Well, as promised, I would like to introduce y'all to my new pit. Don't really have a name yet, but perhaps MOAB-OS is in order. It could be called a Bandera-like pit, but it was really thought of to scratch an itch I had myself. I envisioned this pit about a year ago and speant months deciding whether I wanted it or something a bit more standard, and then deciding how to have it built. In the end, I had changed my mind a few times on size, but settled on something I think is ideal, and went to Lonestar pits to have it built. Some of you may know that Lonestar is the company that hired Steve from Bates pits, and even though he is the head pitmaster there, the business is run by Tom now. Tom and Steve were great the whole way through, and I highly recommend them to design and build almost any pit you have in mind. Very friendly and accomodating to my every concern, and in the end, they really went above and beyond, adding features to my pit for free. Overall, they are very affordable too, or at least are as of this writing. I truly expect their prices to go up with quality and service like I have seen. Not trying to be a walking billboard for Lonestar, but there has been enough bad press, and they were so helful the whole way through, I would like to encourage any one interested in a custom pit to consider them.
So the details of my pit: As I said, it could be called Bandera-like, but I prefer just to call it a Vertical-Offset, and a rather big one! It's 24" deep by 33" wide. The smoking chamber is 36" tall, and there is about 12" of resouviour under the lowest grate. I supposed I could put a water pan there, but have no intention. If anything, I'd just fill it up with water directly, and drain when done. The firebox is 24" square, 1/2" thick, which is plenty of room, and has the combination griddle/grill on top of it. I've also found that to be a good side stand and log warmer.
One of the biggest problems I've found so far is that it's quite heavy. So heavy that I was not about to try to move it to get a good picture, and this is all I've got. My camera doesn't go wide enough angle to get the whole thing, but I think you can get the general feel from here. In a bit, I'll have some pron on the first cook and comments on that. Enjoy. The longer I have this pit, the more I enjoy it!
dmp
So the details of my pit: As I said, it could be called Bandera-like, but I prefer just to call it a Vertical-Offset, and a rather big one! It's 24" deep by 33" wide. The smoking chamber is 36" tall, and there is about 12" of resouviour under the lowest grate. I supposed I could put a water pan there, but have no intention. If anything, I'd just fill it up with water directly, and drain when done. The firebox is 24" square, 1/2" thick, which is plenty of room, and has the combination griddle/grill on top of it. I've also found that to be a good side stand and log warmer.
One of the biggest problems I've found so far is that it's quite heavy. So heavy that I was not about to try to move it to get a good picture, and this is all I've got. My camera doesn't go wide enough angle to get the whole thing, but I think you can get the general feel from here. In a bit, I'll have some pron on the first cook and comments on that. Enjoy. The longer I have this pit, the more I enjoy it!
dmp