My 1st Build took 8 months

Trailer

Trailer bed is 60"x120"x3/16" diamond plate steel sheet. 2"x4"x3/16" frame. Rails are 1 1/4" x1/8" with 3/8" pipe runners. Axle torq 3500#. 16" aluminum wheels 235/55 tires. Low profile tongue box for storage. 24"X24" stainless table bolted to floor with sch 40 steel legs. Pit and table are removable. LED lighting. Bull dog hitch. It will store (2) 6' tables behind the pit standing on edge for travel. One problem I have encountered is the rails and runners. I did not want to use expanded metal, but now carrying wood is a problem. I may line the inside of the back compartment next to the fire box with diamond plated aluminum and pop rivet it in. Trailer ended weighing 1240#. If I were to rebuild the trailer I might make in a little more narrow. View attachment 82169

DownHomeQue that is one sweet smoker! And what a beast -nice work!

Paint

Paint, man, I hate paint! Everything was sand blasted. Pit sand blasted inside and out.
Trailer is a sprayed gloss black just an industrial paint/primer from local auto shop.
Pit well that is another story. I want a gloss finish to the pit. So, I started with KBS coatings Zinc primer and then charcoal metallic top coat. I tried rolling it on. It looked like crap. I loved the paint, but it must be sprayed, and I would say not can sprayed. So, I canned that idea and the money wasted on it. Sand blasted the pit (outside) back down to bare metal and painted with high temp rustoleum flat black (sprayed) three coats no primer. I am still happy with outcome, but wanted a shiny finish. Time will tell.

Firebox

Firebox, I want to be able to build a fire control it and not have to manage it every hour or so. After extensive research I built this. 24" x .375 pipe wrapped with 2" ceramic high temp insulation (ebay). Encased in the sheet metal box. Door is 1/2" with 22" ring inside (kinda like a safe door) with 1" of insulation inside. 2 vents. And a freezer door handle(ebay). Charcoal basket will slide in and out with back tabs for holding it in place to load. I have since modified the charcoal basket with a divider to get more of the minion effect (control over charcoal). Now I load with a bag of charcoal wood chunks for smoke and flavor and I can finish the cook with out a reload or any tending to the fire. In attached picture the charcoal and one piece of wood was the first trial run. I lit this with a weber chimney full of charcoal at 9 am when I went home that night at 6:30 it was at 210 degrees never did another thing to it (no meat on the pit dry run). Temp outside was about 50 degrees wind out of the north 15mph +.

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Thanks for the comments! I have enjoyed the site. Got a lot of idea from here. Just wanted to share what I did and the mistakes I made.

Pappy said:

Very nice! What size is it?

Click to expand...

24"x60" main chamber, 24"x24" fire box trailer 5'x10'

Modification and Changes

This the basket modification for the minion effect. Works good. I did not make 3 dividers like some people do.
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I modified the upper cooking surface after cooking a few times. It was always in the way when cooking on the bottom grates. I cut 6" off.
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I modified the ET counter weights. Doors weighed 27# they needed counter weights. The bend in the neck was to shorten the fold back position. They have a nice fluid movement. Not too heavy but wont come open going down the road. I found a very helpful calculation on the internet may have even been on the forum.
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Modified hinges. First generation hinges real nice laser cut hinges looked great, but function was not what I wanted. The doors were not very fluid and smooth. I actually had to rebuild the doors completely. I had a piece of pipe left over. The 1st doors sprung about a .25" at the bottom and I got carried away with trying to pull them in and warped them pretty bad. So I started over and rebuilt the hinges at the same time. It was a time consuming loss, but turned out better in the end.
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I also changed the handles at this time to. Laser cut pieces with a down turn to help with that hot wrist/edge of door potential problem. The handles are solid stock 1 1/4" aluminum drilled and tapped.

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Finally Inlet Modification: After first two trial runs I did not like the temperature across the bottom grates. As you can see in the 1st picture I used a inverted inlet that pushed the heat upward, but the bottom of the pit remained cool. After visiting the bbq calculator I realized the inlet was not big enough for cooking chamber. So, I cut 2-2.5" hole below the other inlet and build a removable deflector plate and it worked like a charm. Even temp al the way across. I cooked 2 5# beef rib roast on the far end and 2 racks of baby back pork ribs closest to the fire box. I had a digital thermometer for both side same temp across pit.
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