Old Country BBQ Pits Pecos Owners Thread

[Neil McCauley]

Think I have my Pecos pretty dialed in with these mods:

-Lavalock baffle tuning plate
-12x6" double walled stove pipe for the stack
-Welding blanket over the cook chamber
-BBQ gasket on the cook chamber door edges
-water pan (1/6 pan half full)
-Telltru thermometer



I actually can walk away from a cook for 30-40 mins once it's heated up and burning clean. Also found I can close the firebox door, you can see the flames blowing and feel the air getting sucked in through the vents. Pre-heating splits on top of the firebox, and having a pan of burning charcoal on the ground under the firebox helps a lot also.

 

[vipgenesis]

This solves alot of the problems. This is borrowed from b.sully on YouTube following Mike browns BBQ steps on youtube. Basically evens out the temps and pushes the hotspot in the smoke collector. Also apparently the regular brazos uses less thick metal on the sides. Mike brown said it was thinner after cutting into it .

 

[Jeromy Lambert]

I am curious if anyone has added the collector to the Pecos and does having the 4" stack works better than having a 6". Also what about cutting the firebox opening to be bigger similar to Franklin's smoker.

 

[Newglide]

Just saw a video on you tube by mad scientist bbq. He did 2 videos one was how a collector affects the cook chamber and heat distribution. He did another on changes to a Pecos and did comparisons with the Franklin smoker. It was how to make a $1k smoker cook like a $4k smoker

 

[Smokin Okie]

Mad Scientist is wrong about the value of the collector.

I had a Brazos and I put a stack ext on it to improve the draw. And it did improve the draw. But the stack end would heat up because the air could not exit as fast as it entered. So I had to cut the air flow down on the firebox door.

Why put a stack ext on to improve air flow and then have to cut the air flow down at the firebox ?

Same thing happens when cooking with the firebox door open. The increase in air flow drives heat to the stack end and it can't get out fast enough. And the stack end heats up.

On other offsets, opening the firebox door will cool temps on the stack end of the cook chamber, because they have good air flow and it lets in more cool air. Mad Scientists says that's because heat is escaping out the firebox door. He's wrong.

If you're trying to improve the air flow through the cooker, it needs a collector, no matter what Mad Scientist says. Or it needs a stack like Moberg puts on their backyard cookers or Austin Smokeworks " noodle " stack.

On the Brazos, the back corner on the stack end will collect heat. Its like a dam across a river with flood gates in the center. The corners where the dam meets the bank, will collect flotsam.

And a smaller stack diameter will improve the draw over a larger diameter stack. It creates a venturi effect. That's how Moberg and John Lewis noodles work.

The difference in the cookers is about air flow, not even temps end-to-end.

I also question his thermal camera as a gauge of temps inside the cooker. There's other variables, like the size of the fire and the air intake settings on the firebox door. Stronger air flow will pull more heat into the cook chamber. Digital temp probes, like four of them or more, will give a better picture of what's happening inside the cooker.

Also, it takes steel time to heat up, it does not absorb heat quickly. So the camera is not going to capture changes inside the cook chamber.

And he always quotes the price of the Franklin including shipping. But does not do that on other cookers. The Franklin is priced in a range with other offsets , whether its LSG , Mill Scale, Moberg, etc. Anybody building them cheaper is giving them away at current steel prices. I don't understand his propensity to be a Franklin critic. He seems to have a thing for discrediting Franklin.

 

[Jeromy Lambert]

Sorry, I guess I should have let everyone know but I am new on here and I just purchased the Pecos from someone. I did the stack extension and removed the baffle before I even started using it. So I have not seen higher temps at the stack compared to the firebox side and that may be that I do not have the probes sitting at the right place on the firebox side. I did notice when doing over-the-top chili a few weekends ago that when I had the firebox door open the firebox side would get hotter but when I closed the door temps from end to end would be pretty close to each other. I haven't done the biscuit test yet to kinda see where the hot spots are but plan to. Though looking on here or maybe it was on youtube someone did the biscuit test and the back corner stack side would show more color which makes me think the collector would make a difference to have even temps from front to back at the stack side. Now I do have one question that has seemed to be mixed from my reading but how well would putting fire bricks in the firebox and not using a grate to build a fire affect things? Would it hurt or help, is it worth trying?

