The Skinny:
- Soaring 15,000 BTU heat per high-efficiency firebox burner
- Equip a grill, a griddle, a pizza oven, or a high-heat plancha surface
- Modular portable cooking station that strives to fit your tastes
- Simple setup, stowing, and cleaning for remarkably easy usage
- Pack everything you need for the full RV cooking experience
Magma Products has pioneered saltwater boat grilling for nearly 50 years, despite all evidence in their early heyday that encouraging flames a mile out from shore might be a tough sell. Clearly, they were onto something back then; as the company sets its sights inland with the Magma Crossover Series, it’s clear they aim to repeat the feat. This time, instead of marrying fresh barbecue with a balmy Saturday at sea, Magma intends to solve a new problem — cooking excellent food wherever the open road takes you. Are RV campers the boats of American highways? Magma makes the case that, yes, they are: and they deserve great grub too.
It’s not often we see a product series as ambitious as the Magma Crossover. The calling card of this modular cooking system is to cook whatever you want, wherever you want it. Want a grill? Crossover does that. What about a pizza oven? Crossover does that too, and more. The components are designed to withstand the rigors of road-tripping the United States, from woodland forests to saline beaches. As a modular system, simply carry along the components you want to use and you’ll find yourself equipped to thwart fussy eaters everywhere.
Quality
Magma Crossover Series is designed to withstand the rigors of travel while producing great results — practically wherever you take it.
With the Magma Crossover Cooking System, you won’t go far without the firebox, which is the engine of your portable kitchen experience. Both the single and double burner fireboxes are identical, barring the burner count (and, by extension, the overall width, and number of cooking surfaces available at once). Both feature 304 stainless steel bases and cooking grates. Cast aluminum burners round out the top, and a pair of FDA-approved, high-density polyethylene side tables insert nicely into the sides of the base. The handles and controls? Those are thermoplastic, designed to withstand the firebox’s heat. Magma offers a marine-grade single burner firebox; it keeps the same design but updates the base material to 304 mirror-polished stainless steel.
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But what of the cooking surfaces themselves? That’s where the Magma Crossover Series Accessory Tops come in, and we’ve got four to cover. The Grill Top, Griddle Top, and Pizza Oven Top all feature cast aluminum bases, while the upper material and cooking grates are constructed from 304 brushed stainless steel. The handles and controls are thermoplastic design. The Plancha Top takes a different direction, as its ancestral cooking style favors exceptionally high heat in the griddle format: its base is oil-coated steel, and its controls are steel outright. Marine-grade options include the Grill Top and Pizza Oven Top: the only change here is the replacement of the upper material with 304 mirror-polished stainless steel.
Performance
Expect fast preheats and high efficiency from the firebox burners, which each Accessory Top channels into distinctive cooking styles.
Heat production isn’t a problem for the Crossover Grill Top. This robust cooking surface sizzles quickly and pinnacles at a soaring 650ºF, which provides exceptional searing performance in the field (we mean that literally). Of course, you might find the conventional 350ºF more to your needs; in most cases, testing supplied those temperatures within 6–8 minutes. We recommend lower heats for extra fatty foods, such as bone-in chicken or marbled steaks; for an even easier clean, set the burners on high once you’re done to burn off any build-up.
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The Pizza Oven Top is a similar story. With the burner set on high, that preheat will crest at 375–400ºF within just 5 short minutes. Once the preheat is over, it’s a mere 8–10 minutes before you arrive at a wonderful crust on a finished pie. Included tools are a cordierite pizza stone to lend a nice lift to the baked dough, and a pizza peel for slightly rotating the pie for even browning on the bottom. The resulting pizza changes what you would think practical or possible away from your home kitchen, indoors or out.
Maintaining the trend of high heat, fast,
the Griddle and Plancha Tops reach suitably high heats in about 8 minutes. The difference between the two is the higher heat of the Plancha Top — it excels at its native South American cooking, and even hibachi-style grub. Between the excellent heats and the thickness of their materials, you’re bound to find seared beef, sizzled sausage and bacon, and satisfyingly crispy hash browns a treat from either Accessory Top. And for managing grease levels while you cook, a drain port is centered at the rear of either cooking surface for easily scraping back grease.
Features
Magma Crossover Series offers full modularity between cooking surfaces, easy storage, and a slew of protection accessories.
The superstar feature of the Magma Crossover Cooking System, of course, is the sheer breadth of customization offered by its modular cooking design. It would have been easy to offer the full set at once with one sticker price — Magma has handed customers the power of choice. Crossover can be a grill, a griddle, a pizza oven, a plancha surface, or any pair of those at once. If you don’t want a pizza oven, it won’t force one on you (or into your valuable storage space). Choose what you want Crossover to be, order those components, and let Magma take care of the rest.
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Crossover delights in
Whatever you want, where you want it,
and its mounting options are just another way to reach that ideal. Three distinct mounts elevate your experience. The adjustable quad pod props up your cooking system over most terrain; the hitch mount makes fine use of an unused trailer attachment; the surface slide mount helps you bolt the removable system to the side of your vessel for ease of access. Wherever you want to take it, Crossover can probably go.
Beyond these features, the entire system is effortless to set up, pack up, and maintain. Square footage comes at a premium in any RV camper, and we can say the Magma Crossover Series packs away into a reasonably space-efficient footprint. And with a fleet of durable protective covers and cases available for each component—from firebox to griddle—storing and transporting the system in excellent condition will be that much more the norm. Throw in a three-year warranty exclusive to BBQGuys and available protection plans beyond that, and your Magma Crossover can redefine your grub-on-the-go for seasons to come.