weber smokey mountain 18.5 old style no temp gauge question

[kevinl34]

I bought a brand new smokey mountain smoker for a heck of a deal.  The only thing its the old style prior to 2009 when the changes were made.  I put it together and it seems the rack sit lower than the new version.  Also the water pan is like siting on top of the coals and seem to have no space in between the coals and the pan and seems like it would be hard to place wood chunks in the coal chamber which puzzled me.  If anyone has the older version please let me know if these were problem you had and what did you do to try and correct them.  thanks it would make me feel like I havent put it together wrong if other had the same issues.

 

[bama bbq]

I've read on TVWB that In 2001, Dave Stamper's solution was to replace the water pan with a Brinkmann charcoal pan. It holds almost 2 gallons of water, twice the capacity of the WSM pan.

I hope this helps.