Johnson Smokers - my 30-inch T-Pit arrived

[weebler]

first, thank you to this forum. i soaked up as much information as i could soak up for many months and this forum truly provides a wealth of information. on to the details...

picked up my 30 inch t-pit with a few tweaks/requests:

insulated firebox
concrete on bottom of firepit
single smoke stack with collector at bottom grate level
round bar grates
3 shelves and 4 rack positions per door


Chad thought most of these were overkill, but i can tend to be stubborn ;-). loved working with him through the build process and was lucky enough to visit his shop and pick his brain for a bit when i picked up my t-pit. obligatory pictures of the pit...

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Chad recommended seasoning with bacon as opposed to spraying it down with Pam, so naturally i ended up doing both...

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on to the first cook. fairly anemic considering the size of the pit, but she worked like a charm. literally had TBS throughout the entire cook. used about 20 briquets to start, then oak splits the rest of the way. about 8 hours for this cook.

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was happy to see the new lady liked to settle pretty consistently around 250. snapped a few bad pics of four thermometers i had on the right side of the cooking chamber. need to run more tests, but this is a promising start.

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looking forward to many more cooks. thanks again, brethren!

[bbqwizard]

Great looking cooker! I see years of great Q coming out of that.

[mytmouz]

Sweet!

[SmittyJonz]

Big Pics for a Big Pit......... :clap2:

[Sooner21]

Can't wait to see more cooks on it. I looked hard at these shopping for a new cooker - might regret not having gone with them.


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[MisterChrister]

Gorgeous pit!

[Dweverett]

Looks great! Congrats!

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

Awesome cooker! Chad is a great guy, easy to work with, and makes a hell of a product. I was going to buy the 36" T-Pit for my BBQ food truck business, but the weight wasn't going to work on the porch of the trailer. I currently have the Ultimate Chargrill Trailer and it's such a great cooker...nothing but thin, blue smoke and it's so easy to use.

I love the custom touches you've added and I hope it all works out well.

[pjtexas1]

Congrats! Always liked that cooker.

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[Big George's BBQ]

Very nice Congrats and enjoy Cook some biscuits to find your hot spots

[Stingerhook]

She sure am purty, congrats.

[LordRiffenstein]

Congratulations on the new cooker!

[mcyork28]

Nice! I have exchanged a few emails with Chad. He is always super helpful. Post some more cook pics. I'm interested to see how you like it after a few more cooks.

[SmokerKing]

nice! that has to be efficient as heck on fuel

[Smoke on Badger Mountain]

Congrats!

[creek bottom]

VERY NICE!!! :clap2: Looking forward to seeing more cooks on that beauty...

[Czarbecue]

Nice cooker! I was eyeing their 4x4 cabinet when I was shopping around. How easy is it to roll around?

[weebler]

mobility isn't too bad for weighing one ton, but the wheels tear up most anything underneath it. two swivel wheels and two locked in position.

it's final landing space will be a dedicated concrete smoker pad.

[DJ321]

Congrats! She's a thing of beauty.

[4ever3]

That’s a beautiful thang!


A center fired pit always made the most sense to me...

[smokymtnjonny]

That pit looks awesome!

[weebler]

had the pleasure of firing up the pit for sunday dinner with the family. she continues to hum along at 250 at a rate of about 1.5 splits/hour after initial startup. some quick notes:


brisket turned out fantastic. think it spent too much time in the warming drawer after cook.

ribs were a little overcooked, but flavor was ridiculous. 3 different rubs (fave was probably a new one - mesquite smoked salt and ancho chili).

fatty was fantastic per usual.

pulled pork was a winner, too.


too much fun with this thing. on to the pics (less huge this time, too ;-))...

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[SmittyJonz]

:clap2:

[Kfoley]

Wow! That looks awesome:clap:

[LordRiffenstein]

Great cook!

[sthamm]

Looks great! Dead even temps at all four thermos by what I can tell.

[charcoalwilly]

Very cool. What are the main pros and cons of the T-design?

[SMetroHawkeye]

Congrats! Wicked cool cooker! Looking forward to seeing more of your adventures!

[70monte]

Congratulations. All of that food looks great.

[dan_wrider]

Food looks pretty damn good and the pit looks like a workhorse! Very nice.

[GalvestonWader]

Nice pit. I had not heard of Johnson smokers before. That design looks like it would work well. Do you have any more pictures/details of the baffle and how the heat exits the firebox and enters the cook chamber?

[PUNKem733]

Always been interested in these t-pits. They look like they'd be better then a good offset, but are they?

[troy64]

Awesome pit! Welcome to the Johnson Custom Smokers family. I have the 24" and really enjoy cooking with it. Big as it is I still find myself wheeling it out of the garage for a couple of chickens and some sausage. My family thinks the brisket always taste better out of the T-pit vs my other cookers. That 30" is a beauty, congratulations and enjoy!

[weebler]

I think they perform great. it is almost impossible to get bad smoke out of her. at some point, will try to get a time lapsed video. the tbs it produces is incredible - even when adding new splits, it just spits out tbs.

attached are some pics to help understand how the pit operates. to me, the t-pit made a ton of sense:

radiant heat from firebox helps heat entire pit
arched baffle (pipe cut length wise) runs horizontal to push smoke from firebox to rounded cooking chamber ends
baffle is adjustable - can slide left to right to make temps pretty dead even across the cc
two piece arched baffle easily removable to clean
less overall real estate than similar pits


soon, I will try to move the baffle to one side (or maybe remove) to get a 350ish side of the pit for chickens. would be ecstatic if that becomes a reality. stay tuned...

[ronbrad62]

Awesome looking smoker. Congrats!

[Sooner21]

I'm really curious about your baffle plate movement and being able to run hotter at spots. Please update when you give this a shot.


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