250 Gallon Reverse Flow FIRST BUILD!!!

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Man, that's cutting it close!
Yeah tell me about it. Obviously not the way it was all supposed to go but can't complain too much about the steel. They didn us a huge favor laser cutting it all for free for us.  Last I heard the FB was assembled and tacked on the CC. should be ready to season tomorrow evening so we can play with temp control a little then.
 
We got the smoker done in time and we had a very successful party and fed roughly 25-35 people and we're still able to put a lot in the freezer!!! Smoker performed better than we had even hoped. We were very anxious getting it fired up and trying to dial it in, and it was a very rewarding feeling when we finally got her dialed in and maintained temps within 5 degrees on both sides of the tank throughout the cook. It's far from done but it's very usable. Need a lot of cleaning and paint. Although we didn't use them we're gonna put latches on the CC doors. (Very very minimal leaking during cook. Sealed very good.) Still need a cap on the smoke stack, and we've got more tread plate to put on the trailer and expanded metal wood rack on the trailer. We're also going to mount a trailer jack on all four corners for stability and leveling.  



Finally the best part of the cook. We were able to maintain this variance (if this can be considered variance) in temp pretty much the entire cook. Some fluctuation over night obviously because we were just waking up every hour or hour and a half to check it.


 
I bet you and your brother were happy campers to find out it ran as smooth as it did. 
yahoo.gif


Did you end up cooking a whole hog first cook? You always have time to make it pretty now that you know it runs great.

Great Job!!!
 
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EXCELLENT !!!!! That's the way they are supposed to cook.... You did well on the build...... Did you find any difficulty adjusting the air inlets, on the FB, to get the even heat adjusted ??

I think the air tightness of the smoker, paying attention to detail, really paid dividends in it's performance....

Good job..... Dave
 
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I bet you and your brother were happy campers to find out it ran as smooth as it did. 
yahoo.gif


Did you end up cooking a whole hog first cook? You always have time to make it pretty now that you know it runs great.

Great Job!!!
Yeah we cooked the whole hog. We've got a lot to learn about cooking a whole hog at one time but it was all really good still. Beer was cold, food was good, and a good time was had by all. I'm just happy to finally have a smoker I can start using in competitions. Never had anything big enough to do more than a couple racks of ribs on or more than two butts on. I'll do some practice cooking on it throughout this summer and it'll get tested with another big meal in august for our 10 year class reunion. (No whole hog just lots of goodies for 50+ people.)
 
EXCELLENT !!!!! That's the way they are supposed to cook.... You did well on the build...... Did you find any difficulty adjusting the air inlets, on the FB, to get the even heat adjusted ??

I think the air tightness of the smoker, paying attention to detail, really paid dividends in it's performance....

Good job..... Dave
Not too bad really it took us a couple hours to get it where it needed to be but for the most part all three air intakes ran about half open and it maintained really well. We had a few splits that must've not been completely seasoned so there were a few times we had to open it up a little to burn them off but that was only once or twice. Like I mentioned in the above post I'm gonna do some practice burns on it and play with different vent settings just to see what it'll do and also get more familiar with it. In all the commotion I didn't get pics of the food though. I'll be sure to post pics of the next food I cook on here and also some pics whenever we get her cleaned up and painted. Thanks for all the help from all of you. This is an amazing forum!!!!!
 
 
An amazing feat you pulled off there!

Shows what can be accomplished with the right information and the skills to get it done.
Yeah most definitely not the way we wanted to have to build it but it all came together. Lot's of thanks to all the information on this forum. Also my brother busted his ass to get everything done by Thursday night. He worked on it 32 hours between Wednesday and Thursday. I covered the majority of the research and unfortunately I can't weld so he got stuck with all the hot work, and we split cost evenly. Needless to say he was pretty relieved when it maintained temp and cooked as well as it did.
 
quick question for everyone. Is there anywhere that you've all found to buy smoker covers? I realize every smoker is slightly different in size but thought maybe some of these companies that manufacture/sell big smoker may have covers as well I'm just coming up empty handed on the internet this morning
 
I didn't take any pictures of our first cook with this smoker (stupid me). I fired her up this last Sunday for the second time and threw on a packer brisket (first one ever) and a 9lb pork butt. They both turned out great. I've done tons of butts on my electric and this turned out great as usual. The brisket was my first ever, on any smoker. I was super nervous but it was a huge hit with the family!!! Everyone loved it. Enough that I'm doing another big packer brisket and three small flats this coming weekend. Cant wait to fire her up for round three. Here's a couple pics for everyone



 
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