It doesnt seem to have a major temp difference end to end, i havent measured it but i have cooked on pits with 100 deg difference end to end. Todays cook 2 slabs of ribs when i processed the hog i trimmed the ribs higher up so the whole slab is bones, they are a combo of side and back ribs
BTW - those walls are not as thin as you might think - I had an outside temp drop of 25 degrees with rain and mine just chugged along as if nothing happened.