 

[Newglide]

Good info Smokin Okie thanks.
I saw the video the other day and thought it had good info. Always good to get info from somebody who has been there. You have never steered me wrong with my old country.

And he always quotes the price of the Franklin including shipping. But does not do that on other cookers. The Franklin is priced in a range with other offsets , whether its LSG , Mill Scale, Moberg, etc. Anybody building them cheaper is giving them away at current steel prices. I don't understand his propensity to be a Franklin critic. He seems to have a thing for discrediting Franklin

This is very true

Now I do have one question that has seemed to be mixed from my reading but how well would putting fire bricks in the firebox and not using a grate to build a fire affect things? Would it hurt or help, is it worth trying?

I have been pondering the same thing about using fire bricks. Kinda like an insulated firebox.

 

[Smokin Okie]

Heat building on the stack end depends upon air intake.

 

[Smokin Okie]

I put firebricks in the bottom of the firebox on my Brazos and I used an LSG fire basket. I did that to insulate the bottom of the firebox. My reasoning was, it would direct more heat up into the cook chamber.

If possible, I'd lined the entire inside of the firebox with firebrick.

The primary value of the LSG fire basket was to keep the fire away from the cook chamber. A longer firebox allows a bit more discretion on where to build the fire. The firebasket effectively lengthened the Brazos firebox.

 

[Smokin Okie]

Mad Scientist also has some kind of connection to Old Country. In the early days of his YT channel, Old Country would send him pits to test. They sent him an " over and under " cabinet style pit. He made a vid about it that I think has since been removed from his channel.

And they sent him a prototype of the Old Country Gravity Feed. He made two or three vids on that cooker. He says he left it in California when he made his move to Kentucky.

He has a loyalty to Old Country and I imagine he's selling a lot of Brazos pits for them and he's doing it on Franklin's back. Whether he has a financial interest, only his hair dresser knows for sure, to quote an old TV ad.

And he promotes Fat Stack smokers because his buddy from Cali makes them. He claims no financial interest. Well........ he's an awful nice guy to do that kind of favor for an old friend.

I never understood why he bought the Franklin PK grill. It appears to me, he only bought it to trash it. Because he already owned a PK grill. Anybody with a half a brain can figure out the diff between the two grills without spending $600 to find out.

 

[Smokin Okie]

How bout we look closer at Mad Scientists " unbiased " comparison , start with these two pics

 

[Smokin Okie]

I won't say that Mad Scientist comparison is dishonest. I would term it disingenuous . He's got his thumb on the scales.

Camera shows the temp in celsius. That's the surface temp of the smoker, but I would guess it would also translate to cooking temps inside.

He's running the Franklin at 133* celsius = 271 Fahrenheit

The Brazos at 112* celsius = 233 Fahrenheit

First, he's built the fire in the Franklin right next to the cook chamber, where more direct heat can enter the cook chamber. Not so in the Brazos.

Why not run both smokers at same temp ? At 271 that's a bigger fire that produces more air flow. The Franklin already has strong air flow so its gonna pull more heat into the cook chamber. Franklin has designed his smoker for maximum air flow.

I could run my Brazos at 233 with just a coal bed. To get that temp, would take a tiny fire. And because of the air flow problems with the Brazos, I would cut my air intake down to just the amount necessary to burn a clean fire. That would get me pretty even temps from end-to-end. The Brazos does better at low air flow.

If he runs that Brazos at 275, the firebox end of the cook chamber is gonna get hotter than the stack. That's just basic physics. He knows that, he taught physics. By putting on the stack extension and cutting out the baffle, he's increased the air flow in the cooker and a bigger fire is gonna get pulled into the firebox end of the cook chamber.

People who have removed the baffle and added a collector to their Brazos, report higher temps on the firebox end. They lose up to 12" of cooking grate.

