Comments on New Braunfels Super Longhorn Deluxe Modification

[cgreentx]

I have a New Braunfels Super Longhorn Deluxe. The unit has treated me pretty well, but I've found heat control to be a nightmare. The firebox has a pull out tray below it for ashes which unfortunately lets in way too much air. Photos of the smoker can bee seen at the following URLs

Academy Website

Photos of smoker after first use

Outdoor shot

I've got about $500 invested in this unit and I like the size of it. I have access to a family member who is a professional welder who could probably build me a new firebox for the right price. The firebox just bolts on and would be very easy to swap. My thoughts were that this is really the only serious flaw the unit has and might be worth doing. I am sure he'll try to talk me into just replacing it with an all out custom build, but that's not in my budget at the moment. I would probably build a large square firebox similar to the ones on the Klose units.

Opinions?

Thanks!
Chris Green

 

[cajunsmoker]

If you wanted, you could just get your family member to weld a piece of plate metal over the hole for the drawer and remove your ash out the end door. That would be less drastic than changing the complete fire box.

 

[cgreentx]

True, but I'd also like a bit larger box as well, and the big square ones on the Klose units are great for direct grilling of steaks. Then again, that's why I'm looking for suggestions. When I bought it I though that the tray was a wonderful feature.

Chris Green

 

[nmayeux]

Your fire box is fine. First you need to make a charcoal basket and baffle for the smoke inlet. next, you probably need to extend the exhaust down to the grate level. A baffle could be as easy as a couple pieces of steel plate spaced to disipate the hotspot, and several people have used flexible dryer hose to bring the exhast down to the grate level. As for a charcoal basket, I just went down to Home Depot and bought some of their expanded metal and sheet steel. Be sure not to get galvanized, and just use tin snips and a 2x4 to shape. The metal bends easily, so you can shape to fit your firebox. Here are a couple of pics:

 

[cgreentx]

Well.... I typically burn wood, not charcoal... Though a basket would be nice for those long burns all night with brisket, etc. What I'm more concerned with is the uncontrollable air coming in the bottom. I may just kill off the ash pan for now and decide what else to do later.

Chris Green

**edited to fix typos - using cell phone as a modem from a hotel while travelling can be painful on th etyping skills sometimes. :)

 

[nmayeux]

With that said, I think your fire box is too small to burn just wood. Sticks burn hotter, and are harder to control than just charcoal. Air is a problem, but it can't be any worse than my BSKD.

 

[rckookers]

For the Deluxe model with the ash tray in the bottom of the firebox:

This is a very simple fix to be able to control your heat, Buy a thin sheet of steel from a local hardware store (Home Depot, Lowes) and cut to fit the length of the box. Then get a piece of 2 inch PVC and roll the sheet metal to fit the contour of the firebox. Clean out your firebox place the newly fitted piece of sheet metal in the bottom and then place your fire grate on top. All your temperature control problem will be fixed.

I also got a piece of thicker Gage sheet metal and bade a baffle in my vice to get more of an even cooking  area. Believe it or not but my smokestack side tends to run 25 degrees hotter than my firebox side. I will try to take some pictures and post later!!

 

[jdt]

look for threads on the Oklahoma Joes Longhorn Deluxe, same smoker different name, academy sold these under the ok joes name for a couple years but last year switched to New Bransfels branded ones, NB is the one that bought OK Joes back in the day but after a short while NB got sold to Char Broil, If you had the regular longhorn horizon would have a drop in convection plate for ya, you have to call them to cut it in half for the two door deluxe model I beleive.

http://www.horizonbbqsmokersstore.com/servlet/the-335/Convection-Plate--dsh--For/Detail

 

[ski-freak]

I have a New Braunfels Super Longhorn Deluxe. The unit has treated me pretty well, but I've found heat control to be a nightmare. The firebox has a pull out tray below it for ashes which unfortunately lets in way too much air.

Opinions?

Thanks!
Chris Green

I did a little hand tool metal bending and greatly reduced the gaps around the ash drawer - which is a pretty handy feature for quickly cleaing out the ash, and I have felt worth keeping.

On mine the rear of the frame thats welded to the bottom of the firebox had a substantial gap at the rear of the ash drawer because the rear panel of the frame that accepts the drawer was substantially bowed and not straight. It was bowed towards the back of the drawer so that it hit the drawer in the center when it was all the way closed, leaving large gaps at the rear two corners of the drawer. I whacked that bowed panel a few times with a hammer and eliminated the bow to make that panel straight. Now I had a smaller but even gap all the way across with the drawer all the way closed, so I needed to find a way to get the drawer closed further - which would also decrease the other smaller gaps at the two front corners of the drawer. The way I did this was to slightly and carefully bend the front panel of the drawer along its vertical midpoint, horizontally all the across the drawer front, so that the top front edge of the drawer front was bent away from the back of the drawer. I used a rag on the jaws of a large channelock plier and worked my way across little by little, essentially folding the drawer front forward slightly all the way across. This allowed the drawer to close all the way completely eliminating the gap along the rear of the drawer and mostly eliminating those other two smaller gaps at the two front corners of the drawer. This made a large improvement.

 

[ski-freak]

Mine didn't come with a catch can, but they sure did a nice job welding a drip tube with a hook to hang a catch can on the bottom end of the cooking chamber. However, I found though that on a level concrete patio with all 4 legs in the shortest positions on the welded stubs (they have jam bolts to secure the leg sleeves to the welded stubs), that the pitch of the cooking chamber was the opposite of what it needed to be to allow the grease and goo to flow out of the drain tube into the catch can.

I kept both of my fixed legs as short as possible and lifted the firebox end to put a jack-stand under the firebox so I could then let down the wheel legs about 2 inches and re-tightened the jam bolts. Then I removed the jack-stand and I now have good flow into my catch can - which in my case is a recycled coffee can and some bailing wire.

 

[ski-freak]

Here's a picture of my catch-can FWIW: