Brinkmann Trailmaster LE

[lovinspoonful]

Trust me I have looked longingly at that Horizon plate with the graduated holes. It's a thing of simple and elegant engineering beauty. :)

 

[boardpuller]

Yes, the grate, Sorry let me go slower and not rant today. I fill the basket with charcoal (4 chimneys) open vents fully add 1 or 2 chimneys fully glowing charcoal on top. I  have waited hrs for the cook chamber to get hot, you can taste the charcoal smoldering. If I open the ash drarw we start heating up, shortly after the charcoal at the grate starts burning now I'm burning from the grate and the top. During my last cook I waited 3-4 hrs for heat then pulled the basket out and got hot fast food tasted like charcoal. The charcoal grate melted formed to the bottom of the fire chamber and had embeded ash. what am I doing wrong?

 

[smoking gun]

Personally I don't want my charcoal/wood basket sitting on the bottom of the firebox. My old one hung from the lip inside. Part of the Idea of a basket is to get better airflow to the fuel. By having space under the basket it breathes better and burns hotter. I fill my basket about 2/3 full with unlit coal but leave the empty space on the end by the air vent. I light a chimney and let it get good and hot then dump it in the empty space. Then I open the side door about 2 or 3 inches and it gets to 300 pretty quick.  Close the door and set the damper to control the temp and adjust as necessary. I start adding oak splits to the basket and whatever smoking wood I'm using in the wood pan. I'm used to burning left to right though.... :)  ..... Gonna be right to left on the trailmaster. 

 

[brick]

Tell me about the 45 degree bend. What does it do?

Thanks.

 

[smoking gun]

The 45 forces the heat and smoke down to the bottom of the pit, under the plate. I took a different approach and bent/rolled the steel plates to match the curve of the top of the firebox opening.  JMO but I think you get a better draft that way instead of forcing  the heat down. Both ways work though.

 

[boardpuller]

How critical is that 45 what if it less maybe 10 or 15?

 

[brick]

Oh, so it covers the top of the firebox opening completely. I'm going to a welding shop tomorrow and get the basket and plate. The top of the 45 should be above the top of the firebox hole, right?

 

[smoking gun]

Yes it covers the top and also seals at the sides, down to plate level. It's probably more efficient than mine. That horizon plate sure is purty.

 

[lovinspoonful]

OK Boardpuller when I read your description of your problem I thought to myself "restricted exhaust" because of the charcoal taste you were getting. Viewing your photos confirms for me that my diagnosis is correct. You are substantially occluding the pass-through from the firebox to the smokechamber with your deflector to the point that it's really impeding draw. It looks from your photos as though you have blocked off 4/5 of the opening. That would explain your fuel not burning and your chamber not getting up to temps. Take that thing out or bend it up substantially and run her without it and see how you do.

My bend is at 45 degrees and it's a straight bend and it brings the top bent part of the plate up to about 2/3 of the height of the opening. I also don't even push the plate completely up against the firebox. The goal is to split the heat and distribute it more evenly so that some enters the smoke chamber right there and the rest of it goes under the plate and spills out at the end on the sides since the plate is not as deep (front to back) as the grate on which it rests.

(added some pictures below which should make all the above rambling a bit clearer)

As a point of reference, at 70 degrees outside it take me about 45 minutes to get the smoker up and ready for food. 10 minutes lighting the charcoal in a chimney and another 30-40 to get the smoker to a equilibrium where it's warmed up, the fuel is burning consistently, and she's holding at the desired temp. If I open my intake vent all the way I'm going to see temps in my smoke chamber above 300-350. With the vent open 1/4 I'm usually at 225. I always leave the chimney flue open all the way when cooking.

 

[smoking gun]

This is similar to mine but my plates are higher and arched to match the curve of the FB opening.....

 

[brick]

Thanks guys, this helps a lot!

 

[boardpuller]

LovinSpoonful Thanks I will try that and post results

 

[laxinfish29]

Today was my first smoke on this smoker, wanted to post a few things.

-I used a water pan about 3 inches from the opening instead of a baffle or plates.  Where the lower grates would be. 

-It was much easier to jack the temp up to 275ish by opening both the chimney and lower vent all the way, including opening the ash drawer. I then closed the ash drawer and lower vent to 25 percent open and that held it steady for 4 plus hours now.

I was really impressed with it overall.  I did put high heat caulk on every place possible.  I also added two thermos to the door and extended the exhaust down to grate level using dryer hose.

Pictures to follow.

 

[laxinfish29]

So I took two bottom round roasts, marinaded them in two marinades for 8 hours each.

1. Dr. Pepper, Brown Sugar.

2. Italian Salad Dressing, Worchestire sauce

Also did a fattie, with sausage, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, and onions.  All wrapped in bacon.

Bushs baked beans with added bacon, smoked for 2 hours underneath the fattie.

Brinkmann Trailmaster LE smoking like it should.

Roast #1

Roast #2

Fattie:

 

[brick]

Nice! Wow, made me hungry!

 

[nailit]

Looks good!

I have # 9562 here in AZ and right now doing two butts, approx. 26 pounds, and figure this will be at least a 14 hour smoke to get to 190 degress, with the smoke box at 230 degrees.

I too have done some mods to this Trailmaster LE; the 45 degree baffle with a 6" tuning plate, stack extension to the grill, expanded metal basket in the fire box and I also modified the ash tray. I did cut the bottom out of the tray itself and extended to a deep 8" tray. It's great not having to dump the tray 2-3 (or more) times during a long smoke. I also added one of those ceramic coated heat plates at the bottom of the smoke box. It seems to work well when it comes to transferring the heat from the fire box from one end the other.

I also added two draw-down latches to help keep some of the heat and smoke in. I'm really happy with the results that we have been getting with this smoker. The modifications have helped quite a bit. 

 

[lovinspoonful]

Ceramic coated heat plates? Can you provide a link to what you're talking about? I keep meaning to put some bricks of some sort in mine to help with heat retention and would love to see what you used.

 

[schteve]

I have this smoker and so far it is very nice. My only problem is getting the temp high enough. I can run 220 or 225 but can't get higher then that with out opening the ash pan. I made a sheet metal baffle but I need to remake. seems like a cookie sheet would work out well as those pictured. I made a charcoal basket and even only putting hot coals in it seems the fire chokes out. How are you running yours to get that hot, Lovinspoonful? Are you burning wood or charcoal?

 

[socalbbq]

I have this smoker and so far it is very nice. My only problem is getting the temp high enough. I can run 220 or 225 but can't get higher then that with out opening the ash pan. I made a sheet metal baffle but I need to remake. seems like a cookie sheet would work out well as those pictured. I made a charcoal basket and even only putting hot coals in it seems the fire chokes out. How are you running yours to get that hot, Lovinspoonful? Are you burning wood or charcoal?

I use lump charcoal.  Start with a full chimney of lump to start and pour that in a circle of lump I placed in the firebox, somewhat Minion like.  Depending on length of smoke, I will add extra pieces of lump on top of already burning.  I want to buy/build charcoal basket so I can place hot chimney of coals on top of basket of unlit coals.  Seems like this will let fire burn for quite a bit longer.  I actually have the opposite problem where I have a hard time keeping under 250 and would have an easy time keeping at 275.  Once my fire is going I actually close the damper on the firebox and have the chimney in the smoker closed half way.  Seems to work in our climate.

Maybe trying a different fuel will give you better results?  Good luck!

 

[brick]

I have the charcoal basket but always put one log on top. I have the plate with a 45 degree bend in one end and find that if I have the vents opened all the way it will get to 500.