Dutch, I have always cooked with water under the meat. The main reason is because smoke will not penetrate dry meat. With a bit of moisture in the air, it helps aid the smoke into the surface. The other reason is it aids in distributing the heat across the chamber. Water absorbs heat until it begins to boil. It will not boil until the entire mass is at 212 degrees. Therefore, the heat is released evenly across the chamber. It is a big help when you have uneven heating. It also helps the meat stay moist. Give it a try and see if you like it.
05sprcrw, this smoker will never be used for hot and fast. I cook everything, with the exception of turkey, at 225. The reasoning for the smaller opening was an experiment but I can open it up if needed.
Ribwizzard, it is running as we speak. I fired it up at about 10:30 with only half of the vents open and no water. Within 35 minutes it had reached 360 and was still climbing. I opened up the other half of the vents and with in 15 minutes it had exceeded my digital thermometer. It is suppose to read up to 572 but I don't know if it actually does. I can say that it blew past 400 with no problems what so ever. I have backed the vents down to only 25% and am waiting for it to level out. I am no longer worried about reaching my temps. The next step is to test it with water. Yesterday I filled it up without thinking and am unsure of how much it will hold. According to the measurements of the plate and the depth of the water, I believe it was about 10 - 12 gallons and cold. Our water comes from a well tapped into a spring. I will probably start adding about 2.5 -3 gallons of hot water to see what happens. I'll let you know.