Design team needed.

[petesque]

We all have seen the posts on the UDS. I am thinking of an accessory. I have some friends that do allot of hunting and like jerky. I have an idea. The problem is it takes allot of effort with the amount of meat to make jerky with only two American harvest dehydrators. Also no smoke.


Idea. Second drum on top of UDS with allot of shelves for lots of jerky.

Problem. design for second drum that attaches with access to allot of shelves.

design requirements.
1) Allot of shelves
2) maintain 200 degrees.*
3)reasonable access to shelves
4) long burn time with out reloading.

* 200 degrees is more that I need but allows some fudge room for design.


Pete

 

[ddave]

Well, I had sort of the same issue with capacity as I do jerky on my SnP. Spreading it out flat fills up the racks pretty fast so I ordered some of these.

I haven't tried them yet but I will post the results when I do.

I think a double-stacked drum would be difficult if not impossible to keep temps low enough (140° to 160°) to dry the jerky without cooking it.

As far as long burn time without reloading, you only want about 3 hours of smoke on jerky anyway. Most folks smoke for 3 to 4 hours and finish in an oven. On my gas SnP I smoke for 3 hours and then take the wood chunks out and it's basically a gas oven at that point.

Other people have suggested poking toothpicks through the jerky and "hanging" them from the grate to increase capacity. I haven't tried it I have seen it discussed on here. Given that scenario, you could use a single drum with very little charcoal and you may be able to keep the temps in the drying range.

Just my two cents worth.

Dave

 

[got14u]

I think you could also just put more shelves in your uds. that is what i plan on doing so i have the option of putting some abt's or jerky or small jubs of suasage in a smoke. i was thinking of about 3" in between. that way you got a choice of how to stack some shelves...imho

 

[jdt]

why not just lay it down horizontal on top the uds, you could put a couple valves or a sliding damper in the side of the barrel over the uds to control the inlet temp, if you cut expanded you could easily have five shelves that pulled out the lid end ranging from 12 to 22 inches wide and the entire lenght of the barrell.