Am contemplating my UDS plans and I need to know....

There is a humongous UDS thread HERE, to help you out, but most builds don't have a door, water pan, or require adding charcoal except on really, really long runs. I'm no expert, though as I've only built one.

Read the first 300 or so posts of the UDS thread that MadKirk linked to. It doesn't take long to read those and they will answer 99.99% of any question you'll ever have. The meat and potatoes so to speak.

That last 0.01% is what the remaining 4,500 posts in the thread are for. ;-) Especially NorcoRedneck's "If a redneck were to build a UDS" thread.

The main thing you want to understand with the UDS: keep it as airtight as you can! Don't go drilling or cutting any extra intakes or you won't get the temp control the drums are known for.....

If you build it right, KISS, you won't need to add coal during a cook....

IronStomach said:

If you build it right, KISS, you won't need to add coal during a cook....

Click to expand...

Example: I started out with 15 lbs of a mix of KF briquettes and RO lump for a 12 hour butt smoke and when done, thought I'd go ahead and see how long it took to burn out. It maintained 225° for 30 hours (without any tending)...and was still at 200° after 36 hours, when I quite checking it.