130 Gallon Standard Offset - Ben Hur WWII Trailer

dacolson · Post by **dacolson** » June 23rd, 2021, 10:44 pm

Wrapped at about 190°. I wait until the fat cap is really softened up and the flat starts to give easily to the touch on the bottom. I don’t like to wrap too early when the meat is still losing a lot of liquid or the bark gets wrecked.

hogaboomer · Post by **hogaboomer** » June 24th, 2021, 3:35 pm

I gotcha. Sounds like a plan.

I'm trying to copy your baffle idea. You blocked off the whole bottom up to the top of the plate you put on top of the grate slide? It looks like you did the bottom part in two sections - flat on the bottom section, and the second section angled? How hard was it to get the sides coped on the angled piece? I tried to do that with a water pan once and had to give up, I couldn't get it.

hogaboomer · Post by **hogaboomer** » June 24th, 2021, 5:32 pm

I think I'm just gonna go straight down with it, 3 inches inside the cook chamber.

dacolson · Post by **dacolson** » June 24th, 2021, 5:38 pm

On this one, my throat is an half circle with the flat on the bottom. I ran the baffle from the bottom edge angled out to the rack slide. Then I tacked on a 3 or 4” (can’t remember exactly) lip straight up. Had to make a cardboard template for the inner curve of the pipe on the angled plate.

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hogaboomer · Post by **hogaboomer** » June 24th, 2021, 5:45 pm

Did you do all that before you put the firebox on, or did you do it from inside the CC?

Where did the top of the firebox end up in relation to the grill?

dacolson · Post by **dacolson** » June 24th, 2021, 10:15 pm

I did it after I mounted the fb … by accident. I had it all planned out before hand and got so excited to mount them up I forgot!! Made it a bit harder but still possible. The top of the FB is at dead center of the CC - right at grill height. The bottom of the throat was about 7” below that.

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av8bdriver · Post by **av8bdriver** » July 18th, 2021, 11:36 am

Hey y’all. New member here. Just wanted to say how awesome your pit is. Hogaboomer too. Really nice work guys. I’m having one built and found y’all’s post to be very informative. Basically gonna mimic y’all’s design for the most part. I’m doing a 24x 60” CC. With a 24x24 or possible 30x30 FB. I was thinking about the stack being 6”x 45”, like Chuds pits outa Austin. Do y’all think that’s too long for that diameter. I’ve looked at all the calculators and I know they say shorter. I’m really looking for fairly even temps with great smoke flavor. Just curious on your thoughts.
Greg

hogaboomer · Post by **hogaboomer** » July 18th, 2021, 11:46 am

Thank you, and welcome. 24x24 comes out at 120%, that's a little bigger than recommended. 30x30 is way too big. On stack length, I really can't say. I like my stack higher than my head, seems to work out.

dacolson · Post by **dacolson** » July 18th, 2021, 1:17 pm

Thanks for the note. Appreciate it. DM me anytime. Agreed on the 30x30. Way to big. You should aim for the FB to be about 1/3 the size of your CC. On the stack, I’d tag as close or longer to the sizer. It it doesn’t draw well or too hard, you can always shorten it.

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av8bdriver · Post by **av8bdriver** » July 18th, 2021, 2:29 pm

Thx y’all. Really appreciate it.

dacolson · Post by **dacolson** » August 2nd, 2021, 8:49 am

Quick update. I built a frame for a canvas cover for the trailer to keep the rain and snow off of it as it will be stored outside. I went with a green canvas tarp over a cedar frame to match the trailer sides. I'm just throwing the canvas over it for now and tying it back w/ paracord. I'm thinking about having the canvas tailored to fit and tie back better. Works for now and I like the way it looks.
I also pulled it 275 miles north to the family lake house. Was worried about speed on the NDT tires but they ran great. Pulled super smooth. Didn't get over 65 mph but that was plenty.

