Food Truck Repair in Colorado

Trucks we built, and trucks we did not

A good share of the repair work that comes through our shop in Woodland Park is on trucks and trailers that were built somewhere else. That is fine with us. A food truck is the same handful of systems no matter who put it together: a chassis or trailer frame, a generator or shore power feed, a propane system, a water system, a hood with a suppression system over the cook line, and the cooking equipment itself. We build all of those from scratch every week, so when one of them fails on somebody else's build we already know where to look.

What we ask for on the first call is simple: what the truck is doing, when it started, and whether an inspector has already flagged it. If it is a build we delivered, we pull the original spec and equipment list so we know exactly which parts are on board before you drive down.

What actually fails on a working food truck

Most breakdowns are not exotic. The same handful of problems come up again and again on the trucks we see from the Front Range and the Western Slope.

Power. Generators that surge or stall under load, inverters that trip, outlets that go dead when the fryer and the fridge cycle at the same time. Half of these are wiring or load-balancing problems rather than a dead generator, which is why we test the circuit before we quote a replacement. On all-electric builds we check the battery bank, the charger and the shore-power inlet, since those fail more often than the appliances they feed.

Propane. Regulators that drift, fittings that seep, flex lines that have rubbed through on a rough road, and appliances that burn yellow or will not hold a flame at altitude. Gas is the one system we will not patch: it either passes a pressure test or it comes apart and gets fixed. The short video below shows how the system is laid out on a Zion build, which is useful to watch before you call because it helps you describe where the problem is.

Water. Pumps that run but never build pressure, water heaters that trip on a cold morning, fresh tanks that were never vented properly, grey tanks that back up into the three-compartment sink. In winter, split lines and cracked pump heads from a truck that was parked full. We repair the plumbing and, where the original layout was the real cause, we reroute it.

Refrigeration. Reach-ins and prep tables that cannot hold temperature in July, usually because the condenser is packed with grease and dust or because the unit is boxed in with no airflow. At 5,000 to 7,000 feet, thin air moves less heat, so a fridge that was marginal at sea level runs warm here. Sometimes the fix is a cleaning and a relocated vent; sometimes the unit is undersized for the truck and needs replacing.

Hood and suppression. Fans that have lost a bearing, grease baffles that no longer seat, fusible links that have been painted over, suppression tags that have expired, and cook lines that were rearranged after the system was installed so the nozzles no longer cover the appliances. This is the category that gets trucks shut down at an event, and it is the one we see most from trucks built out of state.

The vehicle itself. Brakes, suspension, exhaust and cooling on step vans and box trucks; axles, bearings, couplers and jacks on trailers. A loaded food trailer is often carrying more weight than the operator realizes, and worn bearings on a Colorado grade are not something to put off.

Altitude and cold change what breaks

Trucks that were built for Texas or California arrive here with problems that have nothing to do with age. Gas appliances lose output as elevation rises, and most manufacturers publish a high-altitude adjustment or a different orifice kit for use above a set elevation. A griddle that was fine in Phoenix will run cool in Colorado Springs until that is dealt with. Generators derate at altitude too, so a unit that was sized with no margin at sea level will trip on the same load here.

Cold does the rest. Standard builds use one inch of wall insulation; for trucks that will work through a Colorado winter we spec one and a half inch insulation with thicker plywood backing, heated blankets on the water tanks and a larger water heater. If your truck was not built that way we can add tank heaters and insulate exposed lines, which is a much cheaper repair than replacing a pump and a water heater every March. Our winterization guide covers what you can do yourself before the first freeze.

Repair is half the job. Staying licensed is the other half

Most of the trucks we see for repair also need a piece of paper before they can go back to work, and it saves a second trip to handle both at once. We do the three compliance services fire departments and health inspectors ask for most, in the same visit as the repair.

LP gas pressure test, $350. The annual test under NFPA 58 is done with propane at operating pressure with every joint checked with leak-detecting fluid, and we give you the documentation the inspector wants to see. If we have just repaired part of the gas system, the higher-pressure test on the new work is included in that job. How the test works.

Fire suppression inspection, $300. NFPA 17A calls for a service every six months by a trained person, and the tag on the cylinder has to be current or the truck does not vend. We inspect, replace fusible links, check nozzle coverage against the current cook line and retag. If the system has been discharged or is an older non-UL 300 unit, we will tell you straight that it needs replacing rather than servicing. Inspection details.

Hood cleaning and certification. Quoted by hood size. We clean to bare metal, replace the baffles that no longer seat and put the certification sticker on the hood that Denver Fire and the other departments look for. What a proper hood cleaning involves.

When a repair turns into a rebuild

Some trucks come in with a list of small problems that are really one big one: the original build was not done to code, and every inspector who looks at it finds something new. Handwash sinks fed by a foot pump or a gravity jug, water tanks that are not integral to the truck, a cook line with no suppression at all, propane cylinders strapped inside the kitchen. Those are not repairs, and we will not pretend they are. What we can do is price a proper refit of the systems that fail, using the same components we put in a new build, so the truck stops failing inspections for good. If the vehicle underneath is not worth that money, we will say so, and you can look at what we have on the used and refurbished trucks page instead.

Where our repair customers come from

The shop is in Woodland Park, west of Colorado Springs. Operators drive in from across the state, and many of them are running trucks we delivered to their city in the first place.

Denver and Aurora. Recent builds delivered there include an 18 foot French sandwich truck with an on-board restroom, a 16 foot pancake trailer, a taco box truck and the From Scratch truck in Aurora. Denver Fire's own rules are stricter than the national code on propane, so trucks moving into Denver from elsewhere often need gas work before they can get a permit.

Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Our home market. Builds here include a 16 foot Indian food trailer, a 12 foot vegan trailer and a 12 foot Mexican trailer for Colorado Springs, and a 10 foot trailer for Pueblo.

Grand Junction and the Western Slope. We converted a school bus into a 14 foot food bus for Grand Junction, and we see trucks from Montrose, Delta and Glenwood that would otherwise have no builder-level shop within reach. For a Western Slope truck we will schedule the repair and any compliance work for the same day so you make one trip over the pass.

Fort Collins and Boulder. Our sister shop, Mile High Food Trucks in Denver, is closer for most Northern Colorado operators and handles the same work. We delivered an 18 foot all-electric truck to Fort Collins and a 16 foot conveyor-oven commissary trailer to Boulder; either shop can service them.

How a repair visit works

Call 719-722-2537 and tell us what the truck is doing. If it is something we can talk you through on the phone, we will. If not, we book a day for you to bring the truck to Woodland Park, look it over and give you a written estimate before any work starts. The estimate separates parts and labor so you can see what you are paying for. Trailers that cannot be towed and trucks that will not start are handled case by case; tell us on the call and we will work out the logistics.

Frequently asked questions

Do you repair trucks you did not build? Yes. We regularly work on trucks from other builders, including trucks bought used from out of state.

Can you fix the reason I failed inspection? Usually. Bring the inspector's report. The most common failures are gas, hood and suppression, and handwash plumbing, and we handle all three in-house.

Do I need an appointment? Yes, so that the right technician and any parts are here when you arrive.

Will the repair be warranted? Ask us about warranty terms on the specific repair when we give you the estimate; they depend on the part and the work involved.

Do you work on food trailers as well as trucks? Yes. Frame, axle, bearing and coupler work on trailers is covered on our food trailer repair page.