Gravity fed plans - overall size

[Eeny]

Hi Folks, my first ever post here!

I want to build a gravity fed but I'm having difficulty deciding which one, it's hard to determin from people pictures how large they are overall.

I want to able to cook, in an ideal world everything for a competition cook in one place, so 2 pork butts, 1 brisket, 4 racks of ribs and 20 or so thighs. The mini looks to be too small to achieve this, and the double pan looks to be too big (portability is useful!) the other set of plans don't appear to much smaller than the double pan, but can anyone confirm the approx overall sizes and weights of a finished build for these?

[Squiggle]

My mini is about 4.5-5ft tall, about 3ft wide & about 2ft deep, you definitely can't do all that cooking in it in one go, I'm already looking at making double pan. Personally I reckon you should go big or go home, lol. Seriously though, it's better to have too much & not need it than it is to have too small & need extra cooking space. If I bit of lugging is the price to pay for a win, then so be it I say.

[Rodcrafter]

Welcome to the crew!


Making memories.

[Eeny]

I thought the mini might be too small, although i could always cook chicken on the UDS i suppose, but the whoile point of building this is so I don't have to lug so many Q's to a comp, not to mention the thought of being able to get some sleep rather than fire watching all the time as i do at the moment with my homemade offset!

At the moment I'm lugging an offset (made from a compressor tank), a UDS, a weber 57 kettle and a Kamado to each comp and its a ballache to load and unload them and have to maintain fires in so many different pieces of hardware ovenight (the kamado looks after itself really, hence my desire for something else efficient and insulated)

I still think the double pan might be a bit on the big side, would this one be any use?

[KarateDoc]

Take a look at my build which is the one in the middle. I made only a slight modification but you can see in the pictures tht I can fit two full length catering pans front to back and side to side if need be. I have 6.5 inches in between the racks and may put 3 more racks in between.

Ideally cooking all of those different meats at different temps and times may be more difficult.

[SmokinDTown]

Eeny, I have built both the mini and Franks original design. These are my thoughts, other peoples thoughts may differ!

There is not a lot of difference in build time. Each piece must be measured and then cut. The lengh of the welds differ is all.

The mini was an easy one man build. The big cabinet was heavy as the build progressed, and I needed another guy or two as it got closer to being done.

The completed price of both smokers was not all that different.

Franks double pan makes a lot of sense if you contemplate impressing a lot of people. Otherwise, a couple of St. Louis spares look awfull lonely in that big box!

The two big cabinet smokers are hard to move, and if they had to go in a trailer, you will need help.

I have a big smile on my face when I take the smoked meat out of either one.

Hope this was of some use to you.