New Hog Roaster

[h20loo]

Very nice job Bamboozled. I've poured over your pictures a few times and keep picking up new ideas. I have been dreaming and collecting parts to build a similiar cooker- You're an inspiration to all of us "dreamers" who haven't got it done

 

[stephan]

Nice work, the cooker looks great

 

[jgbmgb]

Here's another use of an old fuel drum like that. Offset smoker.

Photo from MooCow BBQ.

 

[Coldholler]

I guess all that vertical distance makes for lots of room over the coals. Is there a heat and flame shield between the fire and the grill? Looks like there'd be plenty of room for one, and that'd prevent lots of problems...

 

[Coldholler]

Oh -- I see there is -- missed the post with all the pictures. Thanks!!!!!

 

[Rick T]

Very nice build. Sot the hog is laid flat and open on the grates?

The hog cookers around here use a spit through one end to the mouth. The hog is tied shut and wrapped with chicken wire, the cavitiy filled with onions apples what ever for moisture. Buddy has one that we hooked up an electric motor to the spit, using just maple limb wood. He doe not do it too much any more. But never lost one.

You way seems way easier and I bet just as good. Actually bet you get more smoke. Very nice job also on the second one that is an offset.

Rick

 

[righteousdog]

As somebody else stated it was an old fuel oil tank, 250 or 275 gallons, I don't remember for sure.http://s1186.photobucket.com/albums/z364/hos_fabrication/?albumview=slideshow

standard fuel drums are either 275 or 330

 

[bamboozled]

Thanks for all the comments, it makes the hours put in on it seem worthwhile. We have been using it quite a bit, my nephews love pulled pork.

It works pretty good, I didn't want to go through the hassle of trying to use a rotisserie. The little hog in the album we just stuck on there, the bigger ones I think we'll have butterflied. The cook grate is removable so when we do whole hogs we just lift the whole thing out and put it on the back, at least we did before I painted it. Not sure if that is still going to be done now... I'll probably put a strip of plastic on the frame rails to keep the grate from scraping on the paint.

Lately we've been doing a lot of boston butts and beer can chickens. It was built to be able to do whole hogs, but the time and effort that takes just makes boston butts easier.

The whole build was what I enjoyed the most, cooking is fine but I like the fabrication. It stayed pretty true to the original picture I drew in my little notepad, and just kind of evolved during the build. Main goal was ease of use once it was built, ran into a few snags along the way and took a couple weeks to tweak but the end result turned out good. Most of the time the people that see it in person like it, and they like what comes out of it so all in all its good and hopefully we'll get quite a few years of use out of it.

It's getting close to winter time now and my summer hobby (boating) will be over soon so if anybody wants to commission a build let me know!

 

[bamboozled]

Just wanted to update, my cousin towed it down to our hometown for Thanksgiving and did the turkeys on it.

Everybody loved the turkey! They cooked two turkeys, two chickens and a pork loin on it and got nothing but compliments on how good it all tasted. The chickens and pork loin were for a stew my uncle makes and everybody that ate it loved how 'smoky' it tasted.

I also made a slide in wheel to replace the tongue so we didn't have to use a dolly under the jack but no pics of that. So far so good, it was worth every penny to build it.

 

[stubshaft]

Very nice build, well done.