2 Problems for new Yoder Wichita owner

[Fishfry]

Here is my Cheyenne mod

[slamkeys]

ATBBQ has some new photos posted for the Wichita. The vent is now lowered in the photos. I didn't see any changes in the Cheyenne photos yet.

No mention of "New and Improved" anywhere. Maybe the difference in performance was too subtle to mention.

[Darkfix]

I did pull the trigger on the "updated" Kingman... Will get it in a few weeks.
Will get interesting if it works as it should, it's a bit of gamble with my $$$...


Since there was almost no complaints on the original Kingman, it hopefully gets even better with the new door on it.

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

Originally Posted by Darkfix

I did pull the trigger on the "updated" Kingman... Will get it in a few weeks.
Will get interesting if it works as it should, it's a bit of gamble with my $$$...


Since there was almost no complaints on the original Kingman, it hopefully gets even better with the new door on it.

I'm just curious why you decided to go with the Kingman? Have you read about the issues with other Yoder offsets before you made the purchase?

[Darkfix]

Originally Posted by SmoothBoarBBQ

I'm just curious why you decided to go with the Kingman? Have you read about the issues with other Yoder offsets before you made the purchase?

Yes I did..


Did talk to an BBQ Team that uses Kingman and they were very satisfied.
I've read all Slamkeys posts here and there, and I was about to get the Witcita but since many owners appears to have some issues with old and new door I decided to not buy that one.


Also I live in Europe, and Yoder is more or less the only real USA offset smoker you can order. I did talk to Horizon several times, but they didn't get back to me with shipping, so their loss. Also talked to Gator Pits, but the shipping was sadly insane.


If there are any issues with airflow with the Kingman I will mod it.


Will post more soon as I tried it out...

[Darkfix]

Got my Kingman today and played with it for several hours.


Will post pictures and a longer update later on.
After some cleaning and inside oiled up it was time to fire it up.


To keep it short, Kingman works as it should I must say.


Even if I haven't touched an offset before I had no problem maintaining 225-250F (left side) and 250-275F (right side).



I could get it close as 0-25F between both sides.


I noticed that keeping a small fire was the way to go, one wood split a time to keep even temperature.


No coal bed, just added some logs and fired it up with my propane burner.
No kiln dried wood, took some dry birch-wood some the pile from my father in law.

No need to add charcoal, just one log now and then.

Today it was no wind at all, and hot outside (27C).

Nice smoke, everything from clear to thin blue smoke.



I have the "updated" Kingman with air intake little bit lower than before.

I still has lots to learn and it will be a pleasure to make some Q on this one.

Intake damper was 1/3-1/2 open, no need to have it fully open!



I'm glad that I took the Kingman instead of the Wichita.


Will post more soon as I can...

[slamkeys]

Ole T-Roy Cooks finally gave up the Wichita. I've noticed for quite some time he rarely did cooking videos with it anymore.

He replaced it with one of the new Lone Star Grillz 20" models with the 3/16" flat sides (not pipe). His first impressions were very positive ("lovin it") and in comparison with the Yoder he said the LSG was much more efficient and controllable. He commented that the Yoder "would run out of control sometimes."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syq6O13jla8

Looking forward to more of his cooks to see if he continues to love it.

[funstuie]

Originally Posted by slamkeys

Ole T-Roy Cooks finally gave up the Wichita. I've noticed for quite some time he rarely did cooking videos with it anymore.

He replaced it with one of the new Lone Star Grillz 20" models with the 3/16" flat sides (not pipe). His first impressions were very positive ("lovin it") and in comparison with the Yoder he said the LSG was much more efficient and controllable. He commented that the Yoder "would run out of control sometimes."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syq6O13jla8

Looking forward to more of his cooks to see if he continues to love it.

I noticed that. A lot of the youtube bbq guys (mothers, ballistic) also got Lone Star Grillz around the same time (was there a group buy or free promotion?)

[KB BBQ]

I’m wondering the same thing. Seems like Lone Star is doing some smart marketing.

[marbque]

Of course it was a giveaway for free marketing. On another note we have a Kingman and have no issues at all maintaining an even temp across the pit from left to right or right to left whichever way you prefer to read the temps. Door is closed and no smoldering wood. Several other people I know have Kingman also and have no such issue with the door. I have made a few videos displaying this. Our Kingman has never "run out of control". We actually control it with no problems.

[FrankZ]

I got my loaded Wichita in April and I have enjoyed learning it. It can be a but worrisome when it doesn't run like you pictured in your head but I have kept at it and fiddled some.

Mine has the new door which puts the baffle lower, though I do think it could be bigger.

The two issues I have had are getting white smoke and temperature differences side to side.

White smoke:

There have been a couple things that i have done to deal with the white smoke.