Mad Scientist also says the cooking grates on both smokers are the same size. That's a half truth. They are the same size, but the Franklin has an 8" shelf on the firebox end, because Aaron Franklin knows that space is not gonna be usable. The Franklin has a 47" cook chamber, brazos 40". MS is trying to tell you that the space on the Brazos grate next to the firebox is usable. He's rigged his comparison. Its not usable.

He showed us his fire in the Brazos and I strongly suspect this was the coal bed when he took the thermal picture. Its big coal bed. Not much fire.

 

[Smokin Okie]

And in his next vid, he says he's gonna do a cook in both smokers and compare. He says to find out which one " cooks better " .................. I give you three guesses which smoker is gonna win his " unbiased " taste test of some meat cooked on the smokers. His evaluation is pretty worthless, to me.

Just don't bother.

MS wants subscribers. His YT channel is monetized to the hilt and he's started a patreon. This comparison is about getting the optimum views, thus the optimum cha-ching. There's far more Brazos and Pecos owners, than Franklin owners.

This is also why he's been doing the pellet smoker vids, there's far far more pellet smoker owners than offset stick burner owners. If I were him, and wanted to appeal to the masses, I would do a series smoking barbecue on a Kettle.

 

[Jeromy Lambert]

Hi everyone just have a few questions on what I might be doing wrong. I am going to post some pics but I have the stack extension and have removed my baffle plate and here are my temp differences the lower number is at the stack.

 

[Smokin Okie]

What is your settings of your firebox door ?

 

[Jeromy Lambert]

I had the door shut but did notice as I was cooking that if I adjusted the damper it would even out

 

[Smokin Okie]

When I had a Brazos, I could take the stack ext on and off. I put it on and the stack end would heat up because it increased the draw. I take it off and temps even out. That was with the Firebox door closed, damper 1/2 open. And I still had the baffle in it. I always thought it reacted this way because of the baffle. But maybe not.

 

[vipgenesis]

And in his next vid, he says he's gonna do a cook in both smokers and compare. He says to find out which one " cooks better " .................. I give you three guesses which smoker is gonna win his " unbiased " taste test of some meat cooked on the smokers. His evaluation is pretty worthless, to me.

Just don't bother.

MS wants subscribers. His YT channel is monetized to the hilt and he's started a patreon. This comparison is about getting the optimum views, thus the optimum cha-ching. There's far more Brazos and Pecos owners, than Franklin owners.

This is also why he's been doing the pellet smoker vids, there's far far more pellet smoker owners than offset stick burner owners. If I were him, and wanted to appeal to the masses, I would do a series smoking barbecue on a Kettle.

He has been doing it for a while. King grifter I call it sometimes. I like how nobody remarks about how he used GALVANIZED STEEL. Dude is using zinc coated metal near a high heat source. First of all he did absolutely no research on how to take the baffle off. You break the side welds then just keep moving it up and down and it breaks off. Then you see the chemist is using zinc coated metal. At least watch or read one forum about how it's done. Then he does select/prime brisket comparison and rests it for 10 plus hours lmfao. Results-the select is dry....imagine that resting a garbage piece of meat for half a day and you dry it out. You have to rest is one hour at most. It's one thing to be incompetent but another to poison people

 

[jaxrmrjmr]

I'm supposed to be picking up a brazos this weekend. It will be my first stick burner. This thread was very interesting to read. I am going to try a few of the mods mentioned here and maybe a couple that haven't been talked about. Also, going to use a PID controller I built for another project to control an inline fan for temperature control - much like the Perfect Draft that costs dang near $300.

 

[Smokin Okie]

I'm supposed to be picking up a brazos this weekend. It will be my first stick burner. This thread was very interesting to read. I am going to try a few of the mods mentioned here and maybe a couple that haven't been talked about. Also, going to use a PID controller I built for another project to control an inline fan for temperature control - much like the Perfect Draft that costs dang near $300.

If what you want, is to set the temp and walk away from it, you bought the wrong smoker. ATC's won't work with a stick burner. You are the ATC. You stay with it, watch your temps, and feed it splits.