Grilling on a UDS

G

Grillinski

Knows what a fatty is.
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Location
Granger, OH
Men, I know several brethren have posted pics of Upright Drum Smoker “builds” showing mods that allow you to put the fire basket in a raised position for grilling. I have not seen many photos or read reports of these in action! Do they work well?
How do they perform compared to say a Weber kettle?
Anybody use one as their “go to” grill and love it?
I am considering making the mod today. Any tips would be appreciated.
 
I have tried it once and didn't like it at all. I have my cooking grate set down a few inches and that makes it kind of difficult to get at and flip smaller stuff that i am grilling. Any grilling is always done on the weber from now on.
 
My UDS works great for a certain style of grilling when I make roadside chicken and roasts, and without any mods, either. I get the top layer of coals red hot using my propane torch, then put the firebasket in the bottom of the drum. I keep all vents open and usually get temps around 325-375. I usually have to close the vents a 1/4 turn at that point to keep the temps from going higher. On the other hand, I wouldn't use this method for things like burgers or dogs or smaller food items that require taking the lid off a lot.
 
Thanks.

Dataz722, do you think you would have liked it if your top grate was level with the top of the drum? or were there other things that you didnt like about it?
 
Grillinski said:
Thanks.

Dataz722, do you think you would have liked it if your top grate was level with the top of the drum? or were there other things that you didnt like about it?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess it would be fine like that but I would probably still just prefer the weber. I also didn't have the best solution either because I was just hanging the basket from the grate supports with little chains so it wasn't very secure at all.
 
Mine works just as well as my old Weber used to.
Here's the basket:
firebasket-1.jpg


And here's the brackets for how it sits in the drum:
Insidehooks.jpg


The way I've got it set up, I can do the coals at either 6" from the cooking grate or 10" from the cooking grate. I usually do 6" though.
 
As Paul said- I grill on mine all the time. I just did burgers on Saturday. I made my basket so it engages the lower U-bolts, and holds it just below the upper grate. Note the little studs sticking downward- important to keep the basket from slipping off of the U-bolts. In addition to grilling, it's handy to reverse-sear large cuts like prime rib. I smoke the prime rib at 225 until it's about 120 degrees internal, remove it and wrap it, move the firebasket to the grilling position, and open the vents. In about 1/2 hour, I've got a good hot fire for searing the roast.

I used Weber grills for over 30 years, and I like the UDS just as well for grilling, and better for everything else. I don't have the room for a collection of smokers and grills, so I have my UDS, and the wife has her Weber gasser.

IMGP4836.jpg

IMGP4837.jpg
 
MushCreek said:
As Paul said- I grill on mine all the time. I just did burgers on Saturday. I made my basket so it engages the lower U-bolts, and holds it just below the upper grate. Note the little studs sticking downward- important to keep the basket from slipping off of the U-bolts. In addition to grilling, it's handy to reverse-sear large cuts like prime rib. I smoke the prime rib at 225 until it's about 120 degrees internal, remove it and wrap it, move the firebasket to the grilling position, and open the vents. In about 1/2 hour, I've got a good hot fire for searing the roast.

I used Weber grills for over 30 years, and I like the UDS just as well for grilling, and better for everything else. I don't have the room for a collection of smokers and grills, so I have my UDS, and the wife has her Weber gasser.

IMGP4836.jpg
Click to expand...
firebasket-1.jpg

Credit where credit is due: I totally stole my concept from you. :thumb:

I just don't have any welding skills, so I used "L" brackets and fender washers to hold the bolts in place. Also, flipping the brackets over and mounting them on the top of the basket allows me to hang the basket either from the top set of U-bolts OR the bottom giving me two separate grilling levels.

I never would have thought of it had I not seen your post in the UDS thread.:becky:
 
Thanks for all the pics. I was actually wondering about this too as I am getting ready for a UDS style build using a 100 gallon propane tank and wanted to be able to grill on it as well.
 
Grillinski said:
Men, I know several brethren have posted pics of Upright Drum Smoker “builds” showing mods that allow you to put the fire basket in a raised position for grilling. I have not seen many photos or read reports of these in action! Do they work well?
How do they perform compared to say a Weber kettle?
Anybody use one as their “go to” grill and love it?
I am considering making the mod today. Any tips would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Grillinski,

I don't have the welding skills or the fabrication facilities that MushCreek and Southern Home Boy do, but your question piqued my curiosity: What do I have around the shop in scraps and spare parts that would solve the problem you present?

