New to the forum, looking for inspiration!
Last year I found this giant tractor rim in the woods, it's 33" inside diameter at the top and waist high when standing on end. The steel is almost 2" thick. Immediately I hauled it out started converting it into a giant grill. Easiest thing to start with was a propane setup. I was able to get a 24" fire pit ring burner installed and tune it to a mostly blue flame. It's putting out an enormous amount of heat, almost 300k BTU, so it's a success so far. My original inspiration was to make my own cooktop for it, but I found a Carolina Cooker cast iron 34" discada that drops right in and fit perfectly. I was able to get this whole thing setup to cook without modifying the rim at all, so I'm pretty proud of that. Here's a photo of us cooking 36 pork chops in one batch. But I can't stop imagining how I'd turn this into a charcoal or wood burning smoker like the egg-style cookers. I'm tempted to remove the propane cooking setup and figure out how to make this thing a smoker.
If I were to convert it to a smoker, obviously I'd need to get a lid on there and figure out the cooking surface but that's not such a big deal. What I'm trying to imagine is how to manage the air flow in and out, the fire box, and most importantly the grease collection. I just can't get my head around all that yet.. I would like to avoid cutting a huge window in the side of the rim, but I don't how to incorporate all that stuff otherwise. If anyone has similar builds or design inputs I sure would be interested to hear.
Thanks!
HP
Last year I found this giant tractor rim in the woods, it's 33" inside diameter at the top and waist high when standing on end. The steel is almost 2" thick. Immediately I hauled it out started converting it into a giant grill. Easiest thing to start with was a propane setup. I was able to get a 24" fire pit ring burner installed and tune it to a mostly blue flame. It's putting out an enormous amount of heat, almost 300k BTU, so it's a success so far. My original inspiration was to make my own cooktop for it, but I found a Carolina Cooker cast iron 34" discada that drops right in and fit perfectly. I was able to get this whole thing setup to cook without modifying the rim at all, so I'm pretty proud of that. Here's a photo of us cooking 36 pork chops in one batch. But I can't stop imagining how I'd turn this into a charcoal or wood burning smoker like the egg-style cookers. I'm tempted to remove the propane cooking setup and figure out how to make this thing a smoker.
If I were to convert it to a smoker, obviously I'd need to get a lid on there and figure out the cooking surface but that's not such a big deal. What I'm trying to imagine is how to manage the air flow in and out, the fire box, and most importantly the grease collection. I just can't get my head around all that yet.. I would like to avoid cutting a huge window in the side of the rim, but I don't how to incorporate all that stuff otherwise. If anyone has similar builds or design inputs I sure would be interested to hear.
Thanks!
HP
