Hello from Kansas City

Hi everyone. I am new to smoking and just bought a new smoker. It is a Brinkmann Smoke n' Pit. I have had one smoke in it two nights ago. It was chicken breast(wife's idea) and an arm roast. The roast came out pretty good, I thought, considering it's not the most tender meat. The chicken dried out way to fast. I have also grilled three times in it and seasoned it twice. The first time I seasoned it was after I had grilled in it once. It had a few heat marks after I smoked in it the other night so I am seasoning it a second time today along with grilling. This time I used Pam cooking spray and covered all of the inside along with most of the outside. The charcoal grate for the cooking chamber was starting to rust a little so I coated in in vegitable oil aswell. Now I am starting the charcoal in a chimney.

I have already done a mod. I put tin foil along the edge of the cooking chamber to prevent leakage. Also next time I smoke in it I will probably wrap the charcoal grate for the cooking chamber in foil. Then angle it high on the fire box side and low on the smoke stack side to even out the heat. I also plan on only useing charcoal to get it going and then useing wood for the cook as well as a water tray.