While not all of our readers can relate to the American tradition of tailgating, where we gather in stadium parking lots prior to sporting events and hold barbecues out of the back of our trucks, most of you can relate to loading up a car with a lot of gear, as when you're moving. Anything square and boxy is easy to stack and pack; weirdly-shaped things with rounded tops, like barbecue grills, are a nightmare.
Industrial designer Eddie Licitra's Traverse concept solves the tailgating issue handily. It's a flat-fold propane-fired grill with a slim breakdown shape that makes it easy to tuck into a trunk.
That would've been good enough for us, but Licitra's gone a step further and also turned the Traverse into a handy way to get all that BBQ paraphernalia out of the house and into the car: It doubles as a handtruck.
Demonstrating that he's thought about every step of the process, Licitra's design also addresses the post-grilling cleanup, when it's time to pack up. As you don't want to burn yourself on the hot parts of the grill, he delineates where you can grab the thing by simple color-coding: Don't touch any of the red surfaces.
Speaking of colors, Licitra—a New York native now relocated to Georgia—shows his true colors by deviating from the red-is-hot paint scheme and hewing to sports franchises' actual colors. If you're a New York Giants or Atlanta Hawks fan, the red warning scheme is in place; if you're rooting for San Francisco or the Tarheels, well, go ahead and touch those invitingly light-colored surfaces.
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This concept was designed mainly to incorporate a dolly, into a low profile grill so as to take up the least amount of space in a mid-sized SUV. With current off the shelf products, you can easily accomplish this today. 1. Char Broil's Grill2Go ICE already combines a cart with a much better infrared grill and removable coolers. 2. A portable folding dolly, a Coleman PerfectFlow InstaStart Portable Grill, or a Coleman PerfectFlow InstaStart Grill Stove, and you have far better designed portable grills and the low profile concept. And would take up much less space in a mid sized SUV.
While the Traverse looks nice, and a lot of the design emphasis went into the low profile, and folding-stand/dolly features, not much effort went into the primary purpose, as a grill. As a grill, the heat distribution would be terrible, as the rectangular shaped burner is simply sitting in a rectangular flat sheet metal box. The heat for cooking would essentially only be right over the unprotected burner. The burners would quickly become fouled by dripping grease causing huge flare-ups. And all the grease in the glowing red flat sheet metal, (yes the metal will get that hot with the burners so close to the bottom, without any shielding), box would immediately ignite. The plastic hinge bulkhead, setup supports would immediately melt into a glob as the grease fire rages.
As for the five pound propane cylinder in the bulkhead, that is actually a one pound "chubby" propane cylinder, commonly sold everywhere. If you really are talking about a custom design five pound propane cylinder, then that's more than four fifths of your development budget right there alone.
Form over function. Ya gotta love it!
But hey, there is a bunch of flat space to silkscreen team logos!
I'm a sheet metal manufacturer sitting next to a burner manufacturer, let's talk.
Hi Mark, can you email me at zach@jollygreenproducts.com if you are still in this space? Thanks! Zach
I would just want a handy small BBQ that can get pulled out, setup, and used to do a bit of grilling on a city balcony; then easily rinsed and stowed in a small closet; and then potentially get used for all those outdoorsy things later on.