I will post pictures later, when I have the memory chip from my camera on-hand, but I thought I'd share a sad story for me.
In early March, I was cruising northbound on Highway 29 toward Oakville when the differential-end u-joint on the front driveshaft of my pickup bound up, and tore the nose of the transfer case clean off. Travelling at 65 MPH, that chunk of t-case dented in my passenger side floorpan 2", tore up the fuel lines, speedo cable, and T-case adapter before flying off into a vineyard somehwere, and I have never seen it since.
At the time, I was making my way home from a campout, with my favorite (and first) Dutch Oven, a ten-year veteran of nearly my entire Scouting career, riding shotgun on the passenger-side floor, with 50 LBS of charcoal sitting on top. The DO lifted up a good eight inches from the floor when the t-case hit, and slammed down. When I got home, it looked fine, but I was a little preoccupied with arranging for new guts for my truck, and didn't look it over closely before shelving it. (I clean and season my gear in-camp on my stove so I can store them immediately.) Fast forward to April, and I feel the need to whip up a cobbler, but to my dismay, my DO no longer feels level. I examined it to find one leg punched up partially into the "bowl" of the DO. Worse yet, there's a hairline fracture all along the transition from the sides to the base between that leg, and the one to the left. It was like losing a friend.
Anyway, going through my things two weeks ago, I found a $50.00 REI gift certificate, which, combined with my $20.00 annual dividend, bought me a new DO for the price of sales tax alone. Better yet: I bought one on my own, and threw in a second using my REI play money.
I just got them home on Wednesday, and haven't had a chance to test them out, but I've seasoned them just like my old Scoutmaster taught me, and I'm eager to take the twins out on my next campout. It's also worth mentioning that Lodge's quality has really improved, not that I thought that was possible, but the fit and finish of these new generation DO's is flawless, incredibly well executed, and their factory season is considerably better than the last (new) DO I bought from them.
For those of you looking into the Dutch Oven world, or those of you looking for a new DO to add to the family, I cannot recommend Lodge more.
In early March, I was cruising northbound on Highway 29 toward Oakville when the differential-end u-joint on the front driveshaft of my pickup bound up, and tore the nose of the transfer case clean off. Travelling at 65 MPH, that chunk of t-case dented in my passenger side floorpan 2", tore up the fuel lines, speedo cable, and T-case adapter before flying off into a vineyard somehwere, and I have never seen it since.
At the time, I was making my way home from a campout, with my favorite (and first) Dutch Oven, a ten-year veteran of nearly my entire Scouting career, riding shotgun on the passenger-side floor, with 50 LBS of charcoal sitting on top. The DO lifted up a good eight inches from the floor when the t-case hit, and slammed down. When I got home, it looked fine, but I was a little preoccupied with arranging for new guts for my truck, and didn't look it over closely before shelving it. (I clean and season my gear in-camp on my stove so I can store them immediately.) Fast forward to April, and I feel the need to whip up a cobbler, but to my dismay, my DO no longer feels level. I examined it to find one leg punched up partially into the "bowl" of the DO. Worse yet, there's a hairline fracture all along the transition from the sides to the base between that leg, and the one to the left. It was like losing a friend.
Anyway, going through my things two weeks ago, I found a $50.00 REI gift certificate, which, combined with my $20.00 annual dividend, bought me a new DO for the price of sales tax alone. Better yet: I bought one on my own, and threw in a second using my REI play money.
I just got them home on Wednesday, and haven't had a chance to test them out, but I've seasoned them just like my old Scoutmaster taught me, and I'm eager to take the twins out on my next campout. It's also worth mentioning that Lodge's quality has really improved, not that I thought that was possible, but the fit and finish of these new generation DO's is flawless, incredibly well executed, and their factory season is considerably better than the last (new) DO I bought from them.
For those of you looking into the Dutch Oven world, or those of you looking for a new DO to add to the family, I cannot recommend Lodge more.
