Fire management with big baby / double drum smoker?

[rikun]

Hi there,

I built a double barrel smoker around a year ago out of two drums. Something like this (not mine):



I don't have any flues in the fire transfer tubes, and that might be a part of my problem. Some people said they are not needed, thus I didn't fabricate them (couldn't get the firedoor / flue kits, so I made my own). I do however use heat deflectors inside the cook chamber on top of the fire transfer tubes.

Now I feel like I have some fire management issues with it.

Usually I start a full chimney of lump and toss em in there when they are glowing red (I have a coal basket in there). After that I throw in a split or two, which are seasoned and pre-warmed. Temps go up and everything is fine.

After the splits start to coal up, I throw a new one in. It burns fine for a while, but then the temps start to drop and the split's not really burning anymore. It gets all black. If I poke it around the coals, it usually picks up and starts to burn better.

I feel I may have too small fire to get it burning properly. Two splits burning at the same time is more than enough heat for this smoker.

Also, I think I'm losing my coal bed and I don't know how to get around it. If I add more wood at once, thus keeping a bigger coal bed, I get way too much heat.

I tried splitting my splits even smaller, but then they just burn in a matter of minutes. Airflow shouldn't be a problem, I have pretty good sized intake vents and enough air under the fire.