Offset smoker questions

[brock029]

Alright I've been doing a ton of reading on these forums and thought I had it figured out but still have some questions. I've got a char-griller pro with the side fire box. I bought the box about 6 months ago and broke the welds on the drawer while I was assembling. Weather is finally decent enough I welded it back together. I used the fire rope and sealed the edges of the grill lid, brought the exhaust vent down, and sealed the sfb lid with red rtv. Tried smoking shrimp last night and took me 2 hours. Bought a 4 probe digital thermometer and made my own probe stands. Figured out the built in Thermo was off by 30-40 degrees. Today I started smoking a turkey breast.

I'm 5 hours into this turkey and it's almost done. I used 3 chimneys full of coal and almost an entire bag of hickory wood chunks. My biggest question is when do you place wood, when do you place more charcoal, and when do you just adjust the damper. I did a full chimney of coal let it burn for about 30 minutes, tossed on some wood chunks and let them smoke down a bit, then have been constantly adding more wood because my temp would start dropping back to 210 or so.

 

[Gwanger]

Alright I've been doing a ton of reading on these forums and thought I had it figured out but still have some questions. I've got a char-griller pro with the side fire box. I bought the box about 6 months ago and broke the welds on the drawer while I was assembling. Weather is finally decent enough I welded it back together. I used the fire rope and sealed the edges of the grill lid, brought the exhaust vent down, and sealed the sfb lid with red rtv. Tried smoking shrimp last night and took me 2 hours. Bought a 4 probe digital thermometer and made my own probe stands. Figured out the built in Thermo was off by 30-40 degrees. Today I started smoking a turkey breast.

I'm 5 hours into this turkey and it's almost done. I used 3 chimneys full of coal and almost an entire bag of hickory wood chunks. My biggest question is when do you place wood, when do you place more charcoal, and when do you just adjust the damper. I did a full chimney of coal let it burn for about 30 minutes, tossed on some wood chunks and let them smoke down a bit, then have been constantly adding more wood because my temp would start dropping back to 210 or so.

I also have a charcoal smoker I invested in a charcoal basket and use the minion method to keep my fire burning longer, when my fire drops 10-15 deg. I will start my chimney of charcoal to add more coals

 

[gmc2003]

Before I bought my WSM I used a char-grill duo w/side fire box. I always used the grates in the fire box to hold the coals and spread them evenly across the length of the grates with wood chunks mixed in throughout. I lit on end(near the vent) and let it burn towards the CC. When I added more coals I would add unlit to replace the burned coals and let it burn back towards the vent. It was a real PITA, but worked well for me.

Chris

 

[Gwanger]

chris- if you use a chimney starter you wouldnt be waiting to get back to your temp.instead of adding unlit charcoal it would be going already.

 

[sauced]

I use charcoal to get started, then only wood after that. I try to use mostly mini logs and big chunks.

 

[gmc2003]

chris- if you use a chimney starter you wouldnt be waiting to get back to your temp.instead of adding unlit charcoal it would be going already.

Gwanger, sorry I may not have explained my process clearly. Once the charcoal was burnt, and close to the CC. I would tap the grate to get rid of the ash. Then I would replace with fresh unlit coals. The remaining charcoal would lite the unlit charcoal and slowly burn it's way back to the vent side. It worked sorta like a massive snake method. It allowed me to go low and slow(relatively speaking) with a leaky smoker. I agree adding lit would keep the temps up, but I was shooting for lower temps without opening the firebox to many times.

Chris