DIY: Introducing the only 'Shorty' version of the Oklahoma Joes Bronco Drum Smoker in existence

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The threads will be cut off the top of the stack, but it looks pretty good and should work well.

 

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The first test of the chopped exhaust stack is complete. In the first picture, you can see that the ball valve and the stack fits conveniently inside the Shorty for travel.

Since I started the session grilling some chicken, I decided to omit the ball valve and screw the stack directly into the flange. Using just 2 tumbleweed firestarters, the Shorty came up to 400 degrees in 18 mins. After the Shorty reached 400, I closed the intake slide down to half and it happily sustained 400 degrees for a couple hours with no issues.

 

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After the grilling session was complete, I decided to try choking down the intake to see if I could throttle back the temps even without the ball valve in place. After adjusting the intake to 4 rows of holes, the Shorty happily ran at 300 degrees. After an hour, I choked it down further to 2 and a half rows of holes, which resulted in a stable temp of 250 degrees and I put some sausages on for a couple hours.

Just to ensure that these results were not influenced by dropping ambient temperature outside or lack of fuel (and after I took the sausages off), I opened the intake slide vent back to half and after about 15 mins, the Shorty was back at 400 degrees.

Overall, I am very impressed. I did use a couple online calculators (with some fudging) to figure out the smoke stack height based on the diameter of the pipe and the volume of the Shorty. It seems that the size I used is the exact right size to allow for temperature management by intake only. I still haven't purchased a plug to screw into the flange when the session is over, so I simply used a high heat glove to screw out the stack and screwed in the ball valve to close off the Shorty to shut everything down.

During both sessions, we had a fair amount of wind, but unlike the previous tests, the Shorty with the stack was completely unaffected by the changing wind directions or speed. Simply put, it just held constant temps. It is important to note, just like any drum smoker or similar, if you open the lid for more than 45-60 seconds, the additional fresh air will cause the fire to kick-up, but it quickly goes back in just a minute or two after closing. That said, you obviously can't leave it open for long as I would imagine it would take longer to cool back down to the desired temp.

All of this being said, I'm strongly considering implementing the same flange and setup on my full-sized Oklahoma Joes Bronco Drum Smoker. In the meantime, I am overwhelmingly surprised by and happy with how the 'Shorty' version turned out. I'll update as I do some other cooks in the coming month. :)

 

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Just a quick update. Finally sourced a 2" NPT plug to be used for travel. The overall height fits under my tonneau cover and the plug makes it convenient to shut the temps down and choke the fire.

As a bonus, I included a few pictures from the past few weeks. I cut some pork steaks out of a pork butt and used a cast iron griddle to create an indirect zone for a reverse sear. This last weekend, I did a half pork loin and ended up with an excellent smoke ring. All-in-all, I'm very pleased with how the 'Shorty' is performing.

 

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Here are a couple update pictures since I received some inquiries. Lately, when I want to use it as a smoker, I've been using a flat round aluminum disc tilted over the fire basket. The air is drawn from the intake down at the bottom to the charcoal basket, then deflected to the front section, and across the grates to the exhaust in the back. Seems to work extremely well and despite the small size (vertical space), you can do low and slow over a large section of the grill grate. Also, the aluminum disc is much lighter and easy to keep inside during transport (as compared to the cast iron rectangular griddle I was using as a deflector previously.

There's also a picture demonstrating the original purpose of this build: to fit under my tonneau cover. The last couple pictures show the no-mess version of a smoked whole chicken.

The last mod worth mentioning is that I ran a piece of felt gasket in between the bottom plate and the body. Although I keep aluminum foil in the bottom and another flat disc (pizza pan) in the bottom, I would occasionally get some grease that wanted to work its way out in the seam. I've probably done more than 100 cooks then and haven't had any issues. It also keeps the bottom and edges clean for when I put the shorty back into the truck bed.

Please let me know if there are any other questions.

 

[schlotz]

Sure looks like a solid build. Love the capabilities worked into a portable design.
Ingenious effort.