Stumps Elite 8 clone

If ya think $3500 is too much see how much they are in 30 or 60 days.I would expect to see pit builders raising prices in a short while.I have heard that the steel market is going to get real ugly.I have built a clone and much of the info can be gleaned from googling Prairie BBQ

You might also check out these two sites.

The first one is the best, I have seen this one in action. With the convection fan, it can't be beat.

http://eyebbq.blogspot.com/



http://www.phpbbserver.com/phpbb/index.php?sid=d11178887ad36f1af7da5f55c5ede379&mforum=smokinjim

My thoughts are that you can build a better stumps without the profit making in mind. Mine is a GF223 and the outer metal is so thin it actually has ripples in it. The paint job is also of poor quality. The smoker does a great job though and I love the gravity feed. I have done quite well with it in contests too.

I think the new elite series was just an attempt to charge an additional $1000 for it. It was possibly the brain child of Maple Hollow. I also am under the understanding that Stump is not very happy with his partnership with Maple Hollow/Viking Stores.

I was eyeballin one of the elites at The Big Pig Gig in Menominee Falls last fall.The one I was looking at looked decent but I wonder how well it works if your not using the Guru.Some of us cloners are having burn out issues in the chute.And one of the things implied was that the maybe some of us were using too heavy of metal for the skin and retaining too much heat.Tony have you looked in the area inside the chute around where the tube delivers the heat/smoke to the cook chamber?I used 14 ga.for all of the skin inside and out.IF I remember correct Walter said he uses 16 ga.But my memeory is shorter then my.....I wish him the best with his merge with Viking as when he has come to the Prairie site he has treated us folks copying his product nicely.I actually have 2 more started with different ideas in the works.One will have a tapered chute.I had a conversation with a fella from Minnesota who burnt his legs badly when he had a bridge in the chute and had the ashbox door open and was trying to free up the charcoal in the chute.So I think any more I play with will have tapered chutes.