all the Mods are Interesting to say the least, I am just Stoked that I don't have to do anything than place the Iron pan on the factory chip pan at the original hight and put a few big chunks in and get a TBS for 2 hrs and get no flare ups and the temp just sits at 225* for 15 hrs streight and still get 42hrs of a smoke out of one 20lb tank with some to kill...I'm Blessed..
that is awesome that you get that. My smoker also worked well with propane and the skillet on top of the chip pan. But since I really like the taste you get with charcoal and wood chunks, I made the mod the way I did in order to be able to use and add charcoal easily throughout the cook.
And the up side is that at a slow and low cook, I do not use any propane at all unless I decide in the last couple hours of cooking to use the propane instead of adding more charcoal.
Of course, when I do add more charcoal, I use my charcoal lighting bucket to get the coals really hot first. Then I add cold charcoal to the pan, and then put the hot coals over top of them. I am finding that by doing that, I get a longer smoke off of the coals. I believe it takes longer for the hot coals to burn down and ignite the cold coals under them, than it would if the hot coals were on bottom and I put cold coals on top. I guess it has something to do with convection, indirect and direct heat, and a bunch of other thermodynamics that I have no clue about. lol
I am trying to measure how much propane that I get per hour, but so far, I am still using the first full tank that I had filled at the local ferralgas company to ensure I received a full 20lbs. I have a 6 hour cook, a 10 hour cook, a 6 hour cook, a 5 hour cook, and just recently, a 4 to 5 hour cook for the pork loin. The gauge that I have on the tank has not moved off of full and it feels almost just as heavy as when I attached it. So I am at ~ 30 to 31 hours and the tank is still full. I have gone through 2/3 of a tall bag, waist high, bag of kingsford charcoal so far. I did not pay for the bag of Kingsford so I cannot say how much money in propane I will save considering the mod costs (16.00 for the wok grill and 6 bucks for the propane gas gauge).
There is another brand of charcoal that people on here recommended but I cannot remember the name. I am going to search for it again and give that a try. I did find out at the time that
Amazon sells it and with my prime membership, shipping is free.
If I ever run out of charcoal, during a smoke, I will remove the wok grill and place the skillet with the wood chunks directly in the original chip pan and it will work just fine. (only issue I have right now is the inability to control the flame in the wind. My wife will not let me just throw some cinder blocks down or some bricks around it. She has to tell me where in the yard I can place it, then, she has to go shopping with me to ensure that whatever material I use for the wind block matches, or at lease does not clash with the décor she has in place. lol) Once I have the ability to have micro control of the flame with in line regulator valve that I purchased, would be able to achieve TBS with only propane. I only get TBS right now using charcoal.
sorry if it seems I hijacked this forum in any way. I know my mods are not my own and not by any means necessary or the only way. There are many other ways that are better than mine, but since I do not know or have the ability to weld, it limits my options. I also do not have much of a work area since we just moved into our house do I do not have any clamps to be able to safely drill through cast iron.
