Exhaust and intake were both wide open when having issues, on prior cooks, to keep 225ish I had exhaust wide and intake at 25% or so. Fire basket is the wire one that many used to mod this grill, stainless steel (pic:
http://tinyurl.com/79n4r9v )
Yep, ran the vent to grate level. Butt was kinda close to it but not blocking it.
I lit maybe a dozen or less, placed lit coals in basket away from the intake to slow the burn, which has worked great in the past.
Thanks again.