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Just an update a year later. I've done 10 cooks in this smoker in the past year. One of them was 125 lbs of meat (75 pork & 50 brisket) for a friend's wedding. Temps stay fairly consistent. Fuel usage doesn't seem excessive to me, but I have nothing to compare it to since this is the only large smok...

Thanks everyone. This forum is an amazing resource. Without it I would have wasted a lot of time in trial and error building something that might have worked in a half-assed fashion. With the knowledge and experience people share here it's easy for a newbie like me to build something that works the ...

Figured I should post some photos of the final product. (almost final, close to it.) It works well. I've done a few cooks in it. This is the first big cook I did and had a small meat fest. Did a turkey, a capon, two rabbits, pork belly, two slabs of brisket, nuts, pumpkin and squash. Everything was ...

That method of balancing certainly would work well. In my case I chose not to do it that way and now have to deal with it. I wanted to build the trailer frame and the FB together in this build so I could easily do the hot air ducting trick using the 4"x2" frame rails. I set 5 pieces of 12" x 12" 3/8...

Oh, and I put the new 3500 lb axle under it. Was able to move the axle back about 8". Not enough to balance the tongue. I'll need to add somwhere around 5 lbs of weight to the tongue end to keep it on the ground. oops.

Doing my first big cook this Sunday for a small shindig we're having. Going to smoke a 10 lb turkey, a 6 lb capon, a 3 lb brisket, 6 lbs of pork belly, 2 farm raised rabbits and some squash. Will snap a bunch of photos of the 'que.

I recently converted a used 275 gal fuel oil tank into a smoker. It was a lot of work to get the fuel smell out of it. before I cut the opening for the doors I flushed the tank twice with hot water and 10 full bottles of Dawn liquid dish soap. (I have a hot water hose connection.) The tank still sme...

It's looking really good.

Regarding FB warping, I'm experiencing 1/2" of warp at the top of the door on the 275 gallon unit I built recently. I did a 2" insulated box and door. I filled the 2" tube door frame with perlite as insulation. Too. The hinge side doesn't move around because it's welded. The latch side moves about 1...

Don't forget to post some pics of the Q when you get done. The first effort wasn't picture-worthy. The goat shanks came out great. Really delicious. Cooked completely in about 4.5 hours with 2 of those hours exposed to smoke. I left the skin on the pork shanks and it was a bad idea. I won't do that...

First cook is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Going to try some pork shanks and goat legs. I did an 8 hour burn yesterday. After a little trial and error I was able to keep the temps between 220 and 245 on both thermometers. There's a 5 to 10 degree difference between the two. My Maverick should be ...

that looks really cool. I like the rounded top door idea too. Congrats. It feels so good when it starts looking like a smoker instead of a pile of scrap metal

I've got almost 8 quarts of rendered lard in the freezer. I'm going to try using that for seasoning. I'll warm it up to soften a bit and then smear it on everything in the CC. Should smell nice :) I realized today that my first two burns were done with the tongue of the trailer 2.5" lower than level...

Fixed the stuck door problem today. I should have looked up the coefficient of thermal expansion for mild steel and planned accordingly. I've been running it wide open for the past 4 hours on chunk charcoal. The hottest I can get the CC is 310 degrees. That should be enough for anything I would ever...

And my problem with the door sticking closed was to be expected had I thought about it. I used some strips of 1/8" thick steel and pop rivets to hold the tadpole door gaskets in place. I had a 3/8" gap around the door prior to adding the gasket+steel+rivet head. Now the gap is about 1/8" to 3/16", a...

FWIW the air ducting seems to work well. The charcoal and wood burned completely with a much smaller amount of ash than I would have expected. I'll need to vacuum out the duct holes with a shop vac from time to time since a little of the stuff gets in there. How hot should I be able to get the CC? I...

I fired it up for the first time today. Mixed results. It was up to 225 degrees in 1 hour and 275 degrees at the 2 hour point. I wanted to check the amount of fuel burned but couldn't open the FB door. Oops. It expanded so much that it was snug in the opening. So I have some work to do there.

I think I will do a paper log or something along those lines initially. After I know what I want to record I'll likely design my own Tappaque-like device using an Arduino and/or Raspberry Pi. I designed an interface and wrote some code for doing remote data logging of the Triangle Tube boilers in so...

Thanks for the suggestions on the Maverick. I ordered two of the 733s and two of the 6 ft long probes. This will make it so much easier to learn how this smoker works (or doesn't work). I'm one of those kinds of people that prefers data vs. cooking by 'feel'.

Looking at most of the digital wireless thermometers most appear to have fairly short probe leads. 40" on some of them. My cooking racks are 50" long. I assume you can't place the transmitter too close to the steel cook chamber. So I'd likely end up with maybe 30" of probe inside the cooker if they ...

Rodcrafter wrote:In my experience the gauges become a quick reference only because I use digital thermos to really monitor the temps and I put them right next to what I'm cooking.

I have been researching which digital to get. Do you have a recommendation?

I'm very happy with the way the CC doors seal up. I'm not sure if I'll need to add a gasket of some sort in the vertical seam between the two doors. I should know this weekend if that area needs attention. Before applying the sealer I cleaned the area with a wire brush and a degreaser. Rinsed it wit...

From past builds I do believe you will be moving the axle to the rear. A lot. I could be wrong, just my personal thoughts. Then again, I'm that guys that always runs heavy on tongue weight. You're 100% right. I I need to add about 125 lbs of weight on the tongue end of the trailer just to keep the ...

I welded the expanded steel cook surface to my 25" x 50" frames yesterday. I apparently worked too quickly and didn't allow the heat to dissipate. I've got a good 1" warp in two of the three now. Any tricks for correcting a high corner? Mine are made of 1" square tube. I'm thinking I just need to cl...

Thanks. This has been a fun project for my first build. I'm hoping to fire it up for the first time later this week. Just waiting on some gaskets to finish the firebox.