Craigslist Gold-Need Some Help

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coachin&smokin

Fire Starter
Original poster
May 23, 2008
72
10
Lewisport, KY
I managed to find this 2 hours from my house and couldn't pass it up.  I bought the whole rig for $300.  Other than the tire blowing out on the way home I still made out like a bandit.  It needs some TLC and paint but it's definitely will be good to go soon. 

After getting it home and trying to figure out what to do with it I have some questions.  The firebox has three pipes coming into the smoke chamber so that smoke and heat gets transferred.  I thought about making the cooker reverse flow and my question is could I just extend the pipes the length of the smoker and then close off the exhaust farthest away from the firebox?  Would this work much like a reverse flow plate? The only air intakes are what you see on the door.  I have a feeling that's not enough for this big cooker.  I don't completely understand why it has two exhausts and am not sure the opening from the firebox with the three pipes is enough either.  Has anyone seen or is familiar with a cooker like this?  The guy I bought it from got in Texas and he said it works great as it is and he's cooked for weddings with it.  I just don't want to start messing around with it and then ruin the original design and then have a mess to fix.  Any help would be appreciated!

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Looks like a great buy !!!!
I would do a run with it "as is" just to see how good it works.
then you can see its weak point ,if any and go from there .
 
Coach, morning... Looks like you did find a gem....  You could fire it up and check to see how even the heat distribution is...  several pans of water on the grate and check the temps... 

I'm no expert, by any stretch of the imagination, but looking at other smokers and their designs, 2 things come to mind as possible improvements to the unit.... 

First, in the fire box, an elevated grate for the wood, to allow ashes to fall through and allow air to get to the wood would be a consideration....

Second, below the cooking grate, heat deflector plates, (tuning plates) could be installed to get a more uniform heat distribution to the food... The reason I say that is, it appears the previous owner installed the tubes to move the heat farther down the smoker..... 

Hey, it could work just fine.... fire her up and let us know how she works.... Pictures are a must.... Enoy your new find... 

Dave
 
Thanks for the advice Dave!  Do you know what size the tuning plates would need to be for a 250 Gallon Propane tank?  If I go with tuning plates should I worry with the pipes?  If you notice one of them had rusted and broke off.  I guess I will try and replace that. 

I'm definitely going to try moving the wood grate up.  I can turn the one I have in there sideways and it will fit with plenty of room to spare. 

Do you think if I extended the pipes farther down it would doe the same as tuning plates?  I'm definitely going to just fire it up and let it run and see what happens.  I might be worrying for nothing. 
 
Thanks for the advice Dave!  Do you know what size the tuning plates would need to be for a 250 Gallon Propane tank?  If I go with tuning plates should I worry with the pipes?  If you notice one of them had rusted and broke off.  I guess I will try and replace that. 

I'm definitely going to try moving the wood grate up.  I can turn the one I have in there sideways and it will fit with plenty of room to spare. 

Do you think if I extended the pipes farther down it would doe the same as tuning plates?  I'm definitely going to just fire it up and let it run and see what happens.  I might be worrying for nothing. 
Coach,  Here are tuning plates explained.......
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/54542/building-an-italian-offset-smoker

And here is a calculator to explain the opening sizes for air intake, exhaust, fire box/ cook chamber etc....   It will allow you to determine if the smoker was designed correctly.... 

http://www.feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator.html
 

Any more questions ?????  We are all here to help...... Dave
 
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