To reverse flow or not...

[dantra]

Just starting what was originally just going to be a side box cooker. Now I'm wondering if there are advantages or disadvantages to just going RF. Let me state that I know absolutely nothing about smoking. I figured that I'd go with the side box and attempt some smoking but would probably use it alot as a charcoal grill also. At this point, I can just about go either way with it. I'm working with a 120 gallon tank... 24" diameter and have cut approx 20" off for a fire box leaving roughly 48" of the tank for grill. My plan was to model after one that a manufactured mobile grill we have here at the plant. The fire box on it is a 50/50 offset but we mostly use it as a charcoal grill. I have a abundance of materials out in our machinery bone yard.. all free goods :-)

 

[bruno994]

I prefer a reverse flow cooker, but you won't really go wrong either way.  Another option is to build a direct flow with tuning plates, this will help in achieving the same ideas of a reverse flow, which is more even cooking temps from one side to the other.    

 

[dantra]

I like the idea of tuning plates... would you want to have the chimney as a DF, RF or 2 chimneys for versitility?

 

[bruno994]

You can do either, go with 2 stacks, close the reverse flow one when running gaps in your tuning plates and run it direct flow, or you can close the standard exhaust and close the gaps down on the tuning plates turning it into a reverse flow.