CharGriller Mod Idea

[hawgheaven]

I got to thinking about this a few weeks ago... If you intend to ever use your CG as a charcoal grill, then the installation of a permanent baffle (like I did to mine) will eliminate ever using the charcoal pan again. BUTT, if you get yourself a piece of heavy guage sheetmetal, drill the ends to accept the charcoal tray hooks, then you can have a "baffle plate" that extends the length of the cooking chamber...

Yes, I know you can turn the charcoal tray upside down, I tried that and it worked well, but I used ALOT of fuel during the smoke. This way, you can custom build a plate that you can tune by cutting holes in it, install air vents, adjust its height from end to end, etc.

Just a thought...

 

[flagriller]

Sounds interesting. But, what does a guy like me do who can't work with metal, has no tools, and can't weld?

 

[hawgheaven]

Metal shop... gotta be one somewhere down there.

Basically, it is just a flat piece of sheet metal with some holes drilled in it, unless you want to get fancier and install adjustable air flow on it.

 

[wht93gted]

with this idea, did you drill holes in the baffle plate? I checked your drawing and was just curious if you had a pic also? Or was this just an idea?

 

[hawgheaven]

Just an idea, for those who wish to keep their CG as both a grill and a smoker. I installed a permanent baffle in mine, plus added tuning plates. I use mine strictly as a smoker, so the charcoal tray is no more.

My first thought was to drill an array of holes across the plate. Then I thought what would be better is to install adjustable vents - possibly two or three - to allow "tuning".

Just thinkin'...

 

[deejaydebi]

Get a piece of metal cut to size, a few C clamps and 2x4s. Clamp the end you want to bend, hang it over the edge of a step and wack it with a hammer. Painful but it works! Wear ear plugs!

 

[ma?tley ca 1/4 e]

I just picked up a CG Super Pro this weekend meself. I love my GOSM, but until yesterday, I have never lit charcoal. I felt I needed to master this, then on to wood. The GOSM just makes everything too convenient. I used an 18" piece of vent sheet metal as a baffle yesterday. It worked fairly well. 18" wide is a pretty good size to let it just rest in the bottom and be above the hole between the smoke chamber and the sfb. Add 3 - 4 adjustable vents and you could have a decent tuning system. I don't want anything permanent because I will be using it as a grill also. If it quits raining, I'll be grilling some ribeyes in a little while.

 

[webfoot]

I did something like HH is talking about. On an old cast aluminum gas grill I replaced the baffle plate with a solid steel plate where I drilled about (100) 1/4" holes in it. The plate was a fairly close fit to the position to where the old baffle was located. With this replacement in place I could load up the grill with chicken with the skin on it and the only time there was any flame above the new baffle was when I opened the lid. I could have a REAL flame going when the lid was open and as soon as I closed the lid, the flame was out in about 3 sec. The baffle really got hot and the dripping grease would hit the baffle and would instantly get seared with smoke rising back up into the upper portion of the grill.

Unfortunately this idea didn't work on the new grill that had the vents up high and had a lot more air flow.

Think what was happening was, with the old grill and the vent being low, there wasn't enough oxygen above the baffle to permit combustion. On the new grill there is just too much air flow with enough oxygen that permitted combustion.

Just an idea to consider if you fight fires on your grill and you can control airflow adequately to starve the grill of oxygen in the upper section.