New Smoker Trailer... am I doing this right?

Long time lurker, but now I am setting out to have my trailer smoker built. I am in no way a pit builder, or any student of thermal dynamics, welding, or anything of the sort. I designed this pit in a 3d program to try and get an idea from the people on this forum if this looks reasonable.
The smoker is 6ft in length, 4 ft in depth, and 5 ft in height from the base of the trailer. The firebox is 3 ft in depth, 2ft in length, and 2ft in height. I would prefer 1/4" steel for everything except for the firebox. I would like the firebox to be 1/2" steel.


I'm hoping to fit 200-250lb of sausage hanging from the top in one smoke, and 500lbs of brisket, pork shoulder, or chickens in one smoke. Obviously this will be for catering and competition bbq.
My only concern is proper heat disbursement for the entire cabin seeing that it is such a large vessel. I have seen many examples of deflectors, baffles, etc..etc. Here are some examples I found for Horizon BBQ smokers. I know my smoker would be very different than a horizontal/upright combo, but by looking at the examples I think you people get the idea
Here is a simple baffle mod.

Here is a row of slightly larger spaces as the distance from the firebox gets greater

Here is a diagram a guy did of a plate he was going to fabricate:

My questions
1. So would any of these mods work to get a more even temp throughout the smoker?
2. Does this model look "sound" for smoking?
3. With this size, would I be looking at over the 3500lb mark?
Any advice or opinions are much appreciated.

I checked out Spicewine trailers and they are nice.. but I'm not seeing anything on giant trailer backwoods. I guess this is the exact reason I am asking, for answers like this.

Do you mean "like Spicewine Trailers" as in no offset firebox? I made it based on what I have seen, especially in regards to the horizontal smoker+upright combos I have seen. I guess what I am really getting at is, what is better about the Spicewine design that is technically better? I see the trailer smokers on the site but no large enough pics to get any idea of how they are designed. It's hard to get specifics on such small pictures.

Basically I am bringing these plans to a welder and having them put it together so I have to make sure that from an "engineering" standpoint, this smoker looks like it will do its job very well. It's one of those things like Aaron Franklin went through where he spent months making and tuning in a behemoth smoker, only to completely ditch the idea and start from scratch. I most likely don't have the cash like Aaron does to let this build collect rust in my backyard.

Basically I am also looking for those types of answers people wish they had before they built their custom smokers. I could always just throw caution to the wind but I like to learn from other people's mistakes.

1. Would you design the damper and chimney in a way that can be regulated by a temperature control system?

2. It seems MANY pit builders have trailers with the firebox hanging off the back like I have illustrated, but I was thinking.... what happens if you get rear ended? Depending on the vehicle, is it over for your custom smoker?

3. Firebox's clearance from the ground?

ok.. so it seems the consensus is that I should have this built as a cabinet smoker eh? I am fine with the change, I just want to make sure I can get to the 130 degree smoke and thought that I might not be able to get that low with direct heat..

So what would the look be for the heat deflectors? I'll go check out the design for cabinet smokers and see what I can find. So would the majority of you think the direct heat cabinet be the way to go?

Ok.. I have gone the direction most of you have recommended which is a cabinet smoker. In this specific diagram I have added something I would love to have.. I would like the middle brace for the rack holders to be removable. In this case racks that are 4.5' or 5' across and 4.5' deep are too unmanageable for one person, so racks of around 2.5' wide and 4.5' deep sound much better. BUT.. in the case where I want to do whole hog.. or that cut of meat that tips the Flinstone's car over, I can have 1 or two 4.5'x4.5' racks to slide in. Would probably be something I do only a couple of times a year but while I am building it, thought I might get people's opinions.

As far as the drainage, I have not figured that part out, just wanted to throw this out there and see what people think.

One measurement that is not in the pics is smoke stack height which is 24 inches. I think that is using an online calculator so I don't know if I have that one correct.