500 gallon fuel tank build

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

kc chiefs fan

Newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2015
27
13
Southern Illinois
I have a 500 gallon fuel tank that I'm considering turning into a smoker since my old stick burner is getting, well, old.  I notice on my 30+ year old smoker that the area next to the fire box stays considerably warmer than the opposite end and there's about 25-50 degrees difference top to bottom.  Has anyone ever experimented with putting a fire box on each end and running the smoke stacks out of the bottom center?  I figure that way it could pull smoke up over a firewall on both sides then down and out the stacks at the bottom.  I could be way off base here but was just wondering what people thought.  Any advice or pictures of similar projects would be greatly appreciated.
 
I read a lot in the tutorial.  My old smoker is actually not a RF now that I've been reading.  It's more of an OS smoker.  Kind of lol.   It's like nothing I've really seen built on here, some 30 year old redneck rigging.  Another question is, the tank I have is big enough I could essentially put a FB at each end and a plate in the middle and have two CC's.  That way I don't have to heat up the whole thing for smaller cooks.  Would this even be doable?  Also I included pictures of my old smokers.  FB is half of the tank in the closer one and smoke goes over the wall then out the pipe on the bottom.  The second one is the same design just a much smaller FB and a bigger CC.  They work fine but you know how the addiction goes.  I didn't build these so I want something of my own.

 
 
Why not push it over on it's side and make a horizontal pig cooker?

Temps are much easier to control horizontaly than vertically in a smoker.

An Internal wall won't do much as the heat will transmit through the wall, so make as well use the whole thing.

Just my 2 pesos.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kc chiefs fan
 
Why not push it over on it's side and make a horizontal pig cooker?

Temps are much easier to control horizontaly than vertically in a smoker.

An Internal wall won't do much as the heat will transmit through the wall, so make as well use the whole thing.

Just my 2 pesos.
I wondered about that too, but I figured with a thick enough wall I would transfer any more heat through the wall than I would the outside of the smoker anyway.
 
This isn't the exact tank but it's similar, same size and shape.

B6380.JPG
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Hot Threads

Clicky