I had an old rusty charcoal grate from a 22" Weber kettle, some scrap expanded metal, some short bolts with nuts and washers and some hog rings (mechanic's wire works well, too). I also have a UDS with 2 grills, one about 7" below the other.

I cut the expando into a couple of 4" wide strips 30" long. Bolted two ends together and used hog rings to attach to the charcoal grate. Bolted the other two ends when the strip closed up.

The photos show the completed basket alone, and with a Weber 22" kettle lid alongside to show size.

The basket rests on the bottom grill of my UDS and the top grill goes on after loading the basket with lit coals.

Hope to give the rig its maiden voyage this evening.

Hope this helps,

Sterling
 

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Sterling said:
Grillinski,

I don't have the welding skills or the fabrication facilities that MushCreek and Southern Home Boy do, but your question piqued my curiosity: What do I have around the shop in scraps and spare parts that would solve the problem you present?

I had an old rusty charcoal grate from a 22" Weber kettle, some scrap expanded metal, some short bolts with nuts and washers and some hog rings (mechanic's wire works well, too). I also have a UDS with 2 grills, one about 7" below the other.

I cut the expando into a couple of 4" wide strips 30" long. Bolted two ends together and used hog rings to attach to the charcoal grate. Bolted the other two ends when the strip closed up.

The photos show the completed basket alone, and with a Weber 22" kettle lid alongside to show size.

The basket rests on the bottom grill of my UDS and the top grill goes on after loading the basket with lit coals.

Hope to give the rig its maiden voyage this evening.

Hope this helps,

Sterling
Click to expand...

Hey Sterling,
If you run charcoal in a ring on the OUTSIDE of that basket - between the wall of the kettle and your basket - you can get an awesome 6-8 hour burn for an indirect cook.

You probably already thought of that, but just in case you didn't... :becky:
 
I made my basket with an adjustable bottom, I raise the charcoal grate up and grill no problem.
 
Last edited:
Southern Home Boy said:
Hey Sterling,
If you run charcoal in a ring on the OUTSIDE of that basket - between the wall of the kettle and your basket - you can get an awesome 6-8 hour burn for an indirect cook.

You probably already thought of that, but just in case you didn't... :becky:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea, Home Boy! No, I hadn't thought of it, but I'll willingly steal it!

I'll post a photo or two when I figure out a couple of technical problems, such as coals falling through the big gaps by the grill handles.

Sterling
 
Stolen Home Boy Suggestion

Well, after thinking through Home Boy's idea of using the area between my UDS grilling basket and the wall of the drum as a long running source of indirect heat, I think I came up with an easy way to solve the problem of hot coals falling through the big gaps by the handles of the Weber grill grate.

I put 1 Weber grill on the bottom grill supports with the handles upside down and then a 2nd grill directly on top of the first one, right way up. Then turned the top grill until the steel wires of both grates are at 90 degrees to each other.

Thanks, again, for the idea, Home Boy!

Sterling
 
Thanks for the great replies! I'm really glad to hear that some of you like using a raised basket this way. I started working on modifying mine this past weekend and hope to finsh next weekend. Will post pics when done. I am all about making my UDS more versital. I dont have the deck space or resources to have many grills and smokers, so it will be awesome to use it this way as well.
 
Patrick C. said:
Sterling- Do you have problems with ash blowing around in the barrel, or does it all settle gently to the bottom?
Click to expand...

Patrick, if you're referring to the raised grill basket, I don't know the answer to your question. I just built it yesterday and haven't had a chance to use it yet.

I've used drums in a smoker configuration for quite a while now, and have only noticed significant ash issues if the fire basket is disturbed, either by shaking it, kicking the barrel, or having the top removed with a strong breeze blowing.

My guess is that other than the wind issue, the other problems won't be a factor due to the generally short time food is grilled. Ash buildup and disturbance are issues during very long cooks.

I'll try to remember to post the ash results the first time I use the new basket.

Sterling
 
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