I joined #PITBOSSNATION ... already thinking of mods?

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smokinq13

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
May 21, 2017
427
194
south central Pennsylvania
Well I guess I was a good boy this year cuase Santa dropped off me a PitBoss Austin xl! This will be replacing my MES30 and will be my first pellet grill as well. Let me first start off by saying that this thing is a beast! They say on their website that its 200lbs but I'm saying its more! by no means am I a "strong" man but I'm not your smallest guy either. Yesterday I bought two 40lb bags of pellets and picked both bags up, one in each hand and threw them onto my shoulders to carry at the same time. BUT this thing was a hog to unload. It took all of me, my girlfriend and her father to get it up in the truck... maybe its just the way its packed.

So I already got questions, 1. does anyone use fire bricks in their pellet grill to help with retaining heat with thermal mass? I'm thinking about getting a brick or two and breaking them up and putting them down at the bottom of the grill to help retain heat so I dont have to burn as many pellets. I forget where I saw it but I remember a guy did this and is actually worked too well and the fire would end up going out becuase it wasn't feeding enough pellets into the pot. I wouldn't use as much brick as he did but enough to make it more efficient.

2. I'm already thinking about doing my first mod to it but am afraid of voiding the warranty. I want to put a front cooking shelf on it so I have a "table" to prep the food I'm grilling/smoking. Here's a video of a guy who did it to his and it looks awesome! It only attaches to the support and not the barrel of the smoker so I dont see why it'd void and warranty with the smoker itself?

any information, comments or suggestions would be great! I should post more pictures of it as I'll be using it tonight for dinner but here's one of me unboxing it to put together
pit.jpg
 
Congrats on the new smoker do me a favor and take pics and also see how it does stock. I'm trying to decide between that and the vertical pit boss
 
Congrats on the new smoker do me a favor and take pics and also see how it does stock. I'm trying to decide between that and the vertical pit boss
I wont be modding it for a while till I see if I even need too. and I can no problem, tonight's dinner is going to be burgers and crab stuffed mushrooms... I'll probably post another thread since I'll actually be cooking on it so if I do not post to this look for it!

you said how you were looking at either the Austin or the vertical.. may I ask what you want out of your pitboss? is it strictly going to be for smoking or would you like to be able to do a lot of other things with it?
 
Not sure I have a few smokers but looking for that set and forget thing. Might be nice to grill a steak and smoke some meals so that leans toward the XL but then again I have a propane grill so that will grill a steak and the vertical will fit more so that leans me toward the vertical. But then again I do have a Lang 84 for big smokes so....
 
Welcome! I've had a Pit Boss 700FB for a little over two years, and love it. Only mod I've done to mine is to put a shelf on front, using these brackets:


The shelf has proven to be beneficial time and time again - dunno how I ever got by without it there.

EDIT: Apparently, I can't link to an Amazon item. But if you go there and search for "B01M3NOA41" you'll see the brackets I used.
 
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