Trailer Build

[ron petersen]

Not sure where to start on this RF Build. I am liking the smoking fun and looking to get into local competition cookouts.

Found a chunk of steel that is 1/2" plate steel in a U shape, 32" wide, approx 30" deep and 96" long. 2 pieces and a shorter 3' piece. All bent to a U shape. I am liking the idea of 1/2" plate but not liking the weight I will have to work on. No biggie, have forklift. My trailer is a 16' car hauler that has not seen the road for a few years. So why not convert it to a smoking trailer?

Open to suggestions on a RF smoker.

Can't wait to get it started and hope price is right for the steel.

Ron

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• ron petersen
• Feb 1, 2015

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• ron petersen
• Feb 1, 2015

 

[bluewhisper]

Cool! I really, really miss playing at fabricating in my school metal shop.

 

[ron petersen]

That's the advantage of having a small fab shop I can use at work. I sold all my welding stuff to the company since I had no place to store equipment.

More I think about it, I want to be able to smoke anything. I want to smoke whole hog, butts, chicken, etc. 

Not sure what the cooking area size should be for a whole hog, any suggestions?

I might build a low temp smoker on the side for sausages and jerky.

Even if I don't get that steel, I will use plate steel and build a box type with doors opening side by side.

Ron

 

[bluewhisper]

There's a calculator here, for firebox/flue/chamber/exhaust sizes. I forget the name but someone soon will post it.

Edited to add, here's a lead

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/161795/is-feldons-calculator-really-flawed

 

[bluewhisper]

I was in metal shop in middle school ("junior high" then) in the 70s. We mainly worked with galvanized cold-rolled steel, sometimes copper pipe. We could cut, drill, fold, roll, solder and spot weld. I still have some of the pieces I made.

Later a friend's father had a manufacturing company that had similar equipment for making guards around belt drives. I never got to play with it but my friend made a few small portable grills.

Looking back now, though, that was probably galvanized which is bad for cooking because of the zinc.