Hey Ya'll, been dormant for spell, It was my thoughts as well Eric, I mostly smoke the ribs, links, fatties and tri-tips, on the upper 2 racks in my MB-XL, I feel that it is cooler away from the heat source but it give the meat more of a "convection" affect and "swirl" that is not very more pronounced to fluctuate and stay more consistence, and with the TBS, it give the meat more of a coverage and stays in contact before it goes out the top back vent, And to add that is where it keep my probe as well, on the middle sweet spot on the rack that would give the most even reading for ALL of the things Im smoking, or for the largest cut ae. brisket, Butt, tri-tip or sirloin, that will take the longest to smoke and needs the most consist ant temp reading, and everbody else in the pool can just take a back seat to the main beast, and just stay slow & low..that was another reason I gave my 2 cents to SoSlow to completely block off the 2 lower side vents to stop the cross draft that was just cooling off and pushing the heat right out of the top vents and drive his Temp in a head spin.I think the area of the opening to the burner was just enough to bring in air and heat it up before it goes up and Out. that is one thing I love about my MBXL is just one top vent to the rear that allows the heat and smoke to stay just a little longer n the chamber , and doesn't give a draft up/down with the weather outside. Plus i did a Calc on the ammount of LPG I went through on one bottle, with a brisket, Butt, sammie, Fattie, tri-tip, 3 BB ribs 1/2 a rack of SRibs, and a whole 14lb Turkey,, I used only 3.25 gal of Jungle Juice....It cost me to fill up $8.25 at the station, WOW.! I would have gone through (4) 18lb bags of kingsford. On my upright, and my Char-broil Offset smoker..
Gary,