Oklahoma Joe Baffle Plate Mod Installation Video

[Frank_Cox]

Here's how to install our Baffle Plate Mod for the ‪#‎OklahomaJoe‬, ‪#‎Brinkmann‬, and ‪#‎Chargriller‬ cookers!
Do you have one yet? Let me know!!!

[oppitmaster]

Bought the baffle plate kit; noticing a significant difference in temp at gauge. Figuring this is to to the ss plates needing to heat up, diffusing the amount of smoke. Anybody else experienced this ?
Thanks

[Frank_Cox]

it does take a little bit of time for the cooker and the plate to come up to temp and equalize in temp. what kind of thermometers do you have? also what kind of fuel are you using and how much how often?

[Jahnman]

Might be an obnoxious question: are the baffle plates made with steel (not zinc coated)?

[Big T]

I'm pretty sure it's carbon steel.

[Jahnman]

Awesome thanks man

[Frank_Cox]

yep! they are cold rolled 12 ga. steel

[MikeP68]

Good Afternoon!

Have the Longhorn 3 in 1 and bought the baffle plate (shorter version). Did most of the recommended mods to my pit.

Some questions:

Is it normal for the CC temps to be much lower with the plate installed? Like, I had a large fire going in the firebox and could barely get the chamber to 250, where beforehand I could keep it at 250 with a regular fire going and the intake mostly closed. Also, there was almost no heat at the grill level on the left side, where the 45 part of the baffle is.

Did anyone else modify theirs? Mine doesn't fit against the left wall because of the bolts to hold the firebox on, so may need to grind out or drill a bit so it can ft. Also thinking of drilling more holes for more heat.

Any help or comments let me know.

Mike

[Frank_Cox]

The plate is intended for use in a low and slow smoking scenario. This meaning 250*F and lower. If higher temps are desired then remove the plate for those cooks. Most people are using the 12x10x6 charcoal basket available also from BBQSmokerMods.com and using half charcoal half wood to get higher temps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MikeP68]

Thanks! Ill give it a try!

Nice video BTW!

Mike

[Squiggle]

Cool video dude, love the shirt too!

[Tom_Heath]

All baffle plate material is 12 gauge high speed cooking steel.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Frank_Cox]

Haha, high speed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jonammann]

Just received my baffle plate for the Oklahoma Joe 3 in 1… this isn't going to fit properly without several modifications. Unless I'm just failing at this completely!

The problem I see is the top 4 bolts where the fire box hangs from the grill interefer with the plate sitting flush against the left side. Removing those would be bad, that's half the hardware holding the fire box on. Also there is a bolt on the bottom front of the grill where the outside front plate attaches that won't left it sit all the way down.


Starting from the top right corner, all four bolt heads going to the left, are between the baffle and the side of the grill.
In the very bottom left corner of the photo, a bit white washed out from lighting, is the bolt that would be under the triangular plate that attaches to the front edge of the baffle. Causing it to raise up or sit twisted in the grill.

If I am installing this correctly, I'd say it needs to be wider to raise it up past that bolt on the front of the grill, and the two outboard bolts attaching the fire box. That would also make the two upper center bolts of the fire box fall squarely on the mounting face of the baffle and could be used to attached it there.

And what are the two oval metal pieces that came with the baffle that have two holes in them?

I also only received 4 bolts with the hardware, those bolt on the triangle plates. What about the two holes for the baffle itself?

[Frank_Cox]

Please call us at 573-612-1315 so we can help you

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[elgot]

Should I also lower the chimney entrance to grate level or is that not necessary if you install the baffle plate kit?

[SunshineGrrrl]

Hi there. Similar problem. Regardless of which way I have the triangles, I can't get it to sit flush. I believe this is because of one or two problems. First the inside barrel has a thin little lip of metal so it stands a bit on top of that which has it leaning back just a little bit and secondly the tabs seem to be off of 90 degrees by just a little bit. I can probably grind those down with a grinder to make up for both of those., etc, I just want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong.

Here's the one with the triangles in the right way.




And here's without. Also, just curious. Have you given any thought to putting the holes for those firebox screws into it? I'll probably drill those holes myself, but it might be nice in the future to just be able to do that.

[SunshineGrrrl]

OK. So I went ahead and drilled a couple of 7/16's holes for the bolts that it was bumping up against and ground the triangle pieces down just a bit and it's in there great.

[Big T]

I install a lot of aftermarket kits on 4x4 trucks and there's almost always some type tweak that's need it to make it work right. It looks like you figured it out and made it happen.

[SunshineGrrrl]

Yeah, I don't really have a ton of tools but when we bought our house they left behind a drill press and a bench grinder plus a bunch of drill bits soooo... I had what I needed in this case. ^_^ Looking forward to getting the rest of my gasket material and firing it up. So excited!

Hope this helps others as well. With these cheap offsets it's likely some part of the pipe got bent or the weight of the firebox warped it a bit or something.

For the 7/16ths holes I pushed it up against the wall of smoker and used a sharpie to mark where the holes needed to be drilled. The top fits snugly under the top two bolts so there isn't a ton of play and that helped a lot.

[Frank_Cox]

Sorry for the late reply!!!
Elgot,
The stack lower kit seems to work against the baffle. In this case we have discovered you should use on or the other not both.
SunshineGrrrl,
Thank you for the pics!!!
Also great job on the mod!
About a year ago chargriller bought OKJ. ever since there has been some slight inconsistencies I think due to tolerance issues with their machinery or staff. We have noticed some issues like what you posted and you nailed it for how to fix it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SunshineGrrrl]

I figured that was the case, the point of it being that the smoke goes out of the firebox and directly up without the tuning plate in place so you want to bring the chimney down to grate level so that it doesn't do that. With the tuning plate in place it seems like it would directly combat that problem. Really tempted to just move the chimney on the other


I also covered the inside with 18 gauge aluminum this week just for easy cleanup at the end of the year and I found out that I could put the entire thing in place without the triangles and then reach in from the firebox side and put them in place a little easier They won't be standing up straight and they won't be nearly as tight as you might like because they'll be bending in just a bit to help compensate for the difference in curvature but it will work if you need to do it and don't have a bench grinder.

[GimpyBBQ]

I recently installed the Highlander horizontal baffle plate and it works GREAT! Now I use the full cook chamber and my temp is even at both ends.

As a newbie to smoking, I highly suggest that everyone simply buy the latch and gasket kit and seal up the smoker. Go ahead and get the wood basket and baffle plate and include the thermometer to your order. Trust me, you will save so much in wood and charcoal, IT WILL PAY FOR ITSELF in one season. Hell, just get the complete mod kit sold by bbqsmokermods.com!

The only other mod that I will be making is a 3" 90 degree elbow for the chimney inside. Wish that was carried by BBQSMOKERMODS.COM .

I have ordered from them a couple of times and the service is excellent and delivery is cheaper and faster than any one else and that includes my Amazon Prime account!

Good luck, happy smoking!

[Rodcrafter]

Gimpy
Since you have this one working nice it gives you time to build one from scratch. Go ahead you can do it and we can help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Squiggle]

I wanna see a new build thread!