LSG vert. stick burners

[AlwaysSmokey]

Hey Lone Star Grillz vertical offset stickburner guys !!!

I have some questions. The wife has been politely nudging me towards a 24x30 offset vert. (w/ warmer box and other stuff) instead of the patio 60 I have been pretty set on. I slipped up and told her about smaller the footprint w/ larger capacity ..... :doh:

Let's be clear,. she has given me the green light. :mrgreen: Lang 84, ...Shirley Custom,.... LSG 84 trailer..... etc.. So she is coming from a happy place,.. not a "grrrrr !" place. And I have drooled,.... and drooled,... and drooled over all of them. The vertical came up because I was actually reigning myself back and considering a patio smoker instead of a wonderfully awesome trailer rig. :twitch:

Anyways,... let me try to stay on point here. I wonder about airflow. I wonder how these fantastic offset verticals do when loaded to the gills. I wonder about the temp. variation from the bottom verses up by the stacks. Likewise from side to side. Has anyone had any real issues with these cookers? When fully loaded are meats charring up on the lower shelves since they are basically heat baffles ? Or is the thing running well ? I am aware that gaps between meats on shelves would help,... but is that all you need? My whole "thing" is moving that airflow. Is this cooker capable? Or should I stick to horizontal offsets. If I had one it would run all sticks, small fire, lots of flow....No charcoal, no baskets.... I have a uds I never use already. ( I still love her :icon_smile_tongue I need some exp. LSG guy advice. :loco:

Thanks brothers,

Kevin

 

[pjtexas1]

Lucky farker! Take a look at the flat back Shirley. Reverse flow, taller cabinet, bigger racks, space for more than 2 racks, can even get an option to have a charcoal pan in the main chamber. Kind of the best of both worlds...but I am a little biased. LSG verticals offsets are awesome so no bad choice here.

Edit: you are about 90 minutes from me and the same distance from Thoey1963. I just picked up my Shirley and Thoey just picked up his LSG vertical offset. Maybe a couple of road trips can help you make up your mind.
on the airflow questions, oldbill and ssv will be along any minute now...

 

[AlwaysSmokey]

It's a hard farkin place to be !! :grin:

Those Shirley's are bad momma jommas ! I look at them and the LSG's everyday. Langs too,.. but I worry about QC with them. It only takes a few bad remarks to get me on the fence,.. especially when dropping a ton of loot.

I just wanted some info on those upright patio stick burners,... since,.. I don't really know a darn thing about them... lol

Kev.

 

[Beentown]

It's a hard farkin place to be !! :grin:

Those Shirley's are bad momma jommas ! I look at them and the LSG's everyday. Langs too,.. but I worry about QC with them. It only takes a few bad remarks to get me on the fence,.. especially when dropping a ton of loot.

I just wanted some info on those upright patio stick burners,... since,.. I don't really know a darn thing about them... lol

Kev.

Friend of mine has a trailered Lang 60 and I have a 24x60 Shirley with the warming cabinet and cabinet doors. We both prefer everything about mine over his. Just a thought.

Guess it just depends on what is most important. My opinion...

- Smaller footprint, good capacity and a great cooker....LSG.
- Crazy flexible, completely customizable and a great cooker....Shirley

 

[AlwaysSmokey]

Yeah PJ, the ability to put hands on something would def. be nice. I have never even considered anything but a horizontal offset. Hence my initial search: LSG 84, Shirley 60+, and Lang 84.
I know Terry just got his,.. lol,.. I think the whole world knows. I guess I am at a place where I have learned what I like to cook with and found myself curious about the verts. Trailer smokers started this quest and are probably where I will end up, but, I am more than willing to here out any fella that has an offset with a smaller footprint and larger capacity. Any info from ssv or oldbill would be awesome.

But as for your Shirley,.. if I come to see it,.. you might have to kill me to get it back LOL !!

Thanks for the insight beentown. And to sum up, what's important is: quality fabrication on a true stick burning cooker. Trailer or not, it's gotta be done right. Oh,... and the same goes for you too,.... you'd have to pry your shirley out of my cold dead hand. LOL

j/k.....:spy:

I think both of you fellas made awesome calls on which cooker to get yourselves. I just gotta have some info on these dag gum verts. ! ......sometimes we just gotta know..

Kev.

 

[GrillsGoneWild]

Unless you have a necessity for it to be a trailer smoker due to going places all the time, I would seriously consider the LSG vertical. A small footprint and still be able to turn out a bunch of meat is a great thing. It also probably will have less fuel consumption, which means you aren't having to tend to it every 45 mins-1 hour. If I go all stick burner again, that will be the route I go.

 

[ssv3]

In a nutshell, I'm really happy with the LSG vertical and it serves my purposes just right. Small footprint, very large capacity and excellent draft are a few things that come to mind. Obviously build quality, customer service are second to none. :deadhorse:

Now, I haven't really loaded mine up but I've loaded it enough to know that it does fine from top to bottom and side to side pertaining to temps. I've had even temps across the whole smoking chamber. No biscuit test or anything like that but going off the thermometers on the door and I've stuck a Maverick in there for the side to side reading (running two probes opposite of each other). Basically covered all corners and by the exhausts and the difference at worst has been a few degrees literally. You can fiddle with the tuning plates if you want to fine tune it but I just went according to Chris' directions and lined them up roughly and it's been working perfect.

