Backwoods Fatboy or Gater

Spartan, We have a Competitor and I can attest that the capacities listed on the BWS site are accurate for it. I saw a Fatboy and a Gator at the KC Royal BBQ event two years ago and I would also agree that the capacities they list on their site are accurate on those as well. Mike makes one of the greatest lines of smokers around. If you intend to produce some quantity at some point I would suggest considering the Competitor. We had originally looked at a Fatboy but we are now very glad we went with the Competitor for the extra capacity.

PM Swamprb!

I had 16 racks of BB's and that was only using 4 of the 5 cook grates. I think the capacity of the Gater as stated is pretty conservative.

The thing I wish I had done was to have the extra sliders for the cook grates option. I don't care for the standard sliders positioning and the extras will give you more flexibility. An extra water pan would be nice. The cover is a must have.

I wish the water pan was on sliders instead of the way its designed, but thats just me.

All in all, I'm happy with the Gater, it is definitely not what I'm used to cooking on, but with time I'll nail it down. Take a look at my Left Hand Smoke Facebook page for cook pics.

I would go with the Gater over the Fatboy, mainly because you can fit a full size foil pan in there. The fatboy is about an inch short so you have to bend and force the foil to get it to fit.

I have the BWS Extended Party and it is accurately represented as to capacithy -- one comment I might make, it may just be me, but every cooker I have bought....at least up until this one...so far....I wish I had bought at least the next size up. Some how as you get going I find I just need to cook more meat.

I'll also say this: I have the extra grate slider option on my Fatboy, and I can easily fit 4 butts per rack, but the problem I have is the spacing between the racks gets too tight to fit the butts between the racks. I think if I only had 4 sliders instead of 5, this wouldn't be an issue.

Luckily, I've only tried to cook 16 butts on it one time, and I won't be doing it again.

I personally like the Fatboy better I have cooked on both extensively.
If Full hotel pans are somthing you want to fit consider the G2 Party over the Gater.