History of the pit

I think that the phrase ‘you’ve come a long way baby!’ fits the way REHAB 6 came about.

It started as a dream of making a smoke pit. I had been helping a good friend of mine, Will Nalin at the Ribbberfest in Mt Carmel Illinois and the Knight Township Fire Department smoker team for several years and had wanted to build my own pit.

I built a pit in 2007 and put it on a trailer, made it all fancy, including a kitchen sink, and had planned to enter the competition with some friends of mine on several fire departments in Bartholomew County. Due to a mass cluster *#$% the trailer snapped in half, the team

was not able to make it, and I thought all was lost.

I refused to give up, I went to mt Carmel by my self, thinking I would just help Will, but ended up finding a smoker in an alley, bought some ribs at a local grocery and entered the competition at the last minute. I vowed to be back….

I decided that I would either go big or go home, so I bought a Fire Truck, donated the pump to Columbus Township Fire Department, and decided to dig in. The smoker is where the tank had been, and is in the process of being built.

The first time i drove her I had a HELL of a scare, the brakes went out on a ugly windy hill covered road, and that is an expierence that I never want to relive. Sadly, The truck I purchased turned out to be a lemon, including a cracked block, bad transmission, and electrical… issues. I made the command decision to scrap the @#O)$*U _$*()(%$   thing, and started again from the ground up.

Rehab 6 is now built on a flatbed trailer, dual axle (learned my lesson) and as a neat thing, 95% of everything on it is recycled.

either scrap metal, donated, reused parts from other things, only the electrical and pop rivets are new, making it a green friendly project as well.