• Leaving the door open. I don't like this as I don't think it should work that way.
• I bought a cheap short stand fan. I use this to create breeze into the firebox as I am not rotating into the wind.
• Managing my ash pile. I have found it better to push the ashes deeper into the firebox instead of removing them. There is still heat in it. Also I leave a bed of ash under the fire.
• Split size. I will split down from what I bought. I also cut them in half lengthwise to get a better fit. I keep chunks for spreading into the coal pile as it is getting too small to rebuild it. I may not need to do this much in the future.
• The heat management plate. I moved it back some, back some more and finally back as far as it would go. This is the thing I think Yoder were too clever with and I don't believe it works the way they wanted me to think it worked.
• Replaced the heat management plate with tuning plates. Mine are 6"x18"x16ga. I bought 6 of them, one is angled against the ash deflector, then 3 abutt and then about 1/4 inch gap and a 1/2 inch gap.
• Fire placement. I have been more centered (though biased to the back of the box. If I go to the back right corner I don't get as clean as more centered.

With the ash management and the tuning plates the draw is pretty good. I do find if I push ash too quickly I loose draw and I might see some white smoke. Otherwise it is preheat the next split then when tossed on it lights and I don't have to open the door or open the baffle.

I do want thicker plates as these flex when I try moving them.

Side to side temperature:

I have two chamber probes that are 1/3 the way in from each end and centered under the grates. When I first started this journey I would see as much as 120* difference which is ridiculous. To correct this I have:

• Played with exhaust baffle. Closing it down gets the two probes closer but not even 50* is too much.
• Tipped the heat managemnt plate up. This didn't really help but it was a thought.
• Moved the heat management plate back, and back and back. This for the difference down to 25* which is tolerable, but it also seemed to force the tempurtures down. It was harder to get up to where I wanted to be this way.
• Tuning plates. This sorted the issue, at least thus far. I have had spans of time with 2* or less differences, with differences getting as high at 20*. At times the left (far) end was over the right end. I think this is great. If I open gaps closer to the box it increases the difference which is useful. I need to have more time working this to get a feel for where it should be for the difference I want.

If I had to do it again I would gone bigger (Kingman) cause it is bigger. I was worried we wouldn't be able to get it in the back yard. We ended going through the fence between us and the neighbor (though their backyard and over their patio). An additional 200ish pounds could have been really difficult.

If I didn't go bigger I would go with the counter weight and second shelf but not the plate.

At this point I am pretty thrilled and looking forward to the next cook, just need to get time and figure out what I want to do next.

[Melt In The Sun]

PSA - don't be an idiot like me!

After getting a new door made with one large low vent (https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/s...&postcount=210) I was optimistic that I would have this beat. Well, it improved things greatly but this summer I've had a real bear of a time keeping the thing flowing well. Today I was going to try cooking some chicken without the heat management plate. I started pulling everything out and started to give it a good cleaning while I'm at it.

Well, I noticed some gunk inside the stack. Started cleaning...noticed a whole lot more gunk. The horizontal portion right next to the smoke chamber was almost completely blocked with smoker goo. Hmm, when was the last time I cleaned it? Never. In six years. Now it flows spectacularly and my chicken is rolling along at nearly 400 with no drama.

If things aren't flowing well, clean your smokers gang!

[patrickd26]

Originally Posted by Bludawg

Split your splits one time. Stuffing to much fuel in the firebox at once disrupts the air flow ( takes up volume for air need for the fire.) So your making up for it by propping the door open. The pit is designed to run on the dampers alone. Control the air, control the fire,control the pit temp. The coal bed is the where you get the heat the bigger the bed the hotter the pit.
This is a 300 deg fire

This might work for your cooker, but for the Wichita... Door HAS to be open; especially if you want to run at a higher temp.

Things will always be hotter at the firebox side. You just need to learn where the hotspots are and use it to your advantage. Tonight, I put a couple racks of ribs on right in the middle of the chamber. Then, later I added about 8 chicken quarters. They were sizzling the whole time and once they had the color I wanted, I moved them to the left side. Turned out great.

On another note.... The Wichita w/ heat plate is a giant pain in the eass. I would just remove it so that you can get the airflow. Know that the right side will be triple digits hotter, but again... use that to your advantage.

[slamkeys]

Originally Posted by Melt In The Sun

Well, I noticed some gunk inside the stack. Started cleaning...noticed a whole lot more gunk. The horizontal portion right next to the smoke chamber was almost completely blocked with smoker goo. Hmm, when was the last time I cleaned it? Never. In six years. Now it flows spectacularly and my chicken is rolling along at nearly 400 with no drama.

If things aren't flowing well, clean your smokers gang!

Haha! 6 years!

My Wichita has the removable stack, so fortunately I'm looking inside it often when I turn the stack down before putting the cover back on. Mine gets big curly pieces of black tar flaking off after a number of cooks, and I poke a stick down there to break them off. You definitely need this stack clear to make the Wichita sing.

[slamkeys]

BTW, the online photos for all the Yoder backyard offsets now show the new lowered intake vent: Cheyenne, Wichita, Loaded Wichita, Kingman, Durango 20", Durango 24". Still no mention of the "improvement" anywhere, and the downloadable dimensional drawings don't reflect the change yet.

The new LSG offsets apparently don't use any tuning plates to achieve even temperatures. I don't know if that was a cost-cutting measure, or if LSG changed their position on tuning plates. They used to brag on them. It's admirable if they managed to get even temperatures without them, but what if you want to create a cool or hot spot? I didn't see an option to add them on their site.

From the LSG site:

• Revolutionary new heat distribution system cooks top down with our “cross flow” technology. This system doesn’t need any plates or diffusers to get even grate temps