Recent content by chad cochran

Gerard, I'm a pipe welder, and I built a three piece 90° to put into my stack hole and get the stack extended to the grate. The plates do a great job dispersing the smoke throughout the barrel, and they balance heat better, but if your smoke gets high in the barrel and slips out of the stack...

Whatever you do, don't close the stack! It should remain wide open and is never used to regulate temps. The Trailmaster is a tough one to get right, but I learned the hard way about creosote. If you close the stack, creosote gets on your food and gives you a wonky 9V battery taste. NEVER close...

YEP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gary,   I had the smoker going while the family went to six flags. I had some chicken going and thought "Self, what would make some good sides?" I got online and searched the forum site for baked beans. I didn't have ALL of the ingredients, so I made a throw-together variation. My nephew...

Yes, the knife (smooth blade) was actually tearing up the top of the meat from the end of the flat to the middle of the brisket. I have read about "burnt ends" but I'm not really sure what that is. As far as the thermometer is concerned, I use the Maverick dual for the grill temps from one end...

OK guys, I'm getting a little better. Put some plate in the cook chamber to divert direct heat from the firebox. Also used a large cookie sheet for a water pan on the lower grill grates right up against the "new" baffle plate. I got a lot better control of my heat. Used briquettes and smoking...

Post some pics please? I'm interested in ordering the plate, so if you could give a detailed review, that'll be helpful to the rest of us..

So for those of you with more experience than those of us with less experience, I started this thread to allow some specific sharing of recipes that are favored by our friends and families. Please keep insults and criticism to a dull roar, we are all different, have different tastes, likes and...

Obviously I have some tuning issues, and I'm fine with that. If it were perfect from the start, I wouldn't learn anything!! So, to date, I have smoked three briskets, two packages of chicken breasts, and a whole turkey. I am incredibly satisfied with the preservation that smoking has offered...

So the plate works pretty good, then? How about smoke density in the chamber? Did you modify the stack hole to be lower, closer or below grate level?

Ok, I love the tuning plate!! Looks like a lot of thought has gone into the design and you and SWASS both have the same thing, so where do you get em????? I like the latches, but I guess I got lucky and my doors all fit really well. Sure, it leaks a little, especially when I was closing the...

Looks like I'm gonna have to tear the whole thing apart and start over.....maybe this spring. I gotta get some RTV, gaskets, tuning plates and seal this thing up!! I'm very anal about customizing everything I own to make it mine. Tom, I'm using mesquite lump today, and when I got it started...

Ok guys, I am still trying to figure out the finer points to smoking. I have the BTLE and haven't done any mods yet....yet. I'm working on aquiring some plate steel for tuning plates, but right now I'm averaging the temps from one side to the other with a dual digital probes on the grates. The...

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/144422/brinkmann-trailmaster-limted-edition-mods/60#post_1033921 Hope this helps. This thread has some cool mods in it.

Thanks, Tom! I've taken the wire brush and the ShopVac to the interior. I have it almost down to bare metal in some spots. How do I season it? Also, after the brisket yesterday and all that I learned about the creosote, I took the grates out of the bottom and cleaned them. They did not...