My smoker has always ran hot. When I got it I could not get it below 250* so i installed a needle valve and put sand in the pan and I could maintain 225* easy but the lowest I could get it was 188*. This week I started thinking about making jerky in it but after reading a thousand posts about jerky I found out I needed a constant 120* up to 160* and knew I couldn't do it with my smoker the way it was. Last night I tried using charcoal and with 6 briquet's and 1 small chunk of hickory it held steady at 120* for 45 minutes so I knew that would work and I could up the temp by adding a few more briquet's but I didn't want to have to babysit it and light more charcoal every 45 minutes for hours. Then it hit me, my gas grill has a side burner that I never use so I measured it and it was 2.5" and the burner in my smoker is 3.5", hmmmmm. So today I put the side burner in the GOSM and it held right at 149*-151* for over 2 hours. Then I opened the needle valve a little and it went to 223* and held that for a half hour and didn't budge, so I think I'm in business. My plan is to smoke the jerky with charcoal at 120* for as long as it lasts then continue to dry with propane slowly increasing to 160*. I know this is a boring thread but I am so happy I got it to do what I want it to! Here's a pic of it (I just set the old burner in there for a size comparison, it's a little misleading because the old one is closer to the camera):
