I've got what I want working 100% except for one niggling little detail:

 

The server doesn't send the chest contents to the client until they open the chest.

 

How do I go about resolving this?

When should I pass this packet?

Thanks, though I figured it out on my own late last night.  I'd been going in all the wrong directions based on the scant info I had available.  Then threw a google search at the problem and found what I needed:

 

public Packet getDescriptionPacket() {
	NBTTagCompound nbtTag = new NBTTagCompound();
	this.writeToNBT(nbtTag);
	return new Packet132TileEntityData(this.xCoord, this.yCoord, this.zCoord, 1, nbtTag);
}

public void onDataPacket(INetworkManager net, Packet132TileEntityData packet) {
	readFromNBT(packet.data);
}