ammaturesmoker
Smoking Fanatic
- May 31, 2015
- 641
- 181
I have been told by the people at bbq smoker mods .com to NOT redirect the exhaust lower with elbows if you are using a tuning plate.
using the multiple 4 x 16 steel sheets and spacing them like you want them. Lot less work and probably less money
did the sheet come in that size or did you have to trim off 2 inches from an 18in sheet?
i'm using some cookie sheets for now and will be adding a water pan right near the baffle (bent cookie sheet)
I have been told by the people at bbq smoker mods .com to NOT redirect the exhaust lower with elbows if you are using a tuning plate.
It's been a couple of years now but I'm pretty sure they came in that length.
Pretty sure it was Home DepotDid you buy from home depot or lowes? None of my stores seem to have that size unfortunately
I saw that Sauced has responded and I do very similar to what he described. I use a mix of charcoal and wood. The charcoal seems to last longer and keep the heat more even. I do use the split wood sticks (about 12" long) rather than chunks. But for me the key is the blower that I attach to the air intake. I can just turn up the fan a bit and get the temp to whatever I want it to be. The trick seems to be getting the temp up to where you want it and then you can back off and it will stay there for a long time. But sometimes getting that temp up to 235-250 at the grate can be a little tough. Could be just the design of the Longhorn, lot of open cooking area for that size of fire box. With this method I can usually go 10-12 hours by just adding some charcoal or wood every 3-4 hours.
had a hard time keeping temps up... i averaged about 200 on some beef ribs, so after 3 hours i moved them to the oven and foiled for another 5 hours.. they came out great but it looks like i have some studying to do on fire management
i used about 7lbs of charcoal and then added some more along with oak wood chunks (small ones,specifically for smoking)
i know this is a stick burner so i will look into logs of wood and also check out methods with briquettes
Unless your convection/tuning plate is of good quality with proper hole alignment, you will have issues....cookie sheets are not the way to go.I wish we had academy sports in Las Vegas, those logs look like they work well
I took out my baffle and tuning plate that I made out of cookie sheets and I could easily get temps to 280 and control them easier...
I also have the dryer elbow vent mod, so I'm just going to stick with that on my next cook, no plates
I smoked a pork roast at 200-210 for 3 hrs and then finished it in an oven for another 3 at 275. It came out perfect, which was a welcome surprise since I thought I completely screwed it up
So far 2 experiments with 2 excellent results.
I'm learning a lot and I get to eat delicious food. No complaints here
Do not do this if you have the orange 650 degree RTV in or around the firebox
I use a full chimney of lit briquets in to start things off and add a split or 2 of hickory typically (i use hickory for almost all my meats and cooks) and usually run temps wide open well over 300 if I want to cook hot and fast or damp back can keep it anywhere from 230-260 across the pit. The only mod I did on my highland was a cookie sheet over the firebox opening just to deflect heat down and around, no tuning plates or exhaust lowered, I actually didnt even seal the gaps up around the lid or firebox or exhaust. I have always found that those things need to breathe to run
correct. i have no seals around the firebox so i can vent out excess heat. the hickory sticks im burning are also a little green still and it takes a hot fire to get them going
Do not do this if you have the orange 650 degree RTV in or around the firebox
i removed the cookie sheet, it did nothing for me.... without it, i was getting a 6-10 degree difference at the grate level end to end
Unless your convection/tuning plate is of good quality with proper hole alignment, you will have issues....cookie sheets are not the way to go.
do not do what exactly?
Do not do this if you have the orange 650 degree RTV in or around the firebox
Thicker gauge CC would have cured that issue, oz....
i removed the cookie sheet, it did nothing for me.... without it, i was getting a 6-10 degree difference at the grate level end to end
the only reason i would buy a convection plate is for heat retention purposes. i would think that adding such a thick chunk of steel in the CC can only be beneficial.
my issue now is that i burn too much fuel. i am using charcoal and briquettes....i will switch over from using just charcoal and briquettes, to wood splits also.
I used to have this smoker. I used the food safe RTV with the stuff in between the two clam shells on the firebox and between the firebox and the cook chamber. One day I was bringing it up to temp and poured in an entire chimney of briquettes which is something I had always done on my Weber's. I put in the chicken meat and I then smelled this chemical. Come to find out the RTV which I had set a few weeks higher was melting. I wanted the cook chamber @ 275. Well doing that required to go above the 650 for the food safe RTV for the temp in the firebox. I later found some RTV that could go higher in temp but could not find any that was food safe. So I paid to have it welded. There have been other that have had this happen as I found out I was not along on poisoning food with melting RTV. If you don't weld, use either a rope kits for stoves, or a new product I found at Autozone. I forget the name but it's a 1200 degree food safe metal filler. Stuff is great but messy.
do not do what exactly?
i sealed the firebox and would like to know specifics on what not to do as i'm not clear on what you are saying