Time for a Spring Upgrade

[Smokeone]

Gotta love it when smoke is rolling!

[The Czar]

Holy Crap that thing is not small.....

[Gizmo]

Looks great!

[goodwla]

Finally got it mounted on the trailer last night. Have some work to do on the trailer itself, but it is rolling now.

I also solved my clearance problem too. Adding a hydrolic lift to the back for transport. Then will lower it for cooking.



The cylinder is not in this picture, but will bee soon. you can see the pivot point and the travel pins in the back. Those are 3/4 plates with 1" pins.

hope to get some sandblasting and painting done this weekend if the weather holds before planting starts.

[goodwla]

getting much closer!

Sandblasted, painted, table added, propane assist installed, trailer reinforced and all wired up.










Now I need to install the gaskets, thermometers, new wheels and tires and burn it in.

I am feeling pretty good about my first build.

[The Czar]

...... .....

[Smokeone]

Very nice. Now to see the thin blue smoke.

[Miketheforester]

Looks good.

[SmokinFF]

[Frank_Cox]

Very nice job on the build! Could we get some closer pics of the lift assembly? great idea!

[goodwla]

Sure, I can do that for you.

The lift is something that I am playing with. I will say it is not perfected

Today it is a pivot point in the front of the tank with a 1" pin, and two plates in the back with pins. the travel at the rear plates has to be 7" to get 15" of clearance at the back of the FB. now one thing to note is tat the plates where all the pins are at is all 3/4" plate. This will give me 3" of solid contact in the front and back.

I am going to be using a simple farm jack for now to raise and lower. doing this before investing in any type of cylinder.

I did road test the system on Sunday. Drove it home from the shop I was using and some of the roads really gave it a test. With all the rain here in Michigan this spring, there is not a smooth gravel road anywhere. It also pulled great down the interstate.

Once the rain quits today, I will go out and get a few more shots taken. I also got the fryer and thermometers installed last night.

[goodwla]

Frank,

the sun finally came back out today and I was able to take a few pics for you.






I am using a 44" farm jack (pole jack) to lift and lower it. The other option I just realized today is what you see in the last picture. Level the CC using the front jack. This is always an option.

I would love to take a prota-power jack and build it into the trailer so that I can raise and lower the CC quickly and evenly. but before investing in a HF unit, I wanted to play with it a little.

[goodwla]

Also looks like I need to upgrade tires when I drove home, I noticed I lost a taillight. Now I can see how it happened.



guess I am lucky I made it home at all.

Have the new 6 lug hubs and wheels to fix this issue before it goes anywhere.

[The Czar]

On my....is that a propane assist?

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[goodwla]

yes, have a 50K propane burner in there as an assist/pre-heat.

Also have another one on the backside hooked up to the turkey fryer.

The burner in the CC is just under the plate so that it warms it nicely. With the plate being 3/4 thick, it can use all the pre-heating it can take.

[Rodcrafter]

You have done alot of work on that dude since I saw it last. I was in the keys fishing last week. Nice job! I use a 160K burner on mine and by the time the charcoal is ready and the first wood gets going I can turn the gas off and open the FB damper and let her roll already preheated. About 20-30 minutes I'm running on FB alone. But don't forget the gas safety stuff.

[Frank_Cox]

nice job!
the burners are a concern tho! here's a topic you should read.... Click here : Flame safety controls
Please be careful!!!

[Rodcrafter]

I sent him that link on page 1or2 Frank, thanks for watching out for us.

[Frank_Cox]

oh! I thought you did that recently lol
I just didn't look back to see if it was this thread hahaha sorry for the double post.

[goodwla]

Frank, get the pictures you needed on the lift?

[goodwla]

finally got time to do my first couple of burns this weekend. Burned red oak and white oak with some wild cherry in there too.

First burn seemed to take about 90 minutes to get it all warmed up. that 3/4 plate seems to need some extra time. BUT once it was running, WOW, it was super even temps. First burn was just to play with the settings and see what she can do. put a couple of sweet italian sausages on about 11pm since we had been smelling all the smoke all evening.

The second burn was on Sat (those on FB saw the wild turkey and ribs), with this burn, I used to propane assist to pre-heat. it took about 50 minutes to get to an even temp, stayed close to where I wanted it. little hotter thank I planned and It almost ran out of fire at one point while I was "marinating myself". next time I am going to put more logs in and try and control it with the vents to get it at 225 vs 275.

How long should I be able to go between adding logs? would love to be at 3-4 hours. is this realistic?

[Gizmo]

It's is hard to say since you're dealing with 3/4 inch steel - generally it's better to add LESS FUEL - MORE OFTEN. This way your heat source level doesn't "roller coaster" causing your overall temp to spike and dip.

I've never in my life met a piece of hardwood that could deliver cooking temps for 3-4 hours without some tending…. then again maybe I just like "tending" the fire cause it makes me look more important … Especially when I'm marinating …. me …..

[Rodcrafter]

I would agree, the only way I could think of getting what you want would be to have set up another gas ( I know ) burner in your fire box and just throw a log in for flavor not for the heat source. Like an old hickory cooker does it. But don't forget to make it flame safe.

[The Czar]

Better just get a pellet cooker!

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[goodwla]

What recommendations does the group have on adding a blower control (BBQ Guru, etc) to a 500gal tank?

1. is there one that works better than the others? (easier to use when self marinating)
2. should I look for a specific CFM
3. can I build one myself? by looking at instructables.com there seem to be many options using a standard thermostat.

Here is the link: http://www.instructables.com/id/E5X914VH7UR7LEK/

opinions? thoughts? any plans?