you will be pumped come next spring. With all the experience you have gained from this summer, you’ll be set up for great success.
If you stay open, I think a sign out front that says:

Hey Stubby. I am deciding or trying to, the same thing. I live in ski country in NH.North Conway.I was looking for a job today.The thought of making shat for seasonal work makes me squirm. I could bartend again but my liver has been advising me not to.I worked yesterday during the Pats game also,not a record breaker.I worked a pool at Attitash this summer for a day.I think I will call the girl who hooked me up to see if I can somehow work the cart into the shilot. Thanks,and good luck.

If I may ask, I am thinking of starting a hot dog/sausage cart busines here in Columbus, OH. Having never done something like this before, am I crazy to think about starting up in Winterfor the first time? Would it be better to hold off until Spring? I intend to take the Hot Dog University course soon.

Just curious, how are you planning on keeping the water from freezing on the cart?  On a trailer I can see it but it seems pretty difficult on a cart.  I am going to attempt it with a 10×10 walled pop-up and propane heat but the problem is getting the cart to the location and back home without the water freezing.

Like the sign Jerry! [8D]
 
I am going to try doin home made soups this winter on a cart and will put a sign out pretty much saying the same… Home made chowder and soups. “You need to try it at least once!”
 
No one else sells anything like it around here. I really think I can build a fan base with just chowder and a couple extra soups a day… [:)]
 
 

 
I do most of my web browsing on my cell phone now but unfortunately Roadfood doesn’t work properly on my mobile browser 

Stubby,  I also browse this site with my phone, an Iphone. I noticed that up top ^^^ there is a “theme” drop down you can select mobile and it fits the telephone screen.
 
Sorry about your event. Thats a bummer. Hope you have a gang-buster weekend and pull this off.
 
John

Hey Stubby we’re definately not experts by any means as we just started here in the Northwest a few months back. I’m a California beach bum born and raised, and after wearing boardshorts pretty much all year around most of my life, the weather in these parts takes some getting use too although I still wear my shorts.
 
We’re going to do our first winter here a few days a week, but what I been doing to test the waters to prepare myself for what is suppose to be of course “the worst winter in 50 years” is first of all wearing pants (or change our name to “Dummy Dogs” lol). I been wearing of course thick socks, and I bought 2 EZ-UPs. Im also buying a few of those heater adapters that screw onto a 15 pnd propane tank to put in each EZ-UP. They cost like sixty or so bucks each at Home Depot, and I figured it’s good for us and the customers.

I know exactly what you mean when you say it’s slow !! i’ve been slow for the past month  I was talking to another guy this week and he say’s for him it’s always slow around this time of year then right after thanksgiving it picks back up i’m hoping he’s right and hoping we make it till then too!i’ve noticed that all the fast food places are running 3-4 dollar specials topo so they are slow aLSO. the local sonny’s b.b.q is running them too soooo… what i did was to offer something they dont ( besides better food) thats free local delivery with multiple orders. oue town is small so i can get anywhere around here in a bout 5 mins. so we;re trying it out, alot of places are down to the bones on help too so they dont have people who can take lunch at different times. so we bring it to them. sides they always tip pretty good too helps on the gas stuation. told my wife to get a scooter 75 mpg lol little sadllebags on the back basket on the frt. lmfao. good luck stubby I know you will persavere. Buck

Well, you could always open at the top of a hill. Or the bottom. Preferably one with at least a rope tow. [:D]

 
Trust me, I would love doing that. I actually sent out proposals to several local ski areas to try to put my trailer there over the winter, but so far none have responded (and I honestly don’t expect a response).
 
One of the positives of my location is that it IS en-route to a nearby ski area. The negative is that before driving by me, there’s a Friendly’s, a McDonalds, a KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut all right off the main interstate, and all before the skier traffic gets to my location.
 

How is the foot traffic?   …. Hot coffee, hot chocolate, donuts & honey buns for the mornings; and hot coffee, hot chocolate, candy bars, hot dogs & sandwiches in the afternoon.   They need high energy food for all that sking.

No foot traffic. 100% vehicle traffic. I’m located roadside (with a LARGE parking area – enough to accommodate several big rigs plus a bunch of smaller cars) on the largest east-west road in this part of the state. The local chamber of commerce did a traffic study a few years ago, and peak traffic (summer Saturdays) was over 10,000 cars per day. I’m sure winter mid-weeks is half that, though.
 
Currently I’m only open lunch, 7 days a week. My thinking is for the winter I would open breakfast and lunch, Tuesday through Saturday. Sunday has traditionally been my slowest day (even with the tourist traffic and all the folks coming up to camp and use the river), and now that football season is here my Sundays have gotten even worse (yesterday, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. – when the Pats were playing – I did $26 in sales.) Mondays have typically been pretty good days, but if I’m going to close two days it makes more sense to be 2 days in a row.
 
Breakfast would consist of breakfast sandwiches (anyone making sandwiches out of scrambled eggs? I could scramble them up and then hold them in a steam pan for most of the morning, like they do at all the breakfast buffets – that makes it easier than cooking eggs to order, and would also allow me to make breakfast wraps), coffee, and hot chocolate. Lunch would be a scaled down version of my current menu – the only thing I think I will be dropping off for the winter are the Peppersteak Burgers (a slow seller even in the summer), the tuna subs (which will not be coming back on the menu next summer), the pulled pork (also will not return next summer), and the sweet italian sausage (I will keep the hot sausage – hot outsells sweet almost 3 to 1 right now, and it doesn’t make sense to keep both over the winter). Also dropping the veggie dog from the menu (permanently) though the veggie burger sells well enough to leave on even over the winter).
 
I think soups will be important, so I will probably have chili and clam chowder every day, and then a 3rd “soup of the day”. I think I may make my franks and beans a regular menu item for the winter since it’s a good hearty meal for the plow driving. I intend to add a meatball sub (which I started with in May but abandoned quickly – I think it’ll do better in the winter).
 
What do you all think about adding something like american chop suey or macaroni and cheese? I don’t want to add anything to my menu that requires a plate (let’s face it – people are going to be eating in their cars), it would be easier to keep everything confined to a bowl or cup. Hmm… maybe cook up elbow noodles and keep those warm in butter on the steam table, and then I can either add marinara and meatballs, cheese sauce, or chili (thus creating 3 meals out of one ingredient). Anyone think that’ll work?
 
ChefBuba… I like the sound of everything you named off in your post, but most of those things I really don’t have the facilities to cook easily in my little 6×10 trailer.
 
An,47,614395.001002,2,107276,32.166.31.162
614552,614388,614550,2010-09-27 12:03:05.090000000,Re:Smoked open face Turkey

Hang in there buddy. We’re pulling for you.
 
Jerry