How many drum smokers for a comp?

daninnewjersey

daninnewjersey

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I'm in the middle of building my second UDS and will do 2 more before June 15 (need the capacity for a farmers market I'm in). Regarding UDS use at comps, how many would you say are necessary to bring if I plan on competing in all 4 categories? Thanks.....Dan
 
I don't have a UDS. However have competed against people with them. Just this past weekend our neighbors had 2 while I've seen others with 4. I guess it's based on how many you can transport and what you feel comfortable with.
 
I used to do it on 2 drums with 2 racks in each. Can be a pain but very doable.
 
We have run all four on two 22 WSM's and it can be a little of a shuffle of the meats depending on when things get done, but absolutely doable. So if your uds have 2 racks then you could just use 2. But sometimes people want to run chicken or all their meats at different temps so then having additional cookers are needed.
 
I take 4 with me, usually only use 3 for comp, use 1 for team munchies.
 
Three would be a way to go. We did it with 2 this past weekend but timing is key.
 
I'll preface this by saying that I don't cook on drums, but I think about cooking capacity quite a bit for some reason. I think there is a lot of good information in this thread, but before you take any one's advice plainly, you need to come up with an answer to the following question "How much food do you plan to cook at a competition?" I've seen teams cook with 1-4 butts, 1-3 briskets, sometimes flats, some times packers, 2-6 slabs of ribs, and several chicken compbinations. Figure out what you're going to cook and then the answers will make a lot more sense.

dmp
 
2. 1 butt and 1 brisket on each UDS. Take them off by 8pm & Cambro. Cook ribs on 1 starting at 8:30 @ 300, flip every 15 minutes and top level of Cambro at 10:30 and cook chicken on the other.
 
How many drums is an answer you have to make that is decided by how much meat you are going to cook and at what temp.

I use one 55 gallon drum to cook the big meats (1 brisket and 2 pork butts), another 55 gallon drum just to cook ribs (3 racks of spares), and a 30 gallon drum just to cook chicken (12 over so pieces). The reasoning is my ribs and chicken cook at different temps then the big meats.
 
I use two big drum smokers to cook at contests. The smaller drum is my chicken cooker. The larger drum I use for briskets. I cooks ribs and pork butt (if the contest has pork we do some IBCA cooks too) on a Backwoods party. I use barrel dollies to help move the drums around.
 
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