Luke,

The 2nd picture is from my smaller smoker and yes I added 2 additional pieces of expanded metal on the grate. However that picture is also around the 2-3hr mark from all the ash underneath you can tell my charcoal has completely burned off and all I am doing is cooking with wood. the 2 little sticks never turned to an actual coal bed, they would just continue to burn and shrink, hence why 2 large sticks were added. Is my wood not seasoned well enough and that is why Im never actually getting coals and the wood is just getting smaller and smaller? Everytime I had a split I stoke the fire trying to get coals to break off, but its never happens