Protein Placement on modded Weber Kettle

[BigSmoke35]

New to the forum and probably overthinking it but, I have a Weber Kettle with an extended cooking chamber. I cut a 55 gallon drum barrel in half and in doing so it allowed me to have 3 levels of cooking. The barrel is seasoned and ready, for its maiden voyage I'm going to smoke two 10lb bags of chicken quarters. In terms of Indirect cooking how would you set up the chicken for smoking?

I'm thinking I would fill half the kettle with charcoal and the other half I would place a water pan. I would then fill half the kettle with chicken on the 1st cooking grate opposite side of the charcoal. The second and third cooking grate I would completely fill with chicken quarters since those grates are higher and further away from the heat. I don't know what the temp differences are for each level yet since this is the first time I'm cooking in it.

All advice and suggestions are welcomed.

 

[kls44]

I believe I would build partial snakes on each side, foil in middle. Start snakes from opposite ends. Put chicken down center of 1st level, then load other two.
I used a section of a drum for a rotisserie ring, sealed better than regular ring.
Good luck and have fun.

 

[legendaryhog]

Do you have any thermometers built into it or available to you? You may find that the top grates might be even hotter than you think. Heat rises, you have a dome at the top reflecting the heat back down, and you have likely vastly increased your draw of oxygen with the heightened chamber. You can grab an infrared one for about $20 online.

....or you can do what most everyone does on this forum...fark it, hold my beer, and let it rip.