Old Country BBQ Pits Pecos Owners Thread

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I have had my Pacos for almost a year now. After doing countless cooks and even more "dry" runs, I have found what is the sweet spot for me. First and foremost, keep your stack wide open all the time. Closing it does two things, first, it reduces air movement through the smoker, second, and a side effect of the first reason, smoke just sits in the cook chamber and becomes stale. Second, use splits cut down to 8-10 inches to keep temps down. Third, I use a little bit bigger splits to allow for two to burn at the same time, about four inches across. Forth, control airflow through door/door damper. Biggest piece of advice I can give you is just use your smoker. The more you use it the better you will be at it. It takes time, patience, a good thermometer and wood.
 
Doing my first ever smoke today. Decided on a whole chicken. Fire has been clean. It's pretty windy today but I'm not sure that's the reason I am having temps from the stack side to the FB side pretty well off. I've got averaging 284 on chimney side and 318 at FB side....cant seem to get it any closer and still curious as to how I would approach doing a brisket.(not in the near future haha) if I am aiming for a 250ish range the only way I get there is if my fire is getting low. People have said to cut the splits down to about 8 or so inches and it should help. I currently have about 12-14" right now unfortunately with no way of cutting them at this moment. Will have a chop saw within a few days. Think this may be the only issue I'm having? Split sizes? Old country stock therm says 280ish on the lid. I use inkbird 4 probe bluetooth. Using oak since that is pretty much what grows everywhere here in Texas.
 
If your temps are that far apart close the gaps in your tuning plates. The tuning plate closest to the fb should be almost touching, then all the other ones spread out just a little more, like the picture included. I run stack wide open, door damper half closed. Temps are +- 10 degrees or so.
 

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If your temps are that far apart close the gaps in your tuning plates. The tuning plate closest to the fb should be almost touching, then all the other ones spread out just a little more, like the picture included. I run stack wide open, door damper half closed. Temps are +- 10 degrees or so.
I'll give this a try next time! I appreciate it...and what exactly do you mean by door damper half closed...door completely shut and latched with that little slide adjustment on the door half closed? Or the slide part closed and door half way open?
 
Well the first smoke is in the books and I think I will say I am very surprised and proud of myself! My first initial thoughts are it looks awesome, smells awesome and it tastes pretty damn good to me! Please give me everyones honest thoughts on looks please. If you guys were here I'd have you taste but I think it came out pretty decent.
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Something else I do that might make a diff in your temps end to end. I always use a water pan on the FB end. I found this 16" loaf pan that fits perfectly acros the end of the cook chamber. With tuning
QOhbvWu.jpg
 
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And while I'm here ........... for some reason I can't post a reply to this thread when using FireFox. I either have to use Google Chrome or get on my Amazon Fire Tablet.

The area that contains the box where the post is entered, doesn't even show up with Firefox.
 
Something else I do that might make a diff in your temps end to end. I always use a water pan on the FB end. I found this 16" loaf pan that fits perfectly acros the end of the cook chamber. With tuning
QOhbvWu.jpg
Just purchased a pan! Haha this will be used next time as well. Already excited for the next cook
 
Couldn't wait any longer after my first smoke yesterday of a whole chicken which came out pretty darn good. Did some pork ribs today and once again, shocked myself with how well my first ribs ever came out. My girlfriend loved them and her mom did as well. I thought they were awesome too. I'm hoping this is not beginners luck and going forward they aren't as good. I am very impressed with how they turned out. Me and my girlfriend travel Texas in search of the top 50 in the Texas monthly and I would say we are very familiar with how Texas BBQ should taste and which places are good and which places are absolutely trash. Me and my girlfriend both put my pork ribs today higher than Kreutz,smitty's AND salt lick bbq. (Those 3 we were VERY disappointed with) and let down!....here are some photos. Please let me know what you think based off of photos and colors.
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Couldn't wait any longer after my first smoke yesterday of a whole chicken which came out pretty darn good. Did some pork ribs today and once again, shocked myself with how well my first ribs ever came out. My girlfriend loved them and her mom did as well. I thought they were awesome too. I'm hoping this is not beginners luck and going forward they aren't as good. I am very impressed with how they turned out. Me and my girlfriend travel Texas in search of the top 50 in the Texas monthly and I would say we are very familiar with how Texas BBQ should taste and which places are good and which places are absolutely trash. Me and my girlfriend both put my pork ribs today higher than Kreutz,smitty's AND salt lick bbq. (Those 3 we were VERY disappointed with) and let down!....here are some photos. Please let me know what you think based off of photos and colors.View attachment 398817 View attachment 398818 View attachment 398819
Looks good! And as long as you and the family like it that’s all that matters. Keep on smoking and you’ll get better and better at dialing in temps etc., and figuring out how your smoker likes to work.
 
