New here, finding my way around

[pbft]

Good morning - I'm a long-time wood heat enthusiast, even started a business selling monitoring and control systems. I have lots of things that burn stuff and make heat. Some of them are for cooking food.
Our little ones are grown and gone, so I'm usually cooking for two, and almost never more than six.
My latest acquisition is a Rec Tec Trailblazer. My goal is to replace my ancient Weber Genesis and rusted out Masterbuilt bullet with it.
I'm at the mods stage now, since the best thing to do with any new toy is to make it your own. Here are some of the mods I'm doing or at least thinking about:

• Better wheels
  
• Interior second upper rack / shelf
  
• Front exterior shelf
  
• Gasket along top edge of door
  
• Thermal cover made from carbon welding blanket
  
• Camp Chef sear box on right side
  
• Tool hanger hooks

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

 

[JC in GB]

As a newbie smoker who loves hacking and modifying stuff, welcome and good luck.
I am currently in the process of making a Frankensmoker out of my cheap dyna-glo vertical offset charcoal unit. So far I got fire and smoke box sealed, partial insulation around both, heat baffle installed; currently putting together a PID temp control system. Next on the list is an electric boost heater for temp drops and to replace the charcoal toward the end of the smoke. Looking forward to hearing about all the fun hacks you get done on your unit. Happy smoking!

 

[SonnyE]

Always fun to make it your own.
The sear box sounds like a great idea.
Electric, Propane, Charcoal, Pellet?

 

[pbft]

Always fun to make it your own.
The sear box sounds like a great idea.
Electric, Propane, Charcoal, Pellet?

It's a propane fired small rectangular grill that gets really hot. Camp Chef provides it as an option on their pellet grills, but they also sell it by itself. I'm hoping to find out if it can be adapted to my grill.

 

[SonnyE]

It's a propane fired small rectangular grill that gets really hot. Camp Chef provides it as an option on their pellet grills, but they also sell it by itself. I'm hoping to find out if it can be adapted to my grill.

One way, or another, all things can be adapticated.
If all else fails, use it as a stand-alone.

Have you looked at Grill Grates as an alternative?
https://www.grillgrate.com/pellet-grills/
(Scroll down to see different Pellet Grill applications)

 

[pbft]

Grill grates are my fallback. One advantage of the sear box is that I think it would be quicker than firing up the pellet grill when all I need to do is sear. The ideal solution would be if I can hack the sear box so that the Rec Tec grease drains into the sear box grease tray. Here's a picture of the end of the Rec Tec. The handle will come off, of course: