Has anyone here turned their pellet cooker into a horizontal offset.

[Shadowdog500]

Has anyone converted their pellet cooker into a horizontal offset?

I kind of think It may be a waste of time but for $60 I’m thinking about giving it a try.


I love my new green mountain cooker and am trying to figure out what to do with my pit boss 820. I just came up with an idea of turning it into a horizontal offset stick burner by removing the pellet hopper and replacing it with a $60 char griller portable table top cooker/offset firebox. The char griller tabletop is a modified version the offset section of the char grill smoker. If you take the top vent plate off it is a bolt on firebox to their offset smoker. I have a small machine shop and am thinking about making a conversion plate so the pellet cooker and char griller can both be reversed back to their original configuration if needed. The lid on the firebox would face the wrong way but that isn’t a problem for me.

The Char griller top vent is just a plate with a vent that bolts over the hole that would normally be used on the offset cooker. See photo below.

[Whumpa]

That’s an interesting idea. What the hell, for $60 really what can you lose? And if you have the means to reverse it back to original all the more reason to give it a go. If you do try it please post your results.

[Mikhail]

Does the Pit Boss still work? I'd be tempted to sell it and use the proceeds to buy an offset. But if you like a good project, that would be fun.

[Shadowdog500]

Originally Posted by Mikhail

Does the Pit Boss still work? I'd be tempted to sell it and use the proceeds to buy an offset. But if you like a good project, that would be fun.

It still works and i offered it for free to my nephew yesterday. He said he would take it but he may be moving out of state this winter due to his job. I planned to ask him again next spring, then I came up with this idea since I always wanted to at least try an offset stick burner.

I will give it a try just to see how it works. I’m probably wrong but I think it will be an easy bolt on conversion that only needs an adapter plate.

If it works I’ll provide a mechanical drawing of the adapter plate so others can make one too.

[Shadowdog500]

Originally Posted by Whumpa

That’s an interesting idea. What the hell, for $60 really what can you lose? And if you have the means to reverse it back to original all the more reason to give it a go. If you do try it please post your results.

I will definitely post results, good or bad! I may use this as a project to make content for my YouTube channel. I don’t post many videos, but this is oddball enough that it may be worth posting.

[RCAlan]

Originally Posted by Shadowdog500

Has anyone converted their pellet cooker into a horizontal offset?

I kind of think It may be a waste of time but for $60 I’m thinking about giving it a try.


I love my new green mountain cooker and am trying to figure out what to do with my pit boss 820. I just came up with an idea of turning it into a horizontal offset stick burner by removing the pellet hopper and replacing it with a $60 char griller portable table top cooker/offset firebox. The char griller tabletop is a modified version the offset section of the char grill smoker. If you take the top vent plate off it is a bolt on firebox to their offset smoker. I have a small machine shop and am thinking about making a conversion plate so the pellet cooker and char griller can both be reversed back to their original configuration if needed. The lid on the firebox would face the wrong way but that isn’t a problem for me.

The Char griller top vent is just a plate with a vent that bolts over the hole that would normally be used on the offset cooker. See photo below.

I had a similar idea last year... I had an old Char-Griller offset grill that I hadn’t used in awhile and thought about taking the firebox off it and putting it on my PB Austin XL. The Pellet Smoke Flavor Profile was weak compared to what I was accustom too. I wanted to see if I could run the pellet grill and also benefit from the offset smoke at the same time. But upon research and before I did irreparable damage to my Austin XL, I figured out that the two wouldn’t work at the same time due to that pellet hoppers fan producing to much back pressure. Fortunately, I discovered the SmokeDaddy Magnum P.I.G. Smoke Generator and I operate it as an offset smoker on my PB Austin XL. That Char-Griller firebox should work fine on your PB 820 with the pellet hopper removed and a little machine shop metal work. Give it a shot, post pics of your progress and good luck.

[Shadowdog500]

Originally Posted by RCAlan

I had a similar idea last year... I had an old Char-Griller offset grill that I hadn’t used in awhile and thought about taking the firebox off it and putting it on my PB Austin XL. The Pellet Smoke Flavor Profile was weak compared to what I was accustom too. I wanted to see if I could run the pellet grill and also benefit from the offset smoke at the same time. But upon research and before I did irreparable damage to my Austin XL, I figured out that the two wouldn’t work at the same time due to that pellet hoppers fan producing to much back pressure. Fortunately, I discovered the SmokeDaddy Magnum P.I.G. Smoke Generator and I operate it as an offset smoker on my PB Austin XL. That Char-Griller firebox should work fine on your PB 820 with the pellet hopper removed and a little machine shop metal work. Give it a shot, post pics of your progress and good luck.

Thanks, I will. I have the wood burning diffuser that you turned me on to, but with the green mountain, I’m not sure if I’m going to use the pit boss as a pellet cooker anymore.

[Shadowdog500]

I just took some measurements of the pit boss 820 and found measurements of the Char griller online and entered them into Feldon's BBQ Pit/Smoker Build Calculator and found that the cook chamber to firebox size ratio was good, but this combination wouldn't flow enough air unless I was willing to make non reversible modifications.

The firebox air inlet needs to be opened up to about 11 square inches, and the firebox to cook chamber opening needs to be opened up to 29 square inches. The chimney would also need to be extended to 30" in length to make it draft properly.

If my Pit boss were broken and was destined for a landfill I would do the modifications as a simple cut and bolt together conversion, but Im not going to cut up a fully functioning Pit boss for this experiment. So much for that idea.

Here is the spreadsheet.

http://www.feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator.html

Here are the dimensions: Changes required are in red.

PIT BOSS 820:
Chamber Diameter = 20"
Chamber length = 29"
Exhaust diameter = 3"
Exhaust length = 12" <- Extend to 30"
Firebox to cook chamber opening = 5-3/8" X 4-1/4" <- cut the 4-1/4" to 5-3/8"

Char griller dimensions:
Chamber Diameter = 17"
Chamber length = 16"
Air inlet. Don't have exact dimensions, but from photos i can see that it needs to be bigger.
Firebox to cook chamber opening: Would have to be cut to match hole in pit boss, or cut both to the same shape to meet the 29 square inch requirement.

[Nuco59]

I find the planning and yeahbutts to be a lot of fun in of themselves.

I have filled pages of drawings and ciphering on "my next project" just to table it as unworkable or just not a good "right now" thing.

It'd be a hard sell to adapt a working pellet cooker into an offset- but I would enjoy working out the details of how to go about it.