Charcoal mid cook on RF ?

jasonz · Post by **jasonz** » April 9th, 2015, 8:30 am

Did not find anything in prior threads on exactly this, if there is I suck at searching forums and my apologies.

I will be doing a few cooks at friends houses in may. Each will be a different place on sat and sun and likely without any help. Of course 5 people will say they will help, but then they will either be too drunk or fall asleep. The cooker will pretty much run non stop fri-sun. I'd like to bring only one cooker, a 48" RF on a trailer. Sleep is not necessary because I can drink a lot of coffee, but would be nice to have a few occasional 3-4hr naps Fri/Sat night.

This could be done a few ways - transferring food out of the RF and into a few drums - or just cooking in the drums start to finish - or just being a man and feed the cooker its steady diet of wood as anyone else does. I'd like to try to use only the RF.

I just wondered if anyone starts out burning wood, then after 6 hours or so throws in a charcoal basket (minion method / snake method / other?) to get a 3-4 hour nap? Then when you wake up get back to the steady wood diet.

If anyone does, I'd be curious to hear what you do.

Post by **Rodcrafter** » April 9th, 2015, 4:48 pm

I have not, but Gizmo made a nice maze about 6" wide and 8" high. Or at least it was huge let's say. It held a lot of charcoal, and burned for quite a while.

Clover Ridge Smokers · Post by **Clover Ridge Smokers** » April 9th, 2015, 7:32 pm

I know of a guy who is a big time competition cook who does exactly what your asking about. He starts out with wood in his RF and during the overnight, loads the FB with tons of lump and changes the angle of his cooker. Since he cooks on a trailer rig, he lowers the tongue to where I would guess the cooker is at a 30 degree angle. It is the strangest thing I've ever seen. All I have say is this guy is a one man team with over 50 grand championships. It definitely works for him.

jasonz · Post by **jasonz** » April 10th, 2015, 10:10 am

Thanks for the replies. Wonder why he angles the tongue down? Any specific way he loads the lump or just throws it in a "basket" and let adjust the air to where he knows will burn at his desired temp?

Clover Ridge Smokers · Post by **Clover Ridge Smokers** » April 10th, 2015, 10:24 am

Great questions, but don't have the answers.

Post by **Rodcrafter** » April 10th, 2015, 4:42 pm

I'm sure the angle sorta snuffs out the fire, or at least doesn't allow it to run away. As we all know charcoal will burn much hotter than wood so the choking effect of the angle keeps the fire down a bit. Never did it but I might soon.

jm2cw

YouTube · Post by **Frank_Cox** » April 12th, 2015, 2:18 pm

I say you should try the maze approach. sounds like a great experiment to me!

jasonz · Post by **jasonz** » April 13th, 2015, 8:14 am

I'm gonna try the maze. Have a bunch of extra fire brick laying around, maybe i'll just line them up on the existing grate. Might not be the best, but this is more proof of concept. I'll post back in a few days after a trial run.

SmokerBuilder.com

Charcoal mid cook on RF ?

Charcoal mid cook on RF ?

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