UDS question

[northmichmorels]

I've decided to start on one and begin my quest for a food grade drum locally today. Disposal of these is tough and since I don't live in too populated of an area I'm hopeful this won't be tough.

My question as I begin to lay out my plans is this: Has anyone experimented with two cooking grates on their UDS? All the pics I see have one top grate and I thought about doing a lower grate also. When hanging stuff from the top I could remove the top grate and still use the bottom one, or run two grates w/some fish on the bottom grate, around the periphery perhaps.

Do you think there would be too much heat variance between the two grates?

 

[donnylove]

My experience is limited, but I've seen various other posts on this and other forums where drummers have multiple grates, especially if they use a domed (kettle grill) lid. I'm just finishing my first UDS build and I'll only have one cooking grate initially, but I set it low enough that I can add another grate at any time. Good luck and enjoy!

 

[bigtrain74]

I don't see why you cannot cut the barrel in towards the top to make a second layer. Then you could just apply some cheap fasteners to it to lock and unlock it on each side like many bullet smokers do.

 

[billbo]

Donnylove hit it on the head. If you use a 22.5" Weber kettle lid you can get two grates going. I recently just built mine and did it with one grate for now until I can find a lid and add another. You could add a second one without the Weber lid but you will have limited space between grates. Remember that your bottom grate must be at least 24" from the charcoal basket grate. This usually means about 7" down the drum on a standard 55 gal unit. You also do not want to impeed the airflow in the unit. By loading up two grates right on top of each other you might expererience this problem.

Check out this link, it has a lot of good info! http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=67767

Check out this too http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=75991

Keep us posted and don't be afraid to ask questions!

 

[tld]

Just finished building mine. I've got 2 grates. check this link out it was very helpful for me.
www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43943&highlight=redneck+uds