towtruck · Post by **towtruck** » August 2nd, 2021, 8:56 am

You better just make a steel frame with fold down awnings now......it's what you really need/want anyway

dacolson · Post by **dacolson** » August 2nd, 2021, 9:50 am

hahaha. Sunsetter awnings lol

Post by **Big T** » August 2nd, 2021, 5:35 pm

It certainly fits the theme.

hogaboomer · Post by **hogaboomer** » August 2nd, 2021, 6:39 pm

That's a pretty cool rig!

tinspark · Post by **tinspark** » August 3rd, 2021, 3:55 am

ingenious concept!
Looks great..

dacolson · Post by **dacolson** » August 3rd, 2021, 8:19 am

Thx gents.

hogaboomer · Post by **hogaboomer** » August 8th, 2021, 1:05 pm

I'm getting some crazy temperature differences in the vertical plane. I have a probe on the grill, and one on top of a pork butt and it's 80 to 105 degrees hotter on top. Like 3 or 4 inches higher. Tried different probes, too.
I'm thinking I might have to drill or cut some holes in the baffle plate below the grill level to let some heat in. Or move the stack up to the top of the chamber.

dacolson · Post by **dacolson** » August 8th, 2021, 6:54 pm

How do you have your fb vent and stack damper set? And where is your fire in the fb? Front or back of the pit?

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hogaboomer · Post by **hogaboomer** » August 8th, 2021, 6:55 pm

I tried all different sorts of configurations on stack and vent, nothing helped. The fire is toward the middle/front of the firebox. I'm gonna have to try some modifications, this is no good. Might start with an upper vent on the FB door, see what that does. After that, put some holes in the baffle. Stack re-location would be a last resort.
I had already noticed in earlier cooks that the door thermometer was way hotter than the grate probe. It sits up a little bit. This is not conducive to cooking a big piece of meat. It works good on ribs and burgers.

dacolson · Post by **dacolson** » August 8th, 2021, 8:03 pm

Interesting. I keep my fire up front by the door and my stack damper at about 1/3 open. If I open the baffle more, my temps go up at the stack end. Less and it goes up more at the fb end and it gets too smoky. If I move the fire closer to the throat, temps go up in the cc at the fb end and it’s hard to get them down.

I do notice the top of a tall butt gets darker quicker towards the firebox but nothing dramatic. If anything, I would consider making the baffle a couple inches taller. I am starting to think I build my fire a bit too large, so I’ll be cutting my splits down to about 10” long by 3” diameter max to see what that does.

Another thing I notice is that when I open the door, smoking is circulating in a vortex from underneath so I feel pretty confident there is a lot of convection.

hogaboomer · Post by **hogaboomer** » August 9th, 2021, 4:12 pm

I wasn't noticing any smoke circulating down to the bottom. More like a straight line across the top.

I'm going to cut some holes down towards the bottom of the baffle, and put a tuning plate with holes over the top of that.

dacolson · Post by **dacolson** » August 9th, 2021, 8:40 pm

I don’t get it Boomer. Something isn’t adding up. Do you think you’re not getting enough draw? Or too much? I’m about to start another with the same baffle and stack collector setup. Can you share your dimensions on this one? I want to make sure I’m not missing any variables. The first two are working. My buddy’s in TN is working great as is this one.

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hogaboomer · Post by **hogaboomer** » August 9th, 2021, 8:54 pm

I don't know, maybe I did mine different from yours. It gets plenty of draw, it just all stays up too high. I tried closing the stack various amounts, and the vent, it just stays way hot at the top of the chamber and too cold at the grate. 100 degrees hotter at the top of a pork butt is no good.
How close is your grate to the end plate of the firebox? Mine angles in about 3 inches. The baffle goes up 3 inches higher than the grate support.
It's all moot, now - I done cut the holes and made the tuning plates, just gotta put the holes in the tuning plates and test it out.

hogaboomer · Post by **hogaboomer** » August 9th, 2021, 9:21 pm

Yours looks real similar to mine, other than it's about twice as long. Have you checked temps vertically with digital probes? How much hotter does that upper deck get?

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