I dont think a charcoal bbq can produce the same flavor as a wood fired bbq. When charcoal is pyrolized the oganic matter, cellulose and lignin, is converted into carbon which burns with virtually no smoke. The smoke is where most of the particulate matter and the flavor comes from. Charcoal fired bbqs use chunks of wood to try to replace that flavor. A wood fired cooker is also a dryer cooking environment because of the volume of air flowing through the cooker. Both have their benefits and drawbacks. I use a stick burner mostly and a kettle to bbq with depending on my schedule and motovation level.
Here are some mods I have made to a
weber kettle so I can efficiently bbq with it using charcoal and wood chunks.
The damper blades got bent when I tryed to make it digest some lump and wouldnt choke the fire completly. I welded a ring to the damper blades so they would stay tite against
the kettle.
The stock fire grate let to much charcoal fall through so I covered it with a piece of 3/4x9 expanded.
Made a ring to hold some charcoal for low-n-slo. Along with some 6" long pieces around the outside of the charcoal to allow more air under the charcoal and help let the ashes fall through. The inside ring is 4" high and about 15" wide. This set up will allow
the kettle to bbq for 12+ hours, at 225*, with homemade oak lump charcoal. It will burn longer with briquetts but I havent tested it with them yet.
A new cooking grate.
A couple fattys I cooked while I was doing a test burn. The charcoal wouldnt burn consistantly without the pieces of expaned metal around the outside of the charcoal but it worked good enough to cook a couple fattys.
Heres a butt I cooked after I got
the kettle tuned up and running nicely. If I remember correctly the butt had been cooking for around 7 hours in this picture.