I bought my Old Country BBQ Pits "Over and Under" just before Labor Day. I did a lot of research of a lot of different brands and types of wood-burning smokers. We have an Old Country BBQ Pits "Wrangler" at work and it looked well made. What intrigued about the "Over and Under" was it's unusual design, having a full-length firebox behind and belowe the main chamber. In theory it seemed to make sense and looked like a good solution to the temp variances that offset style smokers tend to have.
The doors wrap around the sides of the body on both the fire box and meat chamber. So far, I haven't had any issues with warpage or excessive leaks. The only quality issue so far has been the angle iron that supports the left side of the main grate in the meat chamber. The welds broke during my seasoning process. It's an easy fix and not a major concern. As a couple others have mentioned, take the time to look at all of the units they have in the store before buying. They had 6-8 in stock and were widely varied in the quality control department. My smoker came with 2 grates. One full sized one for the bottom shelf of the main chamber and 1 half size one that can be used in the fire box or as a 2nd shelf in the main chamber.
I haven't made any modifications yet, with the exception of a water pan and a catch can for the grease drippings. The catch can is just a small (unused) paint can I picked up from the local big box hardware store. The water pan is just a 9x11 cake pan that I set in the bottom of the meat chamber, covering the slot that connects to the fire box. Seems to prevent a hot spot in the middle since I only build a fire in the middle of the fire box. So far, so good.
I've done several racks of ribs, some pork butts, some sausages and some fatties. As far as the temps go, I use a digital probe in the middle of the grate near the food and I've noticed that it is about 20-25 degrees hotter than the reading on the dial gauges in the lid. The first time I smoked spare ribs, I had them sitting at an angle with the small bones towards the back and noticed the ends were cooked a bit more. I suppose there is a hot spot near the back wall. I assume it's radiant heat from the steel where the chambers are connected. One solution that seems to help is I keep my fire away from the back of the fire box and closer to the lid and dampers.
As far as the dampers go, there are three of them and I find them mostly ineffective for regulating the fire. Instead, I keep the middle one closed (directly under my fire), I half close the other two and I leave them alone for the rest of the cook. I use the clean-out door to adjust my airflow. Usually, leaving it cracked open 1-2 inches works the best.
It has 2 fairly large stacks on top. I keep them half open to retain some smoke.
Running at 225°, I use about 1-2 sticks an hour, depending on what kind of wood I'm using (10-14 inches long, 1.5 to 3 inches in diameter). I ran it at 275° for a big pork butt to speed it up a bit (11.7 lbs, who has that kind of time?) and went through 2 sticks every 40 minutes. All in all, with practice, it's easier and easier to keep the temps steady.
Clean out is a cinch. The firebox has a slotted tray for building your fire. It's easily removable and the bottom of the fire box is flat, allowing you to push your ashes out of the clean out door. I found that a basic garden hoe through the clean out door does the trick of pulling the ashes out. In the meat chamber, I just scrape towards the grease drip hole and then scoop out any chunks. Again, the bottom is mostly flat, so a basic paint scraper makes quick work of it.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with the smoker. At $599, I felt that it was a good buy and would recommend it to anyone in the market.