Char Griller Smokin Pro

[gitgone]

I bought a Smokin Pro Years ago because my terminally ill son want to try smoking. We used it for 5 or 6 years. After he passed I gave it away. I bought a WSM and have had no problems with it. Was feeling a little sad a couple months ago and bought another Smokin Pro. Did all the mods and tried doing ribs 3 or 4 times. I use a charcoal chimney to get the fire going. I also use a charcoal basket. Gets up to 250 fairly easy. Exhaust is always wide open. Intake is open 1/4 inch. All is good till I add a chunk of hickory. The chunks are anywhere from 1 to 3 inches thick by 3 inches tall. Nothing but heavy white smoke for indefinite period. If I open the the ash drawer about 1/2 inch the white smoke subsides. Start to get tbs but the temp goes 300 plus. After no more smoke, I close the ash drawer and temp goes back down to 250 over several minutes time. I have been putting chunks against the outside of the charcoal basket to preheat. I have found that after 15 minutes the chunks start putting out what appears to be tbs. This will last approximately an hour. At that time I put them in the charcoal basket and within a couple minutes white smoke starts rolling. Do the ash drawer adjustment until smoke cleans up. Close the drawer and put another chunk outside the basket. I did a rack of spares this past weekend. Same process as usual. Chunks outside for 45 to 60 minutes. Then in the basket and adjust for white smoke. There was almost no smoke taste even though the meat had a major smoke ring. A rack of spares done a week ago had good smoke flavor and a huge smoke ring. I know I'm restricting the oxygen supply by adjusting the intake too close. Today I played with the smoker and no food. Seems like i'm always gonna have to battle the fire box settings to avoid dirty smoke. I know this is a major cos and accept the fