Trailer Mounted Reverse Flow with added Goodies

[fourthwind]

Run smaller diameter splits. say the diameter of your wrist or less.   This way you can add less fuel and keep up your coal base.  

 

[hogie]

Actually, it turned fine... I still had too much fuel before I was pushing a new stick in.  It is holding steady now.  Even threw in some baked potatoes (wrapped in foil, with butter, salt, etc in the foil).  Fred and Wilma (I named the 2 chickens im cooking) are on their can perches and smoking up nicely.  Still have to wire brush some metal out there, and trying to wait until the food is out to start that.  Tomorrow I have the final 2 pieces for next week getting mounted, so I need to get this cube mounted on the front.  weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[hogie]

Its been a long week already.  We leave in the morning to go setup camp up at Germanfest in Muenster TX.  

Mine is the one on the right.  It is sitting next to the "company" smoker.

 

[Dutch]

Hogie-when are you going to give us a pictorial tour of your sweet smoker? I've been following your build and you have done an outstanding job!

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Wow!!!

That's an impressive build!

Looks awesome!!!

~Martin

 

[hogie]

Hogie-when are you going to give us a pictorial tour of your sweet smoker? I've been following your build and you have done an outstanding job!

When it is finished? :)  I'll try to get some photos this weekend during the competition / party.  Turn-ins are Saturday, and Im not firing up the smoker until maybe Friday night (might be before that, we have a 150lb whole hog in our meat order that's being picked up today).

I will sent in a little Q-View though from one of the racks of ribs Saturday :)

 

[michael ark]

looks good!:yahoo:

 

[hogie]

Okay, so this was a LONG weekend for me.  We had 3 smokers, 6 RVs, and a fridge trailer all in our "campsite".  I kept the large 2 pits running about 28 hours straight.

So, here is a little picture tour of the smoker from when I got it back to the office on Sunday afternoon.

First, is the firebox.  It is doublewalled, with a 1/2" plate door hinged to it.

I have 3x  4" square inlets on each side of the smoker with a sliding damper.  This worked out well this weekend when I had no guru powering the smoker (generator going empty on gas, moving cables, etc).

Inside the firebox, you can see the 6 side inlets, the 3 fan inlets in the back, and the RF plate to the cooking area.  I plan on making my fuel rack taller next time:)

Next is the cooking area.  Here are the 3 doors with their therms in place.  The handles stayed cool the whole time, but I plan on moving them lower, and angling them downward so I can grab them when the doors are open.  The board infront of the doors is a 9' long 12"x2" planed and with a quick finish.  It is temporary until I get one I REALLY like (this is white oak).

Chimney is 8" schedule 80 pipe.  The damper has a ring on the bottom of the poll that lets me grab it with a wooden dowel with a hook on its end.  works well:)

I have 5 shelves for cooking.  They are all removable.  The doors have drip strips built into them, and the upper flange strips are welded to the tank on the interior, not the exterior.  The horse shoes on the bottom trays are so I have something easy to grab with a gloved hand to pull /push on.

Right now, I have a 4' x 3' x 2' wood box on the front of the trailer, and a cutting board on hinges.  The cutting board base isn't completed (I am going to have another one built, as a locking unit so I can store stuff in it when needed), but it worked okay for the trip.  It is the perfect height for me, and I didn't have any issues with the cutting I did for the competition.

Here is how the base of the tank is welded on.  There is also a weld point where the tank is sitting on the short channel.  This got it up to where I wanted it (instead of off in midgetland like so many smokers;)

Finally, a look at where my chimney actually comes out of the smoker.  As you can see, I set it off toward the back so that I could pull it in lower to the RF plate, while still giving myself enough of a chimney for the drafting.

 

[hogie]

So, here's some food pics from this weekend too.

First, the sausage was for turnin.  They gave us just ground pork, and we re-stuffed them and cooked them.  We had to cut them into 27 pieces, so there wasn't much to taste test with.  Mine was the top right.

Next is some briskets we had.  Mostly the points, for our party.  We cut the flats off for competition cooking.  This was in our other large smoker.

Here are the ribs for the party in the same smoker, 1 door down.

Here was 2 people's turn-ins that were on my smoker.

And chickens for turnins and party eating.  I think they went on the smoker we were feeding apple.

Finally, to show how much room we had in our cook area.  The pop up canopies are at the front of the big smokers (mine and the company one).

There is a Fridge trailer on the right (the white box), and a rented smoker on the left even with the fridge truck.  On each side of this area is 2 RVs.

 

[fourthwind]

Looks awesome man!!

I would definately move the fire grate up.  Over the top pf the air inlets if you can.  You would be suprised how much of a difference it will make with the fire control.  Especially if you have wind.  Cold air can run right over your flames and actually cool your smoker instead of stoke the fire..  I like to put a 4 inch side piece of expanded metal around the fire grate as well.  Helps contain the wood during the cook.

 

[hogie]

Something else I noticed is that I should have had the axles further back on the trailer.  Instead of it being a "normal utility" trailer, I should have had them put the axles 12-18 inches further back.  It would have helped with the balance.

 

[dennis waters]

I agree and have also seen explosions, I use the water and add a bottle of Joy dish washing soap, better to be safe than BOOM !

 

[hogie]

Another pic from the first cookoff.  My smoker is the one on the right:) (me in blue shirt).

 

[raptor700]

WOW......your smoker is ½ the size of an RV!!!!

Great build, and the food looks delish 

 

[shoneyboy]

 

[hogie]

Just got awake from another cook...

Did 100lbs of brisket for chopped beef sandwiches in Prosper TX yesterday.  I need to make sure I have someone there to help me all night.  I went from 8am Wednesday -> 4pm Thursday without sleep (work, then cooking then serving then cleanup, then back home), because that is a killer.

 

[pvillecomp]

That is a very long day without helpers. 

 

[solaryellow]

Just got awake from another cook...

Did 100lbs of brisket for chopped beef sandwiches in Prosper TX yesterday.  I need to make sure I have someone there to help me all night.  I went from 8am Wednesday -> 4pm Thursday without sleep (work, then cooking then serving then cleanup, then back home), because that is a killer.

It most certainly is. Welcome to hell friend.

 

[hogie]

Did more cooking on it..  This time for charity (Pink Soles in Motion here in the DFW area).  We were at the Harley dealership in Carrollton Friday -> Saturday, cooking up some briskets for charity (and having a cook off).

Our "team" of 5, got 4 places in beans (basically 5->9th), I got 4th place in Chicken, and we might have had a last table on brisket (missed the numbers, but we think we had one).  Had 3 people ask me to build them a pit like mine.

 

[hogie]

It has been a long month.  My father passed away unexpectedly June 15th.  His instructions for his memorial service where a party (movie night, food, games, etc).  I ended up cooking a whole hog for work on a Friday, and put 3 pork butts and 3 briskets on for the service on the following day.  The BBQ was good, but I am going to miss his help and suggestions for my cooking.  Right now, I am in a hold position for further building (in the middle of a move).