Trailer Mounted Reverse Flow with added Goodies

[rubbin butts]

3/8 or 1/2" would work great, I would use 1/4"plate cut down into shims to set the new door on to weld the hinges in place. In fact I would use 1/4" spacing on all door edges. (top, bottom and both sides)

If your hinges have any looseness in them, be sure to preload the hinges before welding them in place, otherwise when you remove the bottom shims the door will sag. If you can't preload them enough, then you will need to leave more space at the bottom to allow room for door sag. Remember the solid door will have a good bit more weight to it.

 

[hogie]

How would I preload the hinge?  I just want to try to get this right since redoing hinges SUCKS

 

[rubbin butts]

How would I preload the hinge?  I just want to try to get this right since redoing hinges SUCKS

What I mean by preloading the hinge is to weld one side of each hinge in place and then put enough down pressure on the other half of each hinge (with the shims in place on all 4 sides of the door) to equal at least the weight of the door, and then weld it in place. That will prevent the door from sagging after you take the shims out.

 

[fourthwind]

I'll be honest and say that you should just replace the door with a 1/2" plate door and no insulation.   You will lose very little since the heat is going forward towards the smoker.    Also I would recommend adding 3/4" strap to the bottom of the inside of your doors.  Angle them down and 45° so that fat and oil drips off the strap and into the smoker instead of dripping down the outside of your smoker.

 

[rubbin butts]

I'll be honest and say that you should just replace the door with a 1/2" plate door and no insulation.   You will lose very little since the heat is going forward towards the smoker.    Also I would recommend adding 3/4" strap to the bottom of the inside of your doors.  Angle them down and 45° so that fat and oil drips off the strap and into the smoker instead of dripping down the outside of your smoker.

That is what we are discussing is a solid door either 3/8" or 1/2". Either one will work, just depending on what is available.

Yes, the drip strip is necessary to save from a mess while cooking.

 

[bubbonehead]

I'll be honest and say that you should just replace the door with a 1/2" plate door and no insulation.   You will lose very little since the heat is going forward towards the smoker.    Also I would recommend adding 3/4" strap to the bottom of the inside of your doors.  Angle them down and 45° so that fat and oil drips off the strap and into the smoker instead of dripping down the outside of your smoker.

This is true. Mine is 1/2" and it gets pretty warm but doesn't really radiate that much heat. That diversion strap is something I intend to add to mine also. It just looks a mess down the front of the smoker under the door. It only does it while it's warming up, but that's enough to make a mess. 
 

 

[scrappynadds]

looks great cant wait to see your qview.....

 

[hogie]

The drip strip... does that go on the door itself, or on the smoker?

 

[bubbonehead]

The drip strip... does that go on the door itself, or on the smoker?

On the inside of the door. Once you've got a nice build up of flavor on the inside of your smoker it turns to liquid as your smoker heats up. It runs down the inside of the door and without something to direct it to stay in the smoker, it ends up running out and down the outside. Run it the width of each of your doors near the bottom edge.

 

[fourthwind]

On the inside of the door. Once you've got a nice build up of flavor on the inside of your smoker it turns to liquid as your smoker heats up. It runs down the inside of the door and without something to direct it to stay in the smoker, it ends up running out and down the outside. Run it the width of each of your doors near the bottom edge.

Just make sure to position it as close to the bottom of the door as possible, but be sure to check that it wont interfear with the grates or anything else when it closes.  Do a piece with just a couple tack welds first, and if it's all good, then you can just do a few 3 inch sections along it's length so that you dont induce a warp into your doors.

 

[beanyray]

The drip strip is a great idea!

 

[hogie]

Well, I went to my steel shop this morning.  It is becoming like Cheers there, everyone knows my name;)   They are eagerly awaiting for some BBQ.

Got the new door plate bought, and home.  Mounting it was a PITA (I had nobody to help me).  I think I got it pretty straight.