I'd like to also add that my pit is leveled when I "docked" it at its permanent spot. OldBill mentioned about having your pit level when Terry did a biscuit test on his vertical and had a few hotspots.

On to the pics

Here are the thermometers on my main chamber. They always level off once the pit is nice and hot or warmed up so to speak.

One more from another cook

Bday cook and this is the most I've loaded her up and everything came out great

I've even smoked home cured sausage at 170* and again nice and even.

Whole pig.. Again even all across

Wangs, ribs etc etc all just hung indiscriminately

Cooked even

You get the idea. IIRC Oldbill loaded his up more than I have so he should chime in. Hope it helps.

 

[toys4dlr]

Look at the Shirley Patio, with the steerable wheels. I added a winch from Harbor Frieght and I can load it into the toy hauler for comps by myself. It fits nicely under the patio at home and moves soooo easily to bring it out to cook. Hugh capacity and versatility. I use the main chamber the most, but I have done jerky and pizza in the vertical chamber. At separate time obviously. But I have seen first hand a LSG vertical and they are awesome. Really no wrong choice.

 

[lantern]

ssv3, that's a heck of a post. I'm sure he's got all the info he needs on your post alone!:clap::clap:

 

[AlwaysSmokey]

Thanks fellas.

SSV, thank you. My questions have been answered. The temps side to side were not the biggest concern,.. I was worried mainly about from top to bottom. And it looks like she holds a level temp. just fine after warming up.

Well,..... this is great..... now I really don't know what to get!!

Thanks for all the comments guys. I appreciate all of the suggestions and info.

Regards,

Totally lost on my pit choice

 

[SmittyJonz]

Just put a LSG Vertical on a Trailer.................:shock:

 

[AlwaysSmokey]

...... really leaning towards the vertical now ...... :icon_smile_tongue:

LOL,.. I honestly thought about that smitty.

I think the patio vertical is winning the race in my head at this point. But it's a close race....

EDIT: I did some number crunching and the vertical with all the bells and whistles I want comes out about 500 bucks cheaper than the 60 patio with all the bells and whistles. I'm thinking 500 bucks worth of SRF !

Anyways I thought I would put this out there.

At the beginning, I asked Lang owners. I had Lang fever, pretty bad.
Certain parts of the Lang build process changed my mind. .... I still really like the pits though.

I haven't ever needed to ask about Shirley fab. because of all the the information constantly being shared here and on FB. They are fantastic smokers.

And finally the LSG guys. In true brethren fashion my questions were answered and were very helpful.
Thank you brothers. These purchases are really big events for most people, myself included. Heck, the majority of the population thinks we are all crazy for spending so much on our cookers.

So, I invite all opinions and suggestions.

EDIT:

I don't need to be super mobile, but I will be setting up at different events from time to time. I do not compete. I intend to cater bigger events but a lot of the cooking will happen either at home, or a commercial kitchen I have access to. So the trailer isn't super needed, but would be handy. I have given the Harbor freight winch idea some thought, and that seems like it would work fine to help load and unload the smoker.

Thanks brothers,

Kevin

 

[pjtexas1]

you are in bad shape.:wink: you will have to pick one eventually because there is a long wait once you pick.

 

[Harrjack]

Ordered my offset vertical from LSG in May it was 14 week delivery it is actually 17 so should get it about September.

 

[Beentown]

Just to add to the thought process...

One reason I chose the Shirley is because of being able to cook at two seperate temps at the same time. Main chamber and warming box.

Ran 50 chicken quarters at 350ish in the main chamber and did ribs in the warming cabinet at 275.

Great problem your having. Lol

 

[AlwaysSmokey]

Any pit purchased will have a warming cabinet. For exactly that reason Beentown, options!! That had to be awesome running to different temps. on the same cook. Very, very cool.

 

[THoey1963]

Hey Always Smokey. I'm still learning my new smoker, so I am not one to ask for advice or opinions, but I'd gladly schedule a time with you for you to come by and take a look. PM me if interested.

As for mobility, this thing ain't going anywhere very often. It took six of us to move it from the driveway to it's home in the backyard. She's heavy (1700 pounds) and even the upgraded wheels are not good off pavement.

 

[AlwaysSmokey]

Thanks Terry. That would be awesome.

I have a large porch area that is all concrete, so I think with a winch on a trailer I would be able to move her. But that's a bridge to cross in the future. I also have a 50 horse Kubota that can pick her up if it comes to that.

I think the vert. is the way I am going to go. I still have my reservations on switching to a vert. style,... so not quite 100 percent but hey,..I still got time before the final choice has to be made. 5 months......:drama: So who knows. Then,.. of course the long line for the build itself. :rain:

I truly appreciate the offer to set up a "meet and greet". Perhaps after you have had some time to get to know yours I'll try and swing out.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[oldbill]

The vertical design just automatically drafts better because the heat from the firebox gets to rise almost immediately rather than travel horizontally for a great distance before rising and exiting the cooker, the path of least resistance.:wink:
Since the verticals draft better you'll also get better heat circulation for more consistent temps and better fuel economy. I'll promise you that once you've cooked on a vertical you'll kick yourself for not getting it sooner.:-D

 

[SmittyJonz]

Verticals are the Chit!