How much cooking equipment for a comp?

[Southern Home Boy]

I run two drums, an 18.5" ProQ and a kettle. If everything's ticking just right, I don't need anything more than the drums. The kettle is nice to pre-burn charcoal or to have a good direct heat source for finishing things, but it's not an essential. The ProQ is just there to be my back up if something goes wrong.

[Pigs on Fire]

There was a woman that cooked a full KCBS and turned in a Friday night ancillary at Canton, GA last October all on one 22" WSM.

I think she walked twice and ended up in the top-15 overall, out of 42 or so teams.

[monty3777]

Originally Posted by Pigs on Fire

There was a woman that cooked a full KCBS and turned in a Friday night ancillary at Canton, GA last October all on one 22" WSM.

I think she walked twice and ended up in the top-15 overall, out of 42 or so teams.

If she only cooked one full packer brisket I can see that working well.

[Pigs on Fire]

I suspect so. I bet most only cook one. Once you get to where you can turn out some decent brisket, I feel that's all you need to cook.

She did:

13 Chicken
6 Ribs
3 pork
20 Brisket

[RangerJ]

Cooked on 2 UDS for 2 years.

Can be done and they cook chicken just fine. Just need to plan to have your big meats in the cooler at a certain time. Not an issue with KCBS turn in times.

Good Luck!

[Nitrofly]

I would agree with skip the extra categories, as this is your 1st KCBS contest.
If there were any extra categories on friday maybe do them then. Once you
have your timing down with the four KCBS categories then think about the
extra's. Remember the number one rule in BAAAHHHBEQUE have fun

[Brewer]

Originally Posted by Pigs on Fire

There was a woman that cooked a full KCBS and turned in a Friday night ancillary at Canton, GA last October all on one 22" WSM.

I think she walked twice and ended up in the top-15 overall, out of 42 or so teams.

I saw a team two weeks ago cook all their meats on a single 22.5" WSM. They worked their a$$'s off but they did it. Blew me the Fark away....

They were cooking flats, butts, ribs and thighs.

[bam]

We go to war with 2 drums and a 22 weber grill.

[paydabill]

I mean no offensed on this, but you should have practice enough to know if you have neough equipment. I started this whole competition thing with a brinkman pro and a ECB. Yes I felt like stanford and sons parked next to the big boys, but I had my timing worked out where it all worked.

Practice Practice Practice - BTW I used an old boat trailer for Selma - take it to a metal shop and a mechanic to look it over. THe way your not looking in the review mirror all the time. It is worth it! Trust me!

[Bigmista]

Originally Posted by bam

We go to war with 2 drums and a 22 weber grill.

That's plenty. I use an XLUDS and a ranch kettle. You will be fine.

[Dan - 3eyzbbq]

I've cooked and won with 2 WSM's, but 3 is much more comfortable. It also depends on how much meat you are cooking. When I cooked with the WSMs I used 2 flats, 2 butts, 4 racks of spares and 18 pieces of chicken.

One other thing, remember the more cookers you have, the more fires to maintain and the more variables you have (different smoke, heat, etc).

[Q-Dat]

I am still new, but we are using four cookers.

Oklahoma Joe offset for Brisket
LyfeTyme offset for Ribs
18" WSM for Pork
Bubba Keg for Chicken.

There are a couple of reasons. First I know each cooker and like the way it handles each meat respectively. Second I would love to do Ribs, Pork, and Brisket all on one cooker, but I don't have one cooker that can fit all of that and recover the heat quickly after opening the lid to tend to something. I don't want to mess with the finish time on my ribs because I had the lid up tending to my brisket. If I had something like a Backwoods, an FEC or a Jambo I would just use it and the Bubba Keg most likely.

[Southern Home Boy]

Originally Posted by paydabill

Yes I felt like stanford and sons parked next to the big boys,

LOL... we did too. Our first comp we had a kettle and a CG offset. We didn't even have an EZ up. For "shelter" we had a stake-and-pole rainfly. We still took second in Ribs and 6th in Brisket out of 80 teams.

Yeah, I agree. If you know your cooker, and you have enough grill-estate to house everything, you don't need a lot of cookers.