Vigilant II Is Just Humming Along!!!

This is the sort of thing professional movers use for such things as pianos and refrigerators. you can buy or figure out your own.

http://www.uscargocontrol.com/Moving-Supplies/Mov ... ing-Straps

What a great opportunity, despite the sweat equity! Best of luck to you as you assemble, install, and fire up!

Welcome to the Vigilant II ranks of coal burners! We're here for you so don't hesitate to post questions or PM us. $600 for the stove and one ton is a great price.

BTW, my Vigilant II just went quiet this past Saturday, May 17. Everyday of 6 months on one match until it idled out. It's mostly cleaned out. Now time to pull the sides but everything looks just as ready for the next season, I think it's the 14th (?), as it has always been after I add the new front grill I've been seasoning.

Good luck Rev. with the Vigll, to me these stoves are very close to be what we call: base burner. I would call them : side burner , having very long gases path making them very efficient to keep the heat inside of the house.
The secret with a Vll is to get used to the grate shaking system. Some ash build-up on the side angle bricks but nothing too bad.
These stoves have the best swing-out ash pan with sliding lid we can find for anth stoves.

I got the data transfer cord today and moved the photo's from the camera to the computer and hopefully can upload them without a problem. We started moving the coal in my Subaru 10 bags at a time. It took it just fine. Next we spent the rest of the afternoon disassembling the stove. Once we removed the guts it was OK to lift but still a bit much for my 62 year old back. The only bad part will be getting it from the top concrete step 2 1/2 feet straight up to the wooden deck. With the help of two younger and stronger lads if we can get it to the porch it will be home after that.

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa.

Your stove will be a beauty when cleaned up. It seems to have all of the accessory pieces. Very nice. Consider machine rather than muscle for that vertical lift. Maybe a wooden gantry and a come along, or perhaps rent an engine crane. Just thinking out loud...

It's probably under 200 pounds now so should be no problem for two or three people.

If you can get 2 movers straps and run each one down through the interior (where the griddle was), and up and around the outside of each side you should be able to lift the stove without harm. A come-a-long would be a good safety line to keep tension on the lift.

Thought I'd bring up a subject that we talked about last winter. I asked if the shaker rod on my Vigilant should have a bushing (it looked like it should) and with your help it was confirmed, part numbers were offered, and I bought both sizes. Now that I can poke around in there, I find that I already have one! It just worked its way into the stove, and is resting peacefully on the rod! See it at the far end of the rod. I can reach in, pull it all the way to the front, and get it started into the threads, but can't figure out how to get enough on it to return it to its correct position. Also haven't figured out how to remove the left baffle so that I can access it better. Is there a "shop manual" or the like available that would help me with this? Thanks!

It looks to me like you're really close to freeing the left side. It takes a little playing around to separate the pushrod from the rear grate support. Looking at your picture pretty much tells the plan:

• Move the bushing to the front of the stove, out of the way of the double opposing 90° bends.
• Lift the rod where it goes thru the hole in the rear grate support and rotate the rear grate support.
• Lift the rod and twist the grate support to feed the bottom 90° angle thru the hole in the grate support.
• Slide the rear grate support off the back of the pushrod and you will be able to remove the rear grate support.
• Left side is free to remove as will the right side once you remove its corresponding screw pictured at the end of the screw driver in this picture of the left side

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THANK YOU very much for your help! After seeing your photo of the corner screw, I recalled seeing it last winter. Sure enough it was in the thread when I first asked about the bushing. For the record I have rotated the photo of the bushing inside the stove so as not to confuse future readers. The earlier photo was on its side. and I did not recognize it as such. The bushing was previously installed from the inside, as evidenced by the slot being inside the stove. I reinstalled it, but from the outside, where I can keep an eye on it! I am curious if you know if it was originally installed from the inside out or the outside in. At any rate, it is a very tight fit, and I can't imagine how it migrated into the stove unless it was only partially threaded or perhaps different expansion rates of the cast iron and the steel (?) bushing, combined with the vibration and motion of the rod going in and out.

Taking the sides out helped me become much more familiar with my stove, and allowed me much better access for vacuuming out the side chambers. Thank you again for helping me through the disassembly.

Rich W. wrote:.. 8< ..The bushing was previously installed from the inside, as evidenced by the slot being inside the stove. I reinstalled it, but from the outside, where I can keep an eye on it! I am curious if you know if it was originally installed from the inside out or the outside in. At any rate, it is a very tight fit, and I can't imagine how it migrated into the stove unless it was only partially threaded or perhaps different expansion rates of the cast iron and the steel (?) bushing, combined with the vibration and motion of the rod going in and out.

Taking the sides out helped me become much more familiar with my stove, and allowed me much better access for vacuuming out the side chambers. Thank you again for helping me through the disassembly.

My bushing was installed from the outside and kept working loose until I cranked it into place. It took a little rotational tapping with a small screwdriver and hammer because I set it into the tapered thread in the hole with the rod in place while the stove was hot. It hasn't moved since

Glad to be of some help.

The few mornings we had in the mid to upper 40's triggered me to get going and put the VC 2310 back together. Back on May 20 I detailed in this thread how I had to disassemble it all the way to parade rest to get it light enough to move from a basement to my Subaru to my front porch. Three days ago I got a friend to help me move it into the house and set it in place in the dining room.

I started putting it back together and discovered that there is only one way this puppy will go together.

If you try a sequence other than the "right" one you will have one piece that will not go in no matter which way you turn it, twist it, rotate it, finesse it, sweet talk it, and smack it. I do not recommend smacking cast iron because you will hurt your hand. Don't ask.....

The only way to really understand how your stove works, especially this one, is to tear it apart and put it back together again. The engineering that went into the VC 2310 is so straight forward it's just plain silly. To make it where you have back and side panels that interlock to form a top to bottom hot gas path along the sides and then bottom to top back gas passage to a top flue pipe outlet is one of those head slaps you give yourself then you say out loud..."now why didn't I think of this?" This is why such a small stove can crank out the 50K BTU's. This has got my tinkerness gene activated. Lord help us all now!!!

Looking forward to finishing this assembly up tomorrow and then putting the flue pipe to the chimney. I Gotta do a test burn just to make sure it works don't cha know.

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa.

These VC coal burners are beasts...very tame lovable beasts!! I look forward to hearing more about your install and burning experience. Oh...and photos!

Looking forward to see what your tinkerness gene comes up with.

Like you I do admire the cleverness of the design and realize the designer had to work with an existing stove which is much harder to do. I suspect he was inspired by the antique suspended pot stoves. I do think some things could have been done differently. The little 45 degree bricks are silly and I would have preferred a bigger ash pan done in the standard way to the smaller but convenient one. I tapered a standard split brick to replace the 45 degree one, and in time I intend to replace the ash pan with a larger one.