I take the cooking grates from the SFB & put them across the bottom of the main chamber. I sit the inverted charcoal tray on top of the grates to act as a baffle. By adjusting the gap between the tray & the SFB opening, I can balance my temps to within 10 degrees from side to side.
I also use a version of the Minion method to build my fire in the SFB. I bought a Charbroil shaker basket at Lowes & it fits in my SFB perfectly. I slightly bent a cooking grate from an old grill so it rests on the ledges in the SEB where the cooking grates go. The basket sits on top. I fill all but the front left corner of the basket with unlit briquettes with 3-5 wood chunks mixed in.
I have an elcheapo chimney that I fill about 3/4 full with briquettes then light them using the side burner on my gas grill. I don't wait until they're completely ashed over. As soon as they are burning good, I dump them in the open space in the basket. Now my fire has to burn back against the air flow from the SFB. That helps slow the rate of burn some.
I close the SFB lid, open the stack & side vent all the way. I also pull the ash drawer open about 1". If I am shooting for a cooking temp of 235-240, I close the drawer completely & close the side vent all but about 1/4" at the widest gap when the chamber temp hits 210. BTW, don't count in the hood themometer on the CG. It is not reading temps anywhere near the cooking area and is not very accurate. I use a couple of remote probe therms with the probe stuck thru half a small potato. I place one on each side of the cooking grates.
In about 15 mins, your temps should settle in somewhere in the 235-245 range. From this point on, you only should make small adjustments to the side vent. Be sure to give it at least 15 mins to stabilize after making an adjustment. If temps are low, open the vent a little. If they are high close them off. The big thing is that you make small adjustments & give it time to settle. If you get too impatient, you will be chasing temps up & down all day.
I can get as much as 3+ hours of steady temps with this method. Now I will make a couple of vent adjustments during the 3 hours so it's not set it & forget it. When I have the side vent open & the temp drops more than 5 degrees below my target temp, I give the basket a shake to get rid of as much ash as possible, rake the remaining coals to the front left & reload with unlit briquettes and a few more chunks if I want some more smoke flavor. If I need to do anything in the cooking chamber I do that at this time also. If temps have dropped well below my target temp, I may open the ash drawer back up some to get the temps back up quickly. Be careful & close it down when the temps start rising.
