My honest opinion... because of your PK 360, I think a MAK 1 Star would be perfect for you as your primary smoker based on your wants/needs/situation.
-Built in the US and backed with a lifetime warranty by a fantastic company.
-Super thick high temp powder coating over aluminized steel. That means no rust even down the road if you happen to have a few chips or dings.
-Insane smoke production, but never acrid or to heavy.
-Will easily feed the number of mouths you cook for and then some.
-Will handle your cold weather cooking needs no problem.
You mentioned the Traeger Timberline. I have had a few MAK’s and happened to sell my 2017 2 Star to a fellow Brethren/Traeger Timberline owner. I posted this a couple of years ago. You might find this helpful...
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So, as some of you know, a couple of months ago I decided to order the 2019 version of the MAK 2 Star. As part of "the plan" I put my 2017 2 Star up for sale. Not being out to gouge anyone, I attracted a buyer from 9 hours away. We set a day/time... he made a hotel reservation... he and his wife drove from SoCal to NorCal on a Friday... stayed overnight... picked up the MAK early Saturday morning... spent the day putzing around in the Sacramento area... and returned home Saturday night. What some guys/gals will do for a good deal... lol.
We spent probably close to an hour chit-chatting the morning he came over to pick up his new 2 Star. During our coversation, I discovered a few things:
1) His acquisition of my MAK put him at a total of 11 backyard cookers. From a pellet grill, to a stick burner, to a Santa Maria style grill, to a you-name-it... he already had ALL of his bases covered.
2) Although he's heard plenty of positive talk regarding MAK Grills, he's never seen one, nor has he ever had food from one.
3) He is not new to pellet grills, and currently owns a Traeger Timberline 1300 which he really likes!
4) He doesn't want 2 pellet grills sitting in his backyard.
5) He told me that the only reason he had decided to make the 18ish hour roundtrip to buy the MAK was to satisfy his curiousity. His plan was to return home and begin doing a series of side-by-side comparisons... MAK 2 Star vs Traeger Timberline. The winner stays, the loser is put up for sale. His plan was to put them head-to-head over this upcoming summer and then list the loser.
At the end of our conversation, I helped him load the MAK into his truck and watched him drive away.
Since that day, he has done 2 side-by-sides:
1) Chicken thighs, done indirect at 375. The results were a tie with no discernable difference. Both cookers produced a fantastic end result. That said, he put the MAK as the winner because of the shorter pre-heat time. MAK was cruising at 375 within 18 minutes. The Timberline 1300 took 42 minutes.
2) Not a side-by-side, but he also wanted to see what the grilling power of the 2 Star was like. With the sale of the MAK, I included 2 of MAK's sear grates. He used the sear grates to grill burgers and reported back that he was very impressed!
3) After his chicken thigh experience, his next side-by-side was a low-n-slow St. Louis rib cook. One slab of ribs on each smoker... and each slab prepared the same. At the conclusion of the experiment, these were his words. "Both racks had the same basic flavor (same rub). Timberline smoke profile was subtle and clean. MAK smoke profile blew me away, very pronounced more so than my clean running stick burner. May even need to work on dialing it back some with different pellets and/or higher temps."
I saw pictures of both slabs of ribs, and I was actually surprised myself to see the difference in color alone. The MAK ribs looked like slow smoked ribs should whereas the Timberline ribs had more of a baked look to them.
So here we are in May, with this new MAK owners side-by-side comparisons just getting underway... and here is what he said last night. "I plan on a butt maybe next week, but no further testing is required. My mind is made up! The MAK is a better cooker in every way minus capacity." We talked about the capacity comment and how the MAK is deceptively LARGE! He's gonna be fine [emoji846]
His final parting comment last night... "the Timberline to be listed soon!"
Boy, that did't take long
