Hello all,
It finally happened. I got the go ahead from the boss to purchase a larger trailer smoker that ive been wanting for awhile. I kept searching marketplace for something local, and finally found this 150 gallon reverse flow with a warming box at a reasonable price and only about a 2.5 hour drive to go pick it up.
They are made by a trailer shop down in GA. The smoker is pretty decent construction, with some quirks. Its a thick propane tank with a 3/16 or 1/4" firebox, i havent measured. Has a 4" diameter stack of only about 15". Two pie hole vents on the firebox, one on each side.
I do have a few things i need to fix on it. The cut for the top of the right side door looks like it may have been cut at 4:59 on a Friday. The tops of the doors do not have the 2" 1/8th plate border like the bottom and sides do. I bought some 2" flat bar to remedy this and cover up that gash. It does leak smoke.
I am having a bit of difficulty getting it up to good temps. I cant get the left side of the smoker (farthest from firebox) very much over 250, even with 6 logs burning pretty good. The right side does get over 300. There is about a 30-50 degree temp swing across the smoker, verified by both the door gauges as well as thermapro probes inside.
My cousin who does some competition smoking recommended i increase the stack size. Ive ordered 2ft of 6" schedule 40 to replace the small 4" stack. Here is where I have some questions -
There is a top and bottom cooking grate. Should I extend the stack into the cook chamber by an inch or 2? I've been trying to research and it seems some builders will bring it to a couple of inches above the grate, but these are usually single grate chambers they're referring to.
I'm not getting enough air to my fire. If I open the firebox door, I'm losing alot of heat out the door. If I close it, my fire dies down. I had flame out twice on my last 12 hour cook, and couldn't get anything ignited on the second flame out. I ordered an 8" pie plate damper to install into the firebox door to hopefully remedy this.
The "warming box" is actually more of a "heat from the flaming pits of hell" box. The bottom of this box is the top of the firebox, and when it's dark out, it actually glows orange. The temp gauge in the door of the warming box has shown well over 500 degrees. I'm wondering if I install another pie plate damper in the roof of this box, OR, install the 4" stack I'm cutting off the cook chamber, if that will let some heat escape to where i can somewhat control the temp in this warming box.
The cooking chamber measures approx 77" long by approx 23" diameter. The firebox is 24"w x 24" l x 15" high. Using the online calculator, it is slightly undersized. The calculator suggests a 16" stack at 6" diameter. I'm wondering if adding another 8" to this will compensate for the smaller firebox.
There's a few welds to tidy up. The patches used on the bung holes are kind of ugly. I plan to flap disk them and smooth those welds to make it more visually appealing. Also, the corners of the RF plate in the cook chamber where it meets the firebox wall appear to have been snipped off. Not sure why they did this. I assumed they were supposed to be flush. I plan to patch these. If I look down in the corner closest to the door, I can actually see inside the firebox through the half moon hole. Not good if grease goes in there.
Lastly, the bottom left corner of the left door doesn't close all the way. I can not find anything binding that is keeping it from closing. I'm assuming it sprung when it was being cut. Any ideas how to fix this? Theres about a 1/4" gap from the door to the chamber on that corner. If you zoom real far in on the last pic you can see the gap I'm referring to.
Even with these issues, I was able to cook some great BBQ this weekend. 2 butts, a whole turkey, 4 racks of ribs, jalepeno poppers, and a dozen drumsticks. Got great bark on my butts and the flavor was great, using a mix of hickory logs and apple chunks.
I bought a cheap tongue tool box for the trailer from Amazon to keep my bbq gloves, temp probes, propane torch, ash shovel, tongs, etc in. Going to weld that up this week hopefully.
BT
It finally happened. I got the go ahead from the boss to purchase a larger trailer smoker that ive been wanting for awhile. I kept searching marketplace for something local, and finally found this 150 gallon reverse flow with a warming box at a reasonable price and only about a 2.5 hour drive to go pick it up.
They are made by a trailer shop down in GA. The smoker is pretty decent construction, with some quirks. Its a thick propane tank with a 3/16 or 1/4" firebox, i havent measured. Has a 4" diameter stack of only about 15". Two pie hole vents on the firebox, one on each side.
I do have a few things i need to fix on it. The cut for the top of the right side door looks like it may have been cut at 4:59 on a Friday. The tops of the doors do not have the 2" 1/8th plate border like the bottom and sides do. I bought some 2" flat bar to remedy this and cover up that gash. It does leak smoke.
I am having a bit of difficulty getting it up to good temps. I cant get the left side of the smoker (farthest from firebox) very much over 250, even with 6 logs burning pretty good. The right side does get over 300. There is about a 30-50 degree temp swing across the smoker, verified by both the door gauges as well as thermapro probes inside.
My cousin who does some competition smoking recommended i increase the stack size. Ive ordered 2ft of 6" schedule 40 to replace the small 4" stack. Here is where I have some questions -
There is a top and bottom cooking grate. Should I extend the stack into the cook chamber by an inch or 2? I've been trying to research and it seems some builders will bring it to a couple of inches above the grate, but these are usually single grate chambers they're referring to.
I'm not getting enough air to my fire. If I open the firebox door, I'm losing alot of heat out the door. If I close it, my fire dies down. I had flame out twice on my last 12 hour cook, and couldn't get anything ignited on the second flame out. I ordered an 8" pie plate damper to install into the firebox door to hopefully remedy this.
The "warming box" is actually more of a "heat from the flaming pits of hell" box. The bottom of this box is the top of the firebox, and when it's dark out, it actually glows orange. The temp gauge in the door of the warming box has shown well over 500 degrees. I'm wondering if I install another pie plate damper in the roof of this box, OR, install the 4" stack I'm cutting off the cook chamber, if that will let some heat escape to where i can somewhat control the temp in this warming box.
The cooking chamber measures approx 77" long by approx 23" diameter. The firebox is 24"w x 24" l x 15" high. Using the online calculator, it is slightly undersized. The calculator suggests a 16" stack at 6" diameter. I'm wondering if adding another 8" to this will compensate for the smaller firebox.
There's a few welds to tidy up. The patches used on the bung holes are kind of ugly. I plan to flap disk them and smooth those welds to make it more visually appealing. Also, the corners of the RF plate in the cook chamber where it meets the firebox wall appear to have been snipped off. Not sure why they did this. I assumed they were supposed to be flush. I plan to patch these. If I look down in the corner closest to the door, I can actually see inside the firebox through the half moon hole. Not good if grease goes in there.
Lastly, the bottom left corner of the left door doesn't close all the way. I can not find anything binding that is keeping it from closing. I'm assuming it sprung when it was being cut. Any ideas how to fix this? Theres about a 1/4" gap from the door to the chamber on that corner. If you zoom real far in on the last pic you can see the gap I'm referring to.
Even with these issues, I was able to cook some great BBQ this weekend. 2 butts, a whole turkey, 4 racks of ribs, jalepeno poppers, and a dozen drumsticks. Got great bark on my butts and the flavor was great, using a mix of hickory logs and apple chunks.
I bought a cheap tongue tool box for the trailer from Amazon to keep my bbq gloves, temp probes, propane torch, ash shovel, tongs, etc in. Going to weld that up this week hopefully.
BT
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