Welcome from “the state up north”
Because you are a fellow smoking brethren I’ll forgo our rivalry. :D
I had a propane
Masterbuilt similar to yours for many years and turned out many good meals.
I found that maintaining a temp can be a challenge in colder weather, much more so than my offset to my surprise. In fairness I did no mods nor insulated it. (Didn’t do any research for some reason).
But here are two main things I found, but YMMV.
First don’t soak the wood chips.
I now know that it produces “bad” smoke, I thought white billowing smoke was the goal. Oops.
Also, wet chips causes havoc on the chip pan and bottom (rust, even cleaning good).
I went with dry chips and got much better results.
Second, invest in a good remote thermometer, I now have a Smoke as well as an Inkbird. I didn’t have one and the built in one that comes with unit has issues. At least mine did, had to replace twice.
With practice it will give you many of great meals, and based on your photo, it has started!
