Just spent my Fed refund on new smoker for getting back on the competition side of things. Spent the morning cleaning & seasoning then did a quick fattie to break it in but didn't fully charge camera batteries so no pics of the full montie.
Thoughts - I think a basket would be better than the plate in the firebox so I might invest in getting one made. It held temps pretty good though I did build too big a fire to start so temps got real high early on but that was ok due to it was burn in/steam cleaning. Even with such a large firebox, I was able to get long burn times w/ each log. The temps from top & bottom were 25 degrees relative to the therms but they weren't boil tested so actual temps might be off but relative to each other, they were fine. I ran it a bit w/o the water pan & temps were fine & stable though when I put the pan in there the temp on the bottom gauge shot up to higher than the top which was reverse of what it had been (top had been reading higher) I assume this was due to the metal pan being near the bottom therm so I moved it to the middle hole. I think this was a very good investment for the price to get the capacity I was looking for. One person can move it/unload it as long as they're capable but I am getting old. I laid it down on my trailer to take it home & had to lift it by myself when I got home to get it on it's 4 rollers & while it was a task to do so, I was able to do it but as I get older, I would say if I continue to do contests w/ this smoker, I would have an enclosed trailer where I would roll it onto the rear deck ramp rather than fully offload it. I rolls like a dream when on the 4 rollers over normal/level ground. Once I got the fire to settle down, smoke stayed the light blue to clear end except when adding new log.
Thoughts - I think a basket would be better than the plate in the firebox so I might invest in getting one made. It held temps pretty good though I did build too big a fire to start so temps got real high early on but that was ok due to it was burn in/steam cleaning. Even with such a large firebox, I was able to get long burn times w/ each log. The temps from top & bottom were 25 degrees relative to the therms but they weren't boil tested so actual temps might be off but relative to each other, they were fine. I ran it a bit w/o the water pan & temps were fine & stable though when I put the pan in there the temp on the bottom gauge shot up to higher than the top which was reverse of what it had been (top had been reading higher) I assume this was due to the metal pan being near the bottom therm so I moved it to the middle hole. I think this was a very good investment for the price to get the capacity I was looking for. One person can move it/unload it as long as they're capable but I am getting old. I laid it down on my trailer to take it home & had to lift it by myself when I got home to get it on it's 4 rollers & while it was a task to do so, I was able to do it but as I get older, I would say if I continue to do contests w/ this smoker, I would have an enclosed trailer where I would roll it onto the rear deck ramp rather than fully offload it. I rolls like a dream when on the 4 rollers over normal/level ground. Once I got the fire to settle down, smoke stayed the light blue to clear end except when adding new log.
