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I have the 30 and built a mailbox for it because I felt I needed more room. From everything I have seen the 40 allows for more space to place the tray so I am not sure you'll need to do that! Congrats on the new smoker
I think usually on the bottom all the way to the left away from the element. I always put an aluminum pan under what I'm cooking to catch the drippings so that should help with that problem
I put my 5x8 amazen tray on the bottom of the smoker, next to the heating element, with the lit end facing the back of the smoker and next to the element. I find with it placed this way it stays lit at the beginning of the cook then by the time it burns the first row it's the burning pellets aren't as close to the element to cause them to burn too fast and they are also good and dry and burn perfectly the remainder of the cook. The water pan keeps dripping off the pellets as well.