1st Smoke

[ringo]

I smoked a 5 lb. chuck today for about 9.5 hrs. It was good. I learned a few things, however. It is harder than hell to get the thing up to cooking temp. I used a bag of hickory chunks (10 lbs maybe) and a bag and one half of charcoal. Does this sound right? Any tricks would be appreciated.

Ringo

[tommykendall]

You need mods. Check the mod section foi the critical (highly recommended) ones, then try the drain mod and wheel mod, then let your imagine go wild. Oh yeah - don''t forget to oppen the smoke stack wide and the fire box damper completely open

[BBQchef33]

smoke stack full open, damper about half and 10lbs of kingsford along with some splits.. 6-7.... is all ya should have needed for 9 hours. You have the baffle installed? and were you using a probe thermo or going by the door? Door thermo can be off by 50 degrees. But ya need that baffle and firegrate mod. Without htem you suck up fuel for low temps.

[Solidkick]

Ringo,

you are not any place that this brother and a few others have been along the way. This following post started back in Nov. when I was exactly where you are at now. give it a read and it should answer most of your questions:

http://www.bandera-brethren.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=5648&highlight=#5648

[ringo]

Kick ,

That is exactly what I needed. I have the mod to direct heat to the center of the chamber, a charcoal basket built to the size of the firebox, and I covered the grill with foil and the shelf directly above the food (halfway through the smoke). Are the bricks in the firebox worth doing?

Ringo

[racer_81]

Ringo - low outside temp and windy conditions can make it difficult to get up to and maintain cooking temp.

Could those have been factors?

[kcquer]

Ringo, imo the firebox bricks are mostly a life prolonging mod. Bricks or tiles like I used in the smoke chamber are helpful in creating thermal mass that helps recover temp after opening the door. Having a digital probe so you can leave the door shut is probably not emphasised enough. Gotta get myself one soon.

[Solidkick]

Kick ,

That is exactly what I needed. I have the mod to direct heat to the center of the chamber, a charcoal basket built to the size of the firebox, and I covered the grill with foil and the shelf directly above the food (halfway through the smoke). Are the bricks in the firebox worth doing?

Ringo

I don't have a basket yet, so I don't know if air flow could be part of the problem, if you use an ash pan with a basket, or if the heat source is just setting too low. If the charcoal basket is setting directly on the floor of the fire box, then it might be worth trying to get the heat up a couple of inches.

Here's what I did.....I went to Lowes and got a couple of bags of those briquettes (like lava rock but shaped like charcoal briquettes) that you use in a gas grill and lined the floor of my firebox with them, then set my ash pan on that. I'm using the fire grate mod, so my fire is is just below the opening to the smoke chamber, a good 4 inches or so from the bottom of the fire box.

Hope this gives you a little more info and allow you to do a comparison to see if we're getting closer to the problem.

[ringo]

Thanks for the info. Airflow may be a factor as I set my smokestack mostly closed. My basket is made out of expanded metal so that should not affect it. It was also windy (although my patio is mostly enclosed). Keep bringing in the great ideas.

Ringo

[BigAl]

Kick ,

That is exactly what I needed. I have the mod to direct heat to the center of the chamber, a charcoal basket built to the size of the firebox, and I covered the grill with foil and the shelf directly above the food (halfway through the smoke). Are the bricks in the firebox worth doing?

Ringo

I think fire bricks in the firebox help reduce the heat loss. It's a cheap fix, 16 splits ($1.25 each from a brick yard) will do the smoke chamber and the firebox and they are easy to cut with circle power saw and mason blade. What is your basket height from the bottom of the fire box? Needs to be high enough to give ash room. If the expanded metal is too wide, coals will fall through to the ash pan and will not burn completely. If this is happening, get another section of expanded metal for the bottom of the basket and ofset it from the existing bottom by 50% to reduce the size of the expanded metal opening.

Hope this helps some. :wink:

[Solidkick]

Good info Al! You da man!

[rusold]

I had trouble at first - had been warned about the door thermometer so I kept on checking inside and, of course, screwing the temps up. My Xmas gift was a remote probe that I thread thru the top(thanks somebody out there). Problems now are temperture spikes.

R