What would you guys do??

[firemanjon]

I have been up in the air for a while now about a few things and have done a ton of research on a few different reverse flow smokers...here's my situation. I have been wanting another stick burner and the wife has given me the ok to get one but I've been trying to make up my mind. I want a trailer smoker so I can easily take it with us when we are camping or cooking out at friends on weekends. I have heavily researched Lang smokers which I am looking at heavily the 36 stretch or the 60 model and they only have about a 3 week lead time right now. I have also looked at Shirley 24x60 model which looks to be very high quality from the pics I have seen and I think is very reasonably priced...but has a Jan 2018 approx delivery..not to impressive. My third option is to build myself...the only downfall to which is working two jobs and doing some work out of shop at house on the side leaves me no spare time as is. What little time I do have I try to spend with the family and would also lead to probably a Jan 2018 completion time lol. What would you guys recommend in this situation lol. I would love to build it no doubt!! But as long as it would take me and for the very reasonable price and quality of the Shirley smoker, I would almost have as much in material as it would cost to buy it and let them do the work...plus it does help support a business as well.

 

[weev]

Have you checked out craigslist I was in the same situation this last year and I ended up finding one that I liked a few hours away. I know a lot are junk but it never hurts to look.

 

[firemanjon]

I've checked used ones a few times with not much luck. There have been several listed but not much that I was interested in. Been keeping an eye open on the classifieds here too

 

[weev]

Ya it took me a few weeks but I finally found one I liked I had to drive 5hrs to get it but it saved me a lot of money

 

[gr0uch0]

Last thing you want to do, Jon, is to sacrifice more time away from your family to justify what you're looking to buy--time flies past much too quickly as is.  If you haven't seen what you want listed in classifieds, post your own "wanted" ad:  I did this years' ago when I was looking for a gently used boat lift.  I didn't see any for weeks, and I didn't want to pay new prices.  Ran a 2 weeks' want ad in the local paper (before CL was around), and I ended up with dozens of calls from folks all over the state after listing.  Let folks know you're looking instead of waiting for something to come along.

If you're set on new, and want to try and keep some expense down, look at some of the fabricators next door to you in OK and TX that you can haul home on your own.  I know there are top notch fabricators in the Houston area, and Horizon headquarters are in Perry, OK that you may want to look at.  My $0.02

 

[firemanjon]

The drive don't bother me either if I find a good deal. There's a few things I would want one to have which has thrown out most options lol. I wanted a warmer box, at least around 60" cook chamber, trailer wide enough to load equipment beside smoker body...which threw out Lang 60 but made 36 stretch the perfect fit. Once I saw the Shirley 24x60 I loved their design. I was going to build one very similar and if I had plenty of down time I would have already started lol but they are within 500 dollars of what I can buy the materials for getting them at cost from my supplier. I've actually built several in my spare time out of my shop but I don't really have time to work on one for myself lol...(non paying jobs usually don't start till after 7pm)

 

[firemanjon]

Last thing you want to do, Jon, is to sacrifice more time away from your family to justify what you're looking to buy--time flies past much too quickly as is.  If you haven't seen what you want listed in classifieds, post your own "wanted" ad:  I did this years' ago when I was looking for a gently used boat lift.  I didn't see any for weeks, and I didn't want to pay new prices.  Ran a 2 weeks' want ad in the local paper (before CL was around), and I ended up with dozens of calls from folks all over the state after listing.  Let folks know you're looking instead of waiting for something to come along.

If you're set on new, and want to try and keep some expense down, look at some of the fabricators next door to you in OK and TX that you can haul home on your own.  I know there are top notch fabricators in the Houston area, and Horizon headquarters are in Perry, OK that you may want to look at.  My $0.02

Sounds like great advice...thanks man, I'll give those guys a look.

 

[gr0uch0]

Just Googled "Houston BBQ fabricators":  there's literally dozens of them out there.  Horizon in OK are the Davidson boys:  started and ran a little company you may have heard of before selling back in '98.  Oklahoma Joe.  They know a thing or ten about building a spit.  Good luck.