Yoder Cheyenne Review

Well I’d like to do a review of my brand new Yoder Cheyenne for future buyers. This review will be in a few parts as I continue my learning process with this smoker.

Today was the first time I had ever used a stick burner and this run was to practice and to burn off all the oils.

Weather outside was 10F with no wind. I’m waiting for the heat management plate to show up so that wasn’t included in this burn. Used Kingsford charcoal to get my initial coal base and all Red Oak splits from there.

The quality of the unit is top notch. Can’t complain about anything in this area.

Once I got a nice hot bed of coals I threw 2 splits of the oak on and it only took 10-15 seconds to get burning which I thought was pretty well seasoned. Come to find out, it wasn’t. The center still wanted to sizzle for a bit, which complicated things a little, but eventually dried out. The smaller of the splits I had burned fine.

On the initial start up I added too much wood and she got pretty hot which is ok this time since I needed to do the cleaning burn. I set up my thermometers on the cooking grates on the firebox side and stack side. Firebox side got as high as 550f and the exhaust side maxed at 350. Other than when the temp spiked, without the heat management plate the temp difference was about 100-125f different.

Also during start up I had heavy white smoke but this was due to wet wood for sure. It was billowing out of every crack, hole and vent. But as the unit came up to temp and the white smoked cleared to TBS things really stabilized out. I had to leave th firebox door open while the wood was sizzling. After it dried or I used small dry splits I could shut the door and use the damper to control it. Although being so cold outside I never did shut the damper at all.

Now when I had things at its hottest I did notice that while moving the latch for the firebox door the paint was almost smearing. Not a big deal cause it’s going to wear off anyway in time.

Overall I feel the unit preformed as well as it could considering the fuel I fed it and how I operated it. I do feel I should have used a larger amount of charcoal to start things off with. Also I think I may add another smaller sized grate over the charcoal grate to retain more coals from falling down to the bottom of the firebox.

Any questions, opinions or tips are welcomed! More to come after I clean the heat management plate and first cook. I’d like to keep adding to this as much as I can.

Also please do not yell at me for the unopened beer!

Next time I run to the store I’ll be getting a charcoal chimney. Also I have a bunch of different size of expanded metal, just need to go dig it out from under the snow. I may also fabricate my own “pot warmer” to preheat my splits on also. I know my luck I’d have my split catch on fire in the firebox.

Thanks for the tips Smooth. I just used kingsford because I already had an open bag of it laying around. I did pick up a bag of lump already and plan on using that in the future.

Just based on they way my fire and temps reacted today my plan already was to split some of my larger pieces down smaller.

My experience with Oak goes only as far as what I burn for heat in my wood stove and it does leave TONS of coals behind. The only other option I have around hear is maple and when I burn that in my stove the coal bed left behind is slightly less that what the oak produces.

So after my first burn I noticed my wood, red oak, was wetter than I thought it was. Also the splits were a little larger than i think they needed to be. So I tired to split them down to around 1.5”x1.5”x 12”. Some a little bigger and smaller. Also I used my moisture meter to test the inside of the splits and found 25-28%. Now if I tested away from the core of the split the moisture dropped dramatically. The picture with the milk crate shows the pieces in the crate split smaller and the pieces outside the crate are what size they were previously.

I really wanted to split them smaller anyway for better temp control and fire management. I’m not worried if I burn a little more wood or have to tend the fire more often. I’m used to sitting next to smoker the entire cook anyway, I enjoy tinkering and sipping some beers during the process.

Another small update. Just received my heat management plate and did a cleaning burn. Durning the cleaning burn I noticed that once the smoker was up to temp and stabilized I had a 60F difference from firebox side of the cook chamber to the exhaust side. Which is a pretty decent improvement. I also believe I can improve that more by sealing up some of the gaps on the sides of the HMP and cook chamber walls. My fix will be to just lay some small pieces of steel on the HMP and slide them over tight to the cook chamber wall. This should force all of the hot air coming from the firebox under the HMP and be evenly distributed. Once I do this I’ll add a picture.

Now to be realistic, there is no way that the temps will be completely even across the Cook chamber since your pulling hot air from one side and exhausting it on the other. But having one side hotter than the other can be beneficial is cooking 2 different types of meat at the same time.

More updates to come. Hope this is helping someone out.

Bryan58 said:

Nice post you have going. I haven't tried closing the gaps on the sides of the HMP, but I may look into that as well. Let us know if it makes a difference when you try it.
If you're able to get good, clean smoke, try closing your smokestack halfway and your temperature differences should get down to around 30 degrees. I haven't had any issues closing mine down to where it affects the fire.

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Thank you. I will try closing down the stack after I close those gaps in the HMP. After all the reading I’ve don’t I’m not entirely sure what a good number would be for the difference in temp from side to side would be, but I feel if I get it under 50F that is more than acceptable.

My next burn is going to a cook with some baby back ribs on it so it should give me plenty of time to see how things are reacting.