My coffee pot tips over! The horror. >ready to purchase<

[9.5isCanadian]

Since my interest is still captivated by this little project. I got creative.

Came up with this.

Wanted it to look like a sketch drawing, hence the not uniform petals or arcs.

Sadly they take almost twice as much time in the machine to make so for sure not a $40 part.
Looks neat though.
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9 1/2 - missing a few pieces.

1987 Getaway Hightop
1980 Sunroof Vanagon
2018 BMW R Nine T
2012 Golf tdi

[Team WorldTour]

[jimf909]

[elizer]

The flowers are too happy and delightful. If you come up with weathered and wilted I'd think about it

[Team WorldTour]

[jimf909]

I thought Weekenders were the cool kids.
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- Jim

[Abscate]

[ChilliConCarnage]

Just ordered.... Hope I'm not too late!
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Now:
86 Westy
00 GTI VR6
03 Passat V6 4Motion

Sold:
62 T2 Double Door panel
72 T2 7-passenger
98 Jetta
97 Passat VR6
87 Audi 5000

[9.5isCanadian]

[jackbombay]

Daisy's are $40 as well? Any chance of a snowflake? Me like'em winter!
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Gas struts to pop your top easily!
Pop Top strut kits now available for late Bay window Westies

Samba ad here.


DIY artificial rain gutters (ARGs)

[9.5isCanadian]

[jackbombay]

[jimf909]

[Farfromslow]

My pricier set in Ellie, thanks again

[elizer]

Ok ya I want the brass. I need 2 people to buy in with me!

[Paulbeard]

Mine arrived: just look at them…

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Currently -> Frida: 87 Tizian Red (mostly) Vanagon GL Westfalia w/ 2.0L ABA conversion
Formerly -> Steward of a 73 Super Beetle (Beater) and 67 Beetle 1300 (Little Max) both names by POs

[9.5isCanadian]

That’s a mighty fine look’n cooker you got there Paul.

[fxr]

[Paulbeard]

[kourt]

Greetings all,

I received my aluminum VW trivets about a week ago and put them to use this week during a long road trip to Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. They snapped into place in my galley stovetop just as expected.

Over the past week I served meals to five fellow hiking friends, so I had a lot of chances to use these and get to know how they function in a practical sense. I cook a lot in my van--multiple daily meals for about 100 days per year--and I cook for groups all the time, so anything related to cooking gets extra scrutiny from me. My van is known as the chuck wagon.

The greatest benefit these trivets offered was a greater surface area for supporting cookware on the stove top. Too often the pot you choose is small, or the rolling boil of water moves the pot too much, or people entering/exiting the van cause the pot to shift, or you can't get a good, level parking spot to stabilize the cooking process. I have also noted that the trivets impart a little more friction between the pot and the stove, so that the pot tends to slip less from the influence of outside forces (rocking van due to folks getting in/out, or rocking due to boiling water).

My best performer with the trivets was the GSI Glacier 1qt. stainless tea kettle. This kettle has a small footprint and a flat bottom that works well with the trivets.

The worst performer was a stainless utility bowl that was also once a dog food bowl. Although one could say it has a nominally flat bottom, that bowl actually had a slightly convex bottom, and when it was used to heat water with the trivets the bowl started to dance on the trivets in such a way as to make boiling with the trivets and that bowl very hazardous. The risk of the bowl bouncing off the stove was great. My advice for this scenario is simply to make sure your cookware has a very flat bottom.

In other areas, like when using my Magma 10-piece cookware, the trivets worked as designed and helped keep pots on the stove due to friction. They also reduced hot spots in cookware due to their diffusing qualities.

In a final test I used a Lodge LDP3 griddle to make pancakes. Having the trivets in place made the griddle heat up much slower. I took them off and the griddle worked normally.

In essence, these trivets act like diffusers in their current design. They can absorb heat and cause your cooking experience to be slower but more even, due to conduction of heat, which has benefits and drawbacks. I liked this diffusing quality when heating pita bread or tortillas over the fire, or when I needed to reheat a frozen dish where a slower, even heat was called for. It was a problem when I was cooking with heavier (cast iron) cookware--the cast iron has so much mass that it really needs to be in direct contact with the stove flame.

The VW design is priceless, and worth every cent, but if I were making these I would also offer a design that allows maximum burner flame exposure to the bottom of the pot the trivet is supporting. I imagine that design would look somewhat like a target shape, with concentric rings, designed with spaces measured for efficient flame passage through the ring spaces. The "peace" symbol might also be a good shape for a direct heat design, or a simple cross shape. Perhaps sell one of each design as part of a set (one diffusing design [VW shape] and one direct heat design [target shape]). That might give you the best of both worlds. The flower design might be the ticket. The fact that these things slip on and off of the stove grate with relative ease is a great design feature.

Please accept this as positive and constructive feedback. I love what you've done for the Vanagon community. All my camping friends wanted to wear these trivets around their necks when I wasn't cooking with them. I told them to keep their hands off my trivets and offered to use them as branding irons if they messed with my van. We had fun with them, both in a genuine cooking application and as elements of van paraphenalia.

Keep up the good work. I am glad to have these trivets.

kourt