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32B4B432-BC85-48DA-8D24-EE54900CBCED.jpeg 5795E47C-C079-4911-929B-1D8518345B11.jpeg 3BF5C351-B8DE-4D8B-BB0A-951ED14CF485.jpeg 452B5B36-AB04-4CAC-9B0C-E54C39340903.jpeg Purchased my Pecos this weekend just in time for Labor Day. Seasoned it Saturday and jumped right in to do my first brisket (on an offset) my pervious briskets were l done on a MES40. Didn’t do any real mods but I did take out the charcoal tray and put it in the chamber to use as a tuning plate and set the grate for the smoke box at the bottom. Brisket was an overnight smoke and I learned some lessons in heat management for overnight cooks. 14lb Brisket came out decent, it smoked for 16 hours at cooking temp range of 190 a 275 (again heat management issues). I pulled it at 170 to wrap in pink butcher paper and finished it at 198 (slightly earlier then I planned). Used Post Oak and really liked the smoke it produced.
 
This past weekend during my smoke, the gasket I had on the cook chamber started coming off. I had used fireblack the last time, it didn’t last all that long, about nine months. What is a good gasket to replace it with?
 
I used the Fire Black and the RTV Silicon a year ago last June on my Brazos. Not had any problems.

Before I put it on, I put a wire brush attachment on my drill and roughed up the area where it would stick. I also cleaned it with rubbing alcohol.

I put the gasket on the lid and not the cook chamber.

I put the RTV Silicon down first, then put the gasket on the red silicon.
 
Do any of you use fire brick in the firebox? I don’t know if it’s worth the trouble or not. I haven’t even lit a fire in mine yet since we’re moving in a week and it’s still at my in laws, but the suspense is killing me.
 
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Do any of you use fire brick in the firebox? I don’t know if it’s worth the trouble or not. I haven’t even lit a fire in mine yet since we’re moving in a week and it’s still at my in laws, but the suspense is killing me.

I have never used fire bricks, nor really know anything about them. My best results have been placing that smoker facing a good way that will get plenty of air flow into the firebox and not from the other end (that will choke out the fire) then throw a chimney of roaring hot coals in the very bottom of the firebox (no ash tray piece, nothing keeping it up off the bottom) I run the fire on the bottom of the FB and haven't turned back yet. As for using the fire bricks, I assume you are using them to insulate the firebox in a sense? I personally wouldn't go out of your way to do that. Try to just dial your pecos in with what it has. I've had success. Even been doing some catering until my 500 gallon is finished. Let us know how it all goes!
 
I’ll probably go without the fire brick, but that’s what I was referring to. I’ve heard it keeps the firebox in better shape since the metal doesn’t get as hot. mine will be inside the garage, or smoking, so I’m not too worried about rust though.

I have never used fire bricks, nor really know anything about them. My best results have been placing that smoker facing a good way that will get plenty of air flow into the firebox and not from the other end (that will choke out the fire) then throw a chimney of roaring hot coals in the very bottom of the firebox (no ash tray piece, nothing keeping it up off the bottom) I run the fire on the bottom of the FB and haven't turned back yet. As for using the fire bricks, I assume you are using them to insulate the firebox in a sense? I personally wouldn't go out of your way to do that. Try to just dial your pecos in with what it has. I've had success. Even been doing some catering until my 500 gallon is finished. Let us know how it all goes!
 
I’ll probably go without the fire brick, but that’s what I was referring to. I’ve heard it keeps the firebox in better shape since the metal doesn’t get as hot. mine will be inside the garage, or smoking, so I’m not too worried about rust though.
Oh okay. Yeah I have cooked on mine maybe 20-25 times and it has always been covered. I have always dumped the ash out after a cook. The metal in the firebox has certainly changed colors and the door may have just warped a tiny bit but it's held up.
 
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