Ran out of material for the drip strips (got 2 out of 3 doors done), so I'll hopefully get a last strip from Lowes tomorrow (I hate buying from them, but 1 piece wont kill me).  I also started putting expanded metal around the area that will be the prep / cutting board base.  This way I can use it for storage without anything falling out of the sides of the trailer.  I bent the piece of expanded so it would make the turn around the front of the trailer by hand, and I will NEVER do that again.  The frame for the wood (fuel) storage is also completed.  I just need to wrap it in expanded metal now too.  After that, it is on to the frame for the prep area.  I am scheduled to cook on it at the end of the month (2 weeks from today), so getting everything ready now is really killing me since I still feel like I have so much to do.

 

[fourthwind]

It will all be worth it in the end man..  Trust me I understand schedules.  I have 5 weeks to get our competition smoker done for this season, and we have not even started it yet..  Going to be an ugly few weeks.

 

[hogie]

Just got back from dropping off the church trailer, and stopped by a firewood merchant on the way back.  Picked up a truck load of pecan.  Now to get the rack finished.

 

[hdflame]

You'll like the pecan.  I've been buying pecans from a man for several years.  He has one of those cracking machines.  Makes all of the pecans shell really easy and 99.9% come out whole.  Last Fall when I went to get my pecans, I took my chainsaw and cut up a truck load from BIG limbs that had broken off his trees.  They were free.  He had them in a pile to burn!

If anyone knows of some local pecan growers in your area, you might stop by and ask if you can have the fallen limbs.  I got limbs that were over 8-10 inches in diameter.  I had to split some of them.  If this guy was closer, I'd just go over everytime a big limb falls and pick it up.  He's about an hour drive from me.  Need to find someone closer.

I like your smoker, especially the hatchet handles.  I may try to find a couple of those with the pick on the end that looks like fire axes and use them on my firebox and warming chamber.  I already have handles for my main cooking chamber.  I got some free grab rails with chrome mounts when we went to the factory to look at our new fire truck.

Glad I caught the discussion about the drip rails inside the doors.  I haven't read anywhere on here about doing that before, but great idea!

 

[fourthwind]

We use an oak base for heat then add pecan for flavor.  Your smoker should be large enough to handle full splits.  Just make sure that it's burning and not smoldering on you.  If you find that the logs are not burning right, then split them again into smaller 3 to 4 inch diameter pieces.  We do this anyhow to avoid getting the white smoke.  It takes far less time for new pieces to come to temp this way.

 

[hogie]

The rack for the wood is sitting in my driveway right now drying from paint...  I had to drive the truck to work with the wood in the back.  I really want to get it out of here and on the trailer.

At this point, I have 2 checklist items to finish up.

1)  3rd door's drip strip [Found some more 1/8" x 1" flat for it]

2)  Frame / mount for prep-cutting board top.  

I ended up cooking some spare ribs on our small brinkman, which I converted to a reverse flow, yesterday.  Didn't have any charcoal for it, just hickory chunks, and boy did those burn quickly.

I really hope the paint is dry when I get home so I can get the truck unloaded.

 

[hogie]

Well, I am firing it up tonight for some briskets overnight, and ribs / chicken tomorrow.  My internet has been down at the house since Monday evening, so I am posting this from work.  The new rack looks slick on the front, and I am getting the cutting board frame done tonight (it is all cut / grinded, just needs to finish welding).  We will see how the new door works on it.

If everything is good tonight / tomorrow, then I'll road test it Sunday, and take it to work on Monday.

 

[fourthwind]

Good luck man!    Keep an eye on them Briskets with a remote therm.   Reverse flows tend to cook faster than what you may be used to because of the radiant temp from the plate.  Our briskets average 10 - 12 hours at 225°, but your smoker is twice the size and may have less radiant heat from the plate.  My comp trailer was only 24 inches in diameter and 8 feet long.

 

[hogie]

It took it about 90 minutes to warm up this morning (at about 3am).  Got the briskets on about 5.  It is now 9:20, and they are sitting at a 155 internal temp.  Ive been feeding 1 log an hour into it, but when I do, the temp jumps.  I have the dampers closed, and the door closed, and the stoker hasn't run much since it is staying above 250[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]°.  I have the briskets on the top shelf in the middle door.[/color]

[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]There is about a 10F degree diff between my left and right doors' tru-tel therms (but they both calibrate to boiling the same).  need to find a way to cool off the heat without letting the coals go out.[/color]