Offset & reverse flow on same pit

yes you could.. no reason why you couldn't.. Just make sure both exhaust are big enough to operate independently I am partial to traditional offsets but this way you could have the best of both worlds!

I like it! Can I be your 1st customer?

I have built many like this, it also helps if you fab a drip pan out of 10Ga kind of like a cookie sheet to slip in on top of the tuning plates in the event that you want to add water or just ease in cleanup.

There is a gentleman that goes by K.A.M. on the Texas BBQ Forum that has a smoker just as you describe. He calls her Bahama Mama and is his competition cooker on a trailer. KAM is a super nice guy and frequently helps answer questions about building cookers. You may want to go to that board if you haven't already and post your question there.

When I did the original build on my 24"X72", 150 gallon propane tank smoker that is exactly what I did. Offset square firebox on the propane tank with exhausts on both ends. I welded angle to the inside of the tank to hold tuning plates. I think they were about 1/4" thick X 17 inches long and sat about 5"-6" below the main cooking grate. If I wanted to cook in a traditional offset mode I would space out the tuning plates (or skip them alltogether) close the exhaust on the firebox end (RF exhaust) and manipulate the exhaust on the opposite end. If I wanted to cook in RF mode, I would lay the tuning plates in tightly together to make a solid plate, close the exhaust opposite te firebox and manipulate the exhaust near the firebox. Worked fine in either mode with lots of temp zones in traditional offset mode or relatively uniform (+/- 10*) in RF mode.

FWIW, I found myself almost always cooking RF so when I reconstructed/restored my pit I made it straight RF.

I'd think you'd pick your poison, tune it, and leave it alone. Don't see what you gain for the extra parts and labor.

Sure, you could do anything you want as long as it flows right, but I don't think it would be worth it in the end. If you wanted to to an offset cook, what would you do with all of the tuning plates? They would be nasty! My vote is figure out what kind of cooker you want, offset (hot spots to use to your advantage) or reverse flow (more even temps end to end), build it and learn to cook on that cooker.

I got a old Brinkmann I modified but I just cook in the reverse flow mode .

4ever3 said:

If you wanted to to an offset cook, what would you do with all of the tuning plates? They would be nasty!

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That is funny! When I rebuilt my pit and abandoned the tuning plates I threw then into the junk steel pile I haul into a recycler every few years - took they 2-3 years in the weather to start rusting!

sparctek said:

There is a gentleman that goes by K.A.M. on the Texas BBQ Forum that has a smoker just as you describe. He calls her Bahama Mama and is his competition cooker on a trailer. KAM is a super nice guy and frequently helps answer questions about building cookers. You may want to go to that board if you haven't already and post your question there.

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Kam is a good friend of mine.... He has forgot more about cookers than most would ever want to know.... He is a gentleman... A tremendous cook... Heck of a fabricator... And yes what you are talking about canbe easily done... Make darn sure you have a grease bridge coming out of the firebox into the chamber if you are going to go this route.... Or else you are asking for a major grease fire!!!!

Kam has this setup.... And it works flawlessly!!!!