UDS smoker problem with making ribs

[dozer77]

I have a 55 gal uds, the last 5 attempts making ribs have been a failure. The meat is bright red inside, but the bark is perfect. The meat is chewy and tough, when I rip it off the bone the bone is even red but yet my thermo pen shows inside temp of meat at 200-205.
I tried the 4 hr hanging method. Also the 4 hr on grate. Im running 250-275, using briquettes and cherry wood 1 chunk.
What am I doing wrong? Should I try a heat deflector so its indirect heat? Water pan? Different cut of ribs?

 

[fivetricks]

I would recommend as follows:

Yes to the diffuser.

Stop hanging the ribs. Too much variance from top of rack to bottom in temps.

Sounds like your thermopen may be lying to you.

4 hours, even for a UDS, is not enough time at your temp.

You didn't specify what type of rack you're trying this out on, but 5 is a dead minimum for me at those temps for BB ribs. Clearly your ribs are way under done. Try researching the bend and crack method for checking ribs.

No to the waterpan.

But my first suggestion is to use different thermos. There's something off in your current setup :-)