fuel tips

Good morning all. For the last few years I have relied on the M1 for smoking/grilling, and my trusty ole Broil King Keg 4000 for high heat and long New England winter cooking sessions. The BKK4000 has finally started to rust out at the bottom part of the damper opening and I decided to move on...

I picked up a Bandera on Craigslist a couple days ago and am planning on running some of the mods listed here to help with bringing it up to heat and maintaining temps (fire bricks, high temp tape for the door, raised firegrate, charcoal basket). I wanted to ask what your strategy for fuel is...