New Ideal Steel pickup day has arrived.

We are leaving the inlaws in the morning for Lebanon NH to pick up our new IS hybrid. I will try to take a few pics, but I expect it will be fully crated before we arrive.

Anyone have any suggestions for lunch in Lebanon or nearby before a 6 hour drive home to Western NY?

 

Oldhippie would recommend Four Aces Diner. It's about five minutes from the factory, lots of food and pretty good value. I work in Leb as does Unhdsm so we could both give you some other recommendations if you want them. Feel free to PM if you'd like, and congratulations on the new stove, you're going to love her!

 

Dare I say that with the price of that stove, maybe you want to check out a dollar menu somewhere?

 

We made it home! My wife and kids were in a hurry, we had to pick out a tool set, and then I had to strap the box down in pouring rain, so sorry, no pics. :-(

We ended up having lunch at the Lebanon Diner which was more like 10 minutes from the factory, but that is what my wife selected, and it was very good.

We made a feeble attempt to get it off the trailer and into the barn, and then decided we were too tired, it is dark, cold, and raining, so we scrapped that idea and just tarped it for the night.

And yooperdave, all you need to do is price out a Blaze King King, a professional install, and a new 8" chimney, and the IS suddenly seems darn cheap! Especially at the current sale price.

 

Matt Fine once you use it a season and if you have dry wood! You will notice you are getting more heat from half the wood... You will be

 

I just did a Google Maps to find out how far it is from my place and it comes out to 243-298 miles (three different routes) and from 4h45m-5h05m to get there. If/when I get a new stove, that is starting to sound more and more a preferred solution. I will have to wait until our "funny money dollar" is worth more than your dime though.

 

The idea is to get much more heat, more evenly, from more wood.

I have some fully dried wood that has 3+ years of seasoning, so no problems there except I will probably need to expand my storage capacity.

 

That is shorter than our trip if you stay the night somewhere. We drove 6 hours to CT for Easter, then yesterday we did 3 hours from CT to NH, and then 6 hours home. Plus 3:20 worth of stops. Most of it in heavy rain and the last four hours with a very stiff wind, but it wasn't too bad inside the car and the tarp and trailer held up fine.

 

Just to be clear, there may be better places to eat in Lebanon that the 4Aces, I wouldn't know. The topic has come up in the past and there weren't all that many suggestions put forth.

I like the 4Aces mainly because it's a Worcester Diner, (very famous diners manufactured Worcester Mass and mainly in New England) and they like bikers. It's a place I stop for lunch when I'm out on my bike. Numerous great riding roads in the area; Rt 4, Rt 5, Rt 14, Rt 12A and others.

 

Didn't mean to speak for you. Next time I'll just speak for myself!

Locals like the food at Four Aces too, and the ratings are pretty good online. Mostly four stars or better on Yelp. There are a lot of options on 12A which is closer to the factory, but they're mainly chains. The Lebanon Diner where the OP ended up is good too, but IMHO not as good as Four Aces, and a bit pricier.

Lots of other options out there in Hanover next door to Lebanon, home of Dartmouth College. As exotic as Nepalese. I thought I'd go with the safer recommendation.

 

After a full night of rest, a full day of work and a bit of sunshine, we managed to get it off the trailer and on to a dolly in the barn. Now I have until October to figure out how to get it into the house.

Here are some pics. We went with a mixed tree theme with a tree of life on the side and andirons and the cut log side burners. The stove is satin black with limited accents in mahogany.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to be short.. I just didn't want to set expectations real high on the 4Aces.. it is after all, a Diner. I just like the vibe and have find memories of some of my fun times there. But the food always worked for me.

Pretty Stove above!!!

 

Congrats, the stove is beautiful!

On the moving, what I found with the Absolute Steel was that lot's of the parts were able to be removed and then re-installed easily. Examples: the ash-pan, the botton ash-pan grate, the top front shelf, some of the firebrick, the loading door, etc. It made a big difference in the weight we had to actually move. 2nd thing that helped was a good 4-wheel dolly, and some plywood sheets to protect flooring.

Use quality stove pipe rather than that thin guage stuff sold at the big-box stores.

 

I have it on a four wheel dolly now. From the barn to the house is 41 feet horizontal and about 5 feet up on steps. My initial thought is to put ramps down and use the electric winch to do the heavy lifting. Once inside, I have a single step up and then another step onto the hearth. Those will probably need to be done with ramps and human power.

 

By the way, the color is nowhere near that orange or bright. I was holding a 500 watt halogen work light since the sun had set and it really lot up the metallic paint.

 

Here is a pic with a bit of white to help the camera white balance. Still not quite the correct color but closer.

 

If you can lay down some 8ft plywood like 2 sheets, you can piggyback them all the way to the house. There will be needed muscle to get up steps and onto hearth if you can find two young men in good shape with strong backs. (My nephew and his friend are weight lifters, so they were perfect for my Fireview up a rickety set of old stone steps) This is where decreasing the weight of the stove will greatly improve the ease of install. Maybe even a 1+ extra credit for WS adding a section on how to do this, as suggestions in the documentation because it really is easy to do for many heavy parts.

The problem with the Absolute and I am guessing the PH and IS is that the ash-pan prevents use of a automotive or motorcycle jack to lift a level, like onto the hearth, or some such.

 

I will definitely decrease weight as much as practical. Between the ash pan and OAK, I do not think I can safely jack just the stove, but it is on a pallet so I think I can jack all the way to the hearth if needed. Then I just need to get it off the pallet. I am thinking creative use of straps or maybe a wood jig may help make it jackable, or just get three to four guys to lift, have the wife pull the pallet, and then set down in place.