Help! Food height...

[Beentown]

I figured with the knowledge base we have here that someone may have taken the measurements. About to order a new smoker and want to know the average heights of packer briskets and pork butts is?

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[Happy Hapgood]

8" Max ?

[medic92]

I'd say an 8" height would keep you safe for the most part. Some briskets have that big sail of a point on them, but you can trim them down if they get too high, or separate the point and flat so they'd fit. You could also cut pork shoulders in half if they get a little too tall.

[BKING!]

This is something I'm wondering as I'm fixing to have a smoker built as well. I know the pitmaker vault has 5 in spacing and butts seem to fit just fine.

[Beentown]

8" is too much to go for. Standard configuration is:

3.5
3.5
3.5
3.5
5
5

IVC

This rig would mostly be for overnight butts or briskets. Just setting rack locations up.

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[Beentown]

With the standard configuration if I take two racks out it would be...

7
7
5
5

And have the option of filling it with ribs with all 6 rack locations.

Also contemplating just doing 5 rack locations at 4.8" apart. Just went down and measured. The tallest PB I have (8 in the freezer) is 4.5 inches tall.

Hmm....

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[Westx]

The butts I normally buy run 4 to 5 inches on the bone end.

[JWACKS]

When I built mine, I put rack holders every 2 inches so that I could go 2", 4", or 6" spacing. If I had it to do over again I'd do 2 1/2 inch spacing.
2 1/2 works for ribs and chicken parts and 5 inches will clear most butts and briskets.

[Czarbecue]

I have found 6" spacing is just right for me. It fits my briskets and the occasional butt that I experiment with.

[ebijack]

Average #8-#10 butts are at or just over 5" Grate spacing of 6" has not failed me yet. Turkey's, 9" Ribs, 4", closer and the air doesn't seem to flow as well around the ribs.

[IamMadMan]

I have a vertical and although the pork butts are about 5" in height, I space my grates at 8" to allow ample airflow over, under, and around the meat. I also slightly stagger the meat, one shelf shifted to the right, the next one shifted to the left. My shelf rails are at aprox 1" spacing, never really measured, but it makes things easy for me when filling the smoker with any type of meat.

[pjtexas1]

I have an insulated cabinet with 3.5" and 4" between racks. I can get 12-15LB briskets to fit if I trim aggressively. Any bigger and they get close to touching the rack above. These I didn't trim much and you can see how close they get to the racks. The air moves so slow it didn't change my cook much at all.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180307/4742790bb6d0039b55ce9905b958d7e7.jpg

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[pjtexas1]

don't forget to account for the height of the rack itself. are you going to have the standard 1" or the skinny ones? it could make up the difference.

[Beentown]

The racks are 22.5 x 27.5 built the standard way with mesh and angle.

It is an Assassin 28 that I am talking about. Going to make it the main cooker for overnights on our soon the be enclosed trailer.

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[JWACKS]

When I built mine, I put rack holders every 2 inches so that I could go 2", 4", or 6" spacing. If I had it to do over again I'd do 2 1/2 inch spacing.
2 1/2 works for ribs and chicken parts and 5 inches will clear most butts and briskets.
And my racks are made of welded rod like a weber grill so they're less than 1/4 inch thick. As pointed out by other posters, thick angle iron racks would require wider spacing.

[pjtexas1]

And my racks are made of welded rod like a weber grill so they're less than 1/4 inch thick. As pointed out by other posters, thick angle iron racks would require wider spacing.

my racks are different that any others i have seen. they are not angle iron or rods. they are flat steel that is 1/4" or 1/2" thick with expanded metal welded on top. they are only 17"x21" so they don't have to hold up a lot of weight but they give me more clearance between each rack than angle iron but less than rods. maybe the builder could do something like this if every half inch is going to count???