Under $1 thousand

After good years, it's time to retire my pitmaster and step it up. As I began researching new smokers I came across this site and had to join.

Forgive the newbie nature of this post, but I did search on a several criteria to determine if anything similar has been posted recently. If you had $1k as your max budget, which smoker would you purchase and why?

Here are my particulars: Our family has grown 5, we now live in Nashville, Tn and we frequently have guests over for BBQ. My old pitmaster is rusted out, doesn't have enough grill space and was difficult to regulate temp. I checked out the Traeger's at a fireplace store locally but pellets and electricity would take the fun out of smoking for me. I really enjoy wood smoking.

Several years ago I had a neibor who owned the Bandera and he consistently achieved better results. However, I checked one out at an Academy sports recently and it appears that build quality was substantially worse than several years ago (thinner steel, cheaper hardware, etc) but at a better price ($200 v I think he paid somewhere in the $300-$400 range). They also carried a NB Longhorn ($400) and Longhorn Deluxe ($545) which appeared to have better build quality.

Anyway, I'm just starting my research and I thought would get advice from veterans. Thanks for the help.

-Grisch

Thanks guys.

Thillin, I haven't seen the horizontal with the vertical chamber at Academy. I live in Nashville, TN. Where have you seen it?

the search continues

Thanks guys, I emailed bates, gator, klose and horizon.

I also went back to Academy. The Bandera was a New Braunfels model but it's definitely the cheaper made model. The Longhorn and Longhorn Deluxe were really solid but I'm still shooting for a vertical design.

The spiceworks models look really well built but I like smoking with wood.

I'll keep you posted as the search continues

thanks again