Oklahome Joes offset?

A small hot fire is what you want, a large smoldering fire will give you the billowing stale smoke, probly what you're experiencing.Try chunking your wood up smaller, and see if that works.

that should work fine, also make sure your wood is dry.
How big is your smoker? OK joe and Horizons should be very similar.

Cut your wood down to about fist size. Syart your fire and let the white billowing smoke almost dissappear and then put your meat on. When adding wood just add small amounts at a time. Good luck.

Stakeman...
good advice here so far, I think.

I have a Bell Fab 24 x 36" w/ sfb. I take my wood splits, and split them down even more - to where they are only about 1" - 1 1/2" x 12" long.
I end up adding one 2 or 3 times an hour.

The issue here is one of three things:
1 - too much wood on at once
2 - not enough air intake
3 - not enough air drawing in through the smoker.

What you want, is to be able to maintain temps but still have your air intake mostly open for the whole cook - so you get good air circulation.

Here is what I did last weekend and it worked well...

Once you are up to temp and cruising, and it's time to add another stick...add it to the firebox and make sure your air intake is ALL the way open. As the stick catches fire, you will see a momentary increase in cooking chamber temo, but don't worry - it will stabilize soon! After about 30 - 45 seconds of the stick catching fire...back your intake down to about 25% open, instead of 100%...

What you want to do, is reduce the flames a little on those sticks - but not put them out completely so they just smolder. That 30 - 60 second increase in target temp every half hour or so, is better than maintaining perfect temp but with stale smoke in there for long periods.

Experiment with your smoker model because they are all different, but the main thing is to add just a little wood at once - and play with that air intake. Works for me - good luck!

Stakeman The first thing you need is dry seasoned wood. Thats the most important thing. Mesquite is very dense hard wood and can take a couple of years to dry properly. Top quality dry wood with no rotting is what you need. A little bit of bug damage is ok, but not to much. Your wood also should be kept out of the rain and under cover. You may want to try to find some other wood to experiment with if you havent already. I dont know if you have any oak, pecan, or other fruit or nut wood in your area but they are not as dense as mesquite.

Look at your fire grate and make sure there are little or no ashes under it. You need to have 3-4 inches of space between your fire grate and the bottom of your firebox when you start your fire. If you dont have at least 3 inches at the deepest part you need to prop it up somehow. Air flow through the cooker and fire is second most important when burning wood for primary heat.

For your fire you may need to take your splits or rounds and cut them so they are 8-10 inches long. I like mine to be about the thickness of a beer can, no larger. If all your fire wood is beer can thickness rounds they should be split. Cut up a bunch of kindling ranging in size from slivers to about an inch thick and around 8 inches long. Pile them up in your firebox in a teepee configuration about 8-10" wide at the base and get it burning. Keep your firebox door and all your dampers wide open. When the fire gets to its hottest point ad two or three of 1/2 beer can thick, or smaller, splits and allow them to get buring good and hot. There shouldent be much smoke coming from the fire at that point. Close the door on the firebox after the wood has been burning good and hot, probably 10 minutes of so. Keep the dampers on the door and stack wide open. After your cooker has came to 250-300* start adjusting the intake damper a little at a time to get the heat under controll. When you add fuel to the fire try to keep about 1/2" to 3/4" spaces between the pieces of wood, for air flow. You have to have lots of air flowing through you fire. You can put the splits on the fire perpendicular to the splits under them if you want to. You will most likely have to stay right there with the cooker most of the time and feed it the beer can sized, or smaller, spilts about every 1/2-3/4 hour. When the temp drops about 10* below your target temp its time to add another split or two. If there is a breeze you should have the cooker pointed so the air is blowing into the intake damper, if its going the other way it could be a challenge to get stabil temps.

You need to keep a small, hot, efficient burning fire that has alot of air flowing through it. When you add fuel you will get some white smoke for a moment but you can reduce that by pre-heating your splits on top of your firebox. Every time you need fuel use the wood from the top of the firebox and replace it every time. The wood may get pretty warm and you might need gloves or tongs.

Thats what works for me it should work for you. Good luck.

Sounds like you got some pretty solid advice.

This is my Ok Joe



And I pretty much follow everything that has already been said.

I just want to add, it may have been said and I missed it but mesquite is a very tricky wood to use. My recommendation and the way I cook with mesquite is that I use mainly oak and add just a little mesquite for flavor. You definitely do not want to use all mesquite.

Good Luck and Happy Smokes

Stakeman, I just noticed you are in Spring. Do a craigslist search in and around Houston for "Firewood" and you will find oak coming out your ears.

Going price right now, up here in College Station is around $150 for a cord and that is delivered. So be looking for that price range.

Shoot me an e-mail [email protected] or a PM if you can't find any, if you can make it up to Bryan/ College Station area I have a contact that is selling Oak / Pecan mixture for around the same price