We have a lil' Tex and Jr. and love them both and use them in competition. A couple bits of info that we've gathered while using them:
- Cover the heat shield with heavy duty aluminum foil will allow for easy clean up, we change it each cook so that we don't get any off flavors
- Cut a plastic soda bottle in half and place in the grease bucket will also allow for easy clean up and disposal of grease
- Meats that you typically foil on longer cooks like butts and briskets, don't worry about foiling them b/c they will not get too much smoke
- I've always used Traeger pellets but am looking for something that gives off a bit more smoke flavor, someone gave me a bag of BBQers Delight which I am going to try
- Keep an eye on the hopper sometimes you get a bit of a funnel effect, where the pellets stick to the sides and don't feed into the auger and it goes out...b/c of the blower it sounds like its still truckin' along but there will be no heat
- Finally Enjoy It! At times I've used it like a crock pot, fire up a butt when I leave for work in the AM, check on it at lunch and when I get home after work it's done. You gotta love that!
