Propane smoker build 'Aaron Franklin style'

[Garrath]

Hi everyone! My name is Garrath and Im new to this forum. I live over in Australia and am a big bbq fan!

Ive recently purchased 2 decommissioned propane tanks and am looking at having built a smaller scale 'Aaron Franklin style' smoker to mount on a trailer and thought Id jump on the forum for some help and advice.

The larger tank is 1000 Litre (approx 264 gallon, 106 inches long and 28 inches wide) and the smaller tank for the firebox is a 500 Litre (approx 132 gallon, 43 inches long and 29 inches wide ). Ive looked at a lot of builds on this forum and other forums and am not sure which way to go about the build.

Does anyone with smoker building experience recommend a specific firebox to cook chamber ratio out of 1/3 of the size or 1/4 the size? I have used Feldons bbq calculator based on a 1/3 ratio and I understand 90 percent of it but just unsure about a few smaller details.

Any tips or advice would be mostly appreciated. Thanks guys!:-D

 

[Ag76]

Wish I could help, but I have always bought my smokers already built. I think Franklin gives some specs in his book, but am not sure, and am not where I can look and see.

Good luck.

 

[TedW]

http://video.klru.tv/video/2365513482/

 

[greenmountainsmoke]

Check out his series on Youtube. He does an entire episode on building a cooker. Might have what you need there.

^^beat me too it^^

 

[TedW]

A good link http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/142517/three-some

 

[iStrikeBack]

Aaron's videos are good but he goes into alittle bit more detail in his book. i'd order one I think it's worth it. What do you not understand about the calculator?

 

[mnbadger]

When I built my smoker I used Aaron Franklin's book and the feldon calculator online. My build had a 80 gallon tank and I did an oversized firebox based on the feldon calculator.

Here is a link to my build

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=225964

I'm really happy with how it turned out by following along in his book.

 

[Garrath]

Thanks alot everyone for your input. Yes I have already watched his 250 gallon smoker build movie and already have his book and have gained alot of information that way. In regards to Feldons calculator Ive input all the figures as follows

* Tank size = 264
* Firebox (round) dimensions = 36 inches long, 27 inches diameter (after trimmed and sleeved)
* Chimney diameter = 6 inch
* Intake opening = 25 inch (one large door)

Then it gives me a firebox to cook chamber measurement and 3 different figures, but im not sure what my opening should look like... a half moon or a circle? Also is it possible to use a firebox that is approx 1 inch larger in diameter than the cook chamber and still weld the 2 together successfully? Both tanks have dished end caps not hemispherical ones like more commonly seen in the US. Here is the link to the calculations Feldon gave me.


://feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator.html?cc=0,0,264,0,0,0,60984.00,20328.00&fb=0,0,0,27,36,20611.38,20328.00,101.4&ch=6,1030.57,36.47&fi=0,0,25,61.83,0.13&fc=14.49,20.49,164.89]Link to BBQ Pit Calculator[/url]