My first custom smoker on a trailer with a converted grill. (Lots of pics)

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Just needed a little customization  (Wife's Idea)


And since we didn't name it our friends started calling it "MeatBong" and well the name kinda stuck.


And here's my brother-in-law with 6 pork butts.  Eventually we put on 12 turkey legs and a tri-tip roast.  We had to move things around but it all fit.

All I can say is my wife LOVES me for this!  And a happy wife is a good thing to have  /gulp
 
Good looking build man.  From what I have found while cooking with my RF rig, it is hard to oversmoke something, you know them meat that after you touch it all you can smell is smoke the rest of the day?  Hate that, but with the RF, you really don't get that (at least with mine).  My exhaust, enters the tank and stops just above my upper grate, so the smoke doesn't get a chance to get stale and oversmoke anyway.  Good luck on Thursday and once again, great build.
 
 Here is "Meatbong" purring along in Frigid Idaho snow!  It's 18° and she's holding about 230° without any trouble.


So if we leave em whole there's room for 4 turkeys, But we only needed room for 3.


Family and friends are always asking us to smoke something for them now.  Not sure if this is a curse or not.   hehe  Our Christmas give this year from my mother in law is that little wireless thermometer in the picture.  We have a few different probes now for convenience.    LOVE IT!   
 
Great Build!!! Love the fact that its very multipurpose!
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In order to be sure you actually built that wonderful smoker...I think you should volunteer to come over and build me one so I can verify. LOL....seriously, though....great job!!!
 
My family and Friends love this smoker.  I think my friends more-so.  They get cooked for quite often.   ;)

Anyhow I've got a few techy friends and a suggestion came up to through a blower on it.  So I'm pondering picking up this little guy http://www.auberins.com/index.php?m...ducts_id=398:c60af45995467049261384b52baa0e56

Anyone had any experience with these type of devices?

I mainly want it just to Have it to be honest, as I'm more than happy to sit out there first thing in the morning with warm coffee, then cold beer as the afternoon hits :)
 
I haven't posted some pictures in awhile.  But here are some highlights.

These two big fellas enjoying some smoked turkey legs at a halloween party


My Brother law who does most of the prep work  (sauces rubs etc)


Homemade Bacon.  SO MUCH BETTER THAN STORE BOUGHT!!!!!


Some lonely pork butts


This is on the grill side,  but we have an amaze'n tube smoker and it's perfect for giving a little smoke flavor before grilling.

We also use it to cold smoke


Had little sprinkles or rain so a quick duct vent at the top works wonders


Smoked Turkey


We through a little housewarming party,  Look at all them little girls packed in there


I believe these were a thanksgiving item.


Just a typical tanning bed;  am I right?


Pulled quite nicely


Ribs were to die for


Tri-tip


Brisket


We dumped some wood into the firebox and it "smoked up" so we had to open it to get the gray out while it heated back up


We had to play some meat "tetris" to get it all to fit.


Satisifed 




We constantly have our group of friends over on occasions like this.  And everyone is pretty good about chipping in the meat and we cook it.
 
So I picked up a pid controller.  http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=398

And made some accessories for "Meatbong".  Now I can smoke in the standard grab a beer in the morning fashion and relax on the lawn chair or I can "geek" it up a little bit and let some technology help on them busy days.

And since there won't always be power for me to use the pid controller (12v battery aside" I have "options" without too much work involved to change-over.

Going to do something ez today like ribs with the controller and see how my baby performs with her new accessories.

Here she is in full glory with my optional "tow package"  

  
Here's the pid controller setup I picked up.  Probe,  20cfm fan and pid


Here's my standard air damper on the firebox,  Two many ain inlets for the single cfm fan


So I just slide her out completely


build me another air damper that fit the needs perfectly.


And the single inlet air damper gets installed.


Now it's just right for the 20cfm fan.


And installed nice and clean.


Here's the setup for the pid controller.

 
I may have just found my second love.  It's holding steady like I never thought possible.  I mean the smoker held pretty steady anyway,  I'd just run out about every 30 minutes to verify it was in range.  Sometimes an hour.  But this thing isn't really moving from 224-226.

Its only been going about an hour so far.  One thing I will have to re-think is where I currently have the pid hanging.  It got a little to warm for my liking from the radiant heat of the firebox,  so I've currently got it hanging off the trailer itself below and out of the heatwaves.  I would really like it more accessible though for ease of viewing.  But this is a minor inconvenience atm.  

I'll let you know in a few hours.  The Ribs were frozen so I had to resort to  two tri-tips and a corn-beef.
 
Well the jury is out and the PID Controller is here to stay.  Never have I had such a care-free experience.  Went through less charcoal than normal,  most likely as I used more wood chunk.  But it stayed within a few degrees for the entire cook.
 
That is awesome! I read their detailed operations guide and it seems very straightforward for set up. Did you run it plugged into the house? I saw where it could be powered by a battery, I would use either a 12v deep cycle of a pair of golf cart 6 volt batteries. The smoker I will be building will be used mostly for charity work and they don't always have power available. How often did the fan cycle? It doesn't seem like it is a power hog at 1/2 watt running AC and only 1 amp 12v with the buzzer. Did you talk to the guys and if so, were they very helpful?

Thanks

Len
 
I can't imagine this thing using much power at all.  I will likely rig something up for when I'm without power,  a small alarm system battery will do (12v).  But I did keep the other air damper just in case I want to get back to basics.   It cycles fairly often but short bursts.  I never gave them a ring,  just did a bunch of research and another buddy recently bought one for his EGG with great feedback so I trusted the opinion.

Anyway I used it again today to do some meatloaf.  Definitely falling in love with the controller.  Best $150 I've spent in awhile!



 
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