New Brinkmann Trailmaster Vertical Smoker

[remmy700p]

Originally Posted by Yraen  

Someone decided to stand guard all night while the briskets cooked.

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• yraen
• Oct 8, 2014

Jeez... I thought that was the sausage you were talking about!!!! I was going to ask why there was a face on it!

 

[uscg husker]

Received this smoker this week. Curing it now. Sure am glad I finally drank this kool-aid. One of the lucky few that had no OOB issues. However did anyone else have a fit issue with the firebox going together? Picked up a cheapo vent cap from the local hardware store for about $7. Cook chamber gasket was installed and I may not even use my toggles. Definately looking into an aftermarket temp guage. Any suggestions? Will probably RTV tonight after the alate of college football today. Glad I finally joined. Cheers!

 

[remmy700p]

For a thermo, I'd suggets the River Country RC-T34FC. 3" dial, 4" probe length. Accurate. Adjustable. $18.50 w/ free shipping. 

 

[smokerjoe32]

Well I did my first smoke the other day, everything turned out great and can't wait to smoke something again. I have a few questions though. First one, my tarp blew off the smoker so it had a little bit of rain water at the bottom of the smoker. I thought nothing of it and left it be. I'm curious if that would have caused my temperature to stay at 190 for the first hour? My second question is, how in the world do I hold one temperature, I was all over the map.

 

[uscg husker]

I dont think rainwater should be an issue. At least if Its not much. To control your temps, experiment with your fire damper and smoke stack damper

 

[smokerjoe32]

I used the fire box damper and left the smoke stack damper wide open. I just couldn't get it to settle at one temp. 

 

[jharper03]

Where did you purchase those type of latches from?

Thanks

 

[jharper03]

When you all purchased the gasket set for BBQgaskets.....did you all get the white gaskets for $44 or the black gaskets with RTV for $54. I contacted them and they said there is not much difference. I am in the process of purchasing this smoker this week...just want to make sure I have everything I need :)

 

[smokerjoe32]

http://www.bbqsmokermods.com

They have a complete set of gaskets and rtv for our smoker. I would highly recommend it. I purchased it and it sealed up my great.

 

[yraen]

Quote:

 
Well I did my first smoke the other day, everything turned out great and can't wait to smoke something again. I have a few questions though. First one, my tarp blew off the smoker so it had a little bit of rain water at the bottom of the smoker. I thought nothing of it and left it be. I'm curious if that would have caused my temperature to stay at 190 for the first hour? My second question is, how in the world do I hold one temperature, I was all over the map.

Unless you plugged the drainage hole (which I am going to do next) you couldn't hold enough water in there to matter, the water pan would probably hold more water.  I would look more to airflow and leaking. 

 
I used the fire box damper and left the smoke stack damper wide open. I just couldn't get it to settle at one temp. 

Do you have a lot of leaks or was the smoker sealed up good?  Did you use the stock rack for the fire, the grill racks or something else?  I found the stock rack did not have enough space under it to allow adequate air flow under the fire.

 
Where did you purchase those type of latches from?

Thanks

I got the latches here:

 

[smokerjoe32]

I have a charcoal basket that I use but it is setting upon the factory grate in the firebox. I noticed that after I was done cooking that the ash pile was up to the bottom of the grate, do you all have any suggestions? The firebox and the cooking chamber are both sealed up the best that I can. The only false chimney that I've seen is a hole by the upper hinge that I was using to feed my wires through for my maverick thermometer. 

 

[yraen]

I picked up a three foot piece of angle iron and cut it into three one foot sections.  These are the perfect height to hold my "basket" as it were with the bottom being at the top of the air inlet.  You could do something similar based on where you want the bottom of your basket to be.  In the pics below you can see where the bottom of my "basket" is compared to the joining line on the firebox halves.  The sides of the "basket" are six inches tall and so are the V shaped dividers.

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• yraen
• Oct 8, 2014

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• yraen
• Oct 8, 2014

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• yraen
• Oct 8, 2014

 

[uscg husker]

Quick recap..what are the appropriate dimensions for an expaned steel charcoal basket? Yrean's is a little fancier than what im looking at. I just want a simple box. Is it better to weld? Or to cut it how you want and bend it. I have access to a metal working shop, just looking for ease of maintenance.

 

[smokerjoe32]

USCG, I have a welded basket that is a 12x10x6. It is a good basket and I've got about a 4 hour burn on it. I would recommend what Yrean says about elevating the charcoal basket. As it says in the above conversation, after I smoked my brisket and chickens the ash pile was to the bottom of the charcoal basket and interfered with the airflow of the coals.

 

[uscg husker]

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• uscg husker
• Oct 16, 2014

Finished product for now. Im happy with it. Already cured, all ready for a butt, brisket, and chicken thighs for football saturday

 

[buttburner]

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• uscg husker
• Oct 16, 2014

Finished product for now. Im happy with it. Already cured, all ready for a butt, brisket, and chicken thighs for football saturday

looks great.

I would put at least one test fire through it before loading all that meat on it

it will need to be seasoned, perfect time to do that

it will also give you a chance to learn your pit

what fuel are you using?

 

[uscg husker]

Oh yeah. Cured it last Saturday, wasnt happy and recured it on Sunday, so she's ready to go. Picked up some hickory from the local hardware store. I usually use western bbq logs and split them myself. Except driving the hour to bass pro takes up a lot of my day. Miss living in the south, academy sports was next door and they undercut bass pro

 

[smokerjoe32]

So, today I did a dry run after I raised up my grate so I can get better airflow. It was too much I think, I had to close up my airflow to a small crack, and it was still to hot for my desired temp. After I would say a good hour n half I finally got it down to temp. That brings up my next point. I set up two temp probes in my smoker, one two slots above the water pan, and the second on the top hooks. I got a 15 degree separation between the two. Do I adjust off the lower of the two temps? I figure a low and slow you would want the lower of the temps. So basically my questions are these, what temp do I go for and do I put the hot coals on and close off the airflow to almost nothing to help not get a runaway? 

Test on my probes:

Water Boiling temp: 211

Probe 1: 210

Probe 2: 212

 

[buttburner]

I see when you say "cured" I think of curing of the sealant. We usually refer to the smoker as "seasoning"

I would go crazy if I had to buy wood that way. I live in Michigan and we have trees everywhere.

I got this from an Amish sawmill near my cabin, it is $15 per truckload, all oak.

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• buttburner
• Oct 17, 2014

 

[buttburner]

 
So, today I did a dry run after I raised up my grate so I can get better airflow. It was too much I think, I had to close up my airflow to a small crack, and it was still to hot for my desired temp. After I would say a good hour n half I finally got it down to temp. That brings up my next point. I set up two temp probes in my smoker, one two slots above the water pan, and the second on the top hooks. I got a 15 degree separation between the two. Do I adjust off the lower of the two temps? I figure a low and slow you would want the lower of the temps. So basically my questions are these, what temp do I go for and do I put the hot coals on and close off the airflow to almost nothing to help not get a runaway?

Test on my probes:

Water Boiling temp: 211

Probe 1: 210

Probe 2: 212

15 degrees separation is nothing, don't worry about it. When the meat goes on it may be more than that. Just shoot for an average temp.

What are you using for fuel?

I don't have one of these pits, but have run 2 wood burners and some charcoal ones so I know the general fire management principles