roaster smoker combo?

[mattchew71]

Bought this new roaster/smoker/grill and was hoping to get some insight from some experienced cookers.

Here is a photo of the unit.

I drew a rough sketch of the internal workings becaues photos were not doing justice (and the drawing barely gets there)

Not pictured is a water/drip pan that lays underneath the grate and rests on the parallel tubes.

The tubes/vents have adjustable plates over them on the outside of the grill. The tubes have small holes for venting along the inside. From what I am guessing that is more for a roasting situation. The small square inside the grill is a hole which opens down to the firebox. The hole can be covered and coals laid down for the roasting.

I know this is an odd design and will be used more as a roaster but wondering about the functionality of the smoker using the lower firebox. Is it common to have no vents into the fire box and a hole in the middle? Would it make sense to move the hole to the left side (opposite the chimney)? There is a unit underneath for which coals could be stacked (minion method maybe) and the water pan would deflect some of the direct heat but it seems like it would be pretty hard to control the temp. There isn't even a cover on the chimney (should i add one?) 

Either way I plan on heating this thing up Saturday and seeing what she can do. Your thoughts and tips are welcomed. Thanks 

 

[mattchew71]

Well it works. I made a charcoal basket:

got her cooking at 250 and put the birds on. Here is a check in at about 2 hours. I had enough self control to only open the pit twice (once to put potatoes in and once to move the thermometer to the meat.

On the cooker:

here is the final product

had a really fun first time smoke and can't wait to cook something again.

I have a fairly large cooker but is it pretty common to burn though 16+ lbs of lump? I cooked for about 5.5 hours. My temp never got too high so i feel like i didn't burn a ton of coal but i had to replace with a hot chimney every 50 min (of course i was trying to keep the chicken up higher. It held at 225 like a dream) Would insulation in the firebox help enough to merit the work?

As far as the chicken cooked, when i punched the temp probe in the breast to check the meat (couldn't leave the probe in with the rotis running) it was right around 165, I pulled it out and went to check somewhere else and I could not believe the amount of fluid that flowed out of the bird. Must have poured half a cup out and it was still unbelievably juicy after another hour in the cooker. A great day all together.