After a few years of combing through threads looking for advice I've decided to finally join and share what I can, (which isn't much). I reckon I'll start with my main cooker. It's a modified Oklahoma Joe Highland. I did quite a few modifications to it, some purchased and some homemade. There are some I wouldn't do again and some I would do differently next time.
I guess we'll start with the elephant in the room: Yes, it has TWO stacks. The 3" that it came with from the factory and a 4" that pulls from a plenum at grate level. I like to go hot and fast and the 3" stack just didn't seem to be sufficient. My initial thought was to add the 4" with the plenum at grate level and block off the 3" at the cook chamber, but I've read an a few posts that this can cause stale smoke to build up in the top of the cook chamber. I don't know if there's any truth to that but if so, this set-up solves that problem. I typically run the 4" wide open and just crack the 3" enough to vent the top of the chamber. They can also be used to balance out top-to-bottom temps when hanging sausage; works well with lower (cold smoking) temps but not so much over 200*.
Notice the 90* malleable iron pipe fitting welded to the bottom of the plenum. This gave me a way to make a nice, long detachable handle out of a pre-threaded piece of black iron pipe from Home Depot. It's only attached for the pic. It normally hangs by a short lanyard from the pipe elbow when in storage.
Handle on the 3" damper is bent upward to clear the cook chamber lid. The 3" stack was moved about 2" inboard from where the factory put it. This created a clearance problem which was easily solved.
Another shot of the handle in storage mode.
I added a wood top to the front shelf. I also hinged the mounts so it can be folded under for storage.
Hand made latches, designed to clear the firebox door whether they are open or closed.
I moved the damper to the outside and relocated the latch to clear the damper. This allows the damper to be fully opened unlike the way it came from the factory which allowed it to open only about 3/4 of the way.
Showing the clearance between the latch and the damper.
Damper fully open.
This is an old Mack bulldog I've had laying around the house for 25+ years; Finally put her to good use. Growing up in the Allentown area, Mack Trucks was a big part of our family history.
So that's the big stuff that I think worked really well. I did a few other small things too, but nothing out of the ordinary. I hope some of you find this usefull or just interesting. Thanks for all the past advice. This, unfortunately is the bulk of my contribution; I'm still new to meat smoking/processing so I don't have a whole lot of experience to share.
I guess we'll start with the elephant in the room: Yes, it has TWO stacks. The 3" that it came with from the factory and a 4" that pulls from a plenum at grate level. I like to go hot and fast and the 3" stack just didn't seem to be sufficient. My initial thought was to add the 4" with the plenum at grate level and block off the 3" at the cook chamber, but I've read an a few posts that this can cause stale smoke to build up in the top of the cook chamber. I don't know if there's any truth to that but if so, this set-up solves that problem. I typically run the 4" wide open and just crack the 3" enough to vent the top of the chamber. They can also be used to balance out top-to-bottom temps when hanging sausage; works well with lower (cold smoking) temps but not so much over 200*.
Notice the 90* malleable iron pipe fitting welded to the bottom of the plenum. This gave me a way to make a nice, long detachable handle out of a pre-threaded piece of black iron pipe from Home Depot. It's only attached for the pic. It normally hangs by a short lanyard from the pipe elbow when in storage.
Handle on the 3" damper is bent upward to clear the cook chamber lid. The 3" stack was moved about 2" inboard from where the factory put it. This created a clearance problem which was easily solved.
Another shot of the handle in storage mode.
I added a wood top to the front shelf. I also hinged the mounts so it can be folded under for storage.
Hand made latches, designed to clear the firebox door whether they are open or closed.
I moved the damper to the outside and relocated the latch to clear the damper. This allows the damper to be fully opened unlike the way it came from the factory which allowed it to open only about 3/4 of the way.
Showing the clearance between the latch and the damper.
Damper fully open.
This is an old Mack bulldog I've had laying around the house for 25+ years; Finally put her to good use. Growing up in the Allentown area, Mack Trucks was a big part of our family history.
So that's the big stuff that I think worked really well. I did a few other small things too, but nothing out of the ordinary. I hope some of you find this usefull or just interesting. Thanks for all the past advice. This, unfortunately is the bulk of my contribution; I'm still new to meat smoking/processing so I don't have a whole lot of experience to share.
