Also a long time lurker - first time poster. My wife purchased this smoker from Academy last week, got the first smoke on it this past weekend. VERY impressed. I have been basically using a char-griller with no sidebox, cheap thermos, and chips thrown on top of coals. Believe it or not, I got pretty good at it. But using a stick burner for the first time? I cant even explain it. Night and day. I plan on using this every weekend I can. I have minor leakage around the lids, but nothing major I dont think. I plan on adding nomex gasket around the edge to seal it up better (or attempt to).
As far as the tuning plates for this, I went with OP's measurements, 4x15.75x1/4. I dont think this is the correct measurements. 4" is way too small IMO. Unless my barrel is larger, these 3 plates would only cover maybe 1/2 (not even, maybe 1/3rd?) of entire surface. Im going to go for another plate maybe 2 to see if i can get it closer across the grates, but i was at a 9 degrees difference so i may leave it be. A charcoal box is in the works, or maybe a maze.
First set of ribs were gone before i could get a pic. For now, I have uploaded a few pics to my profile.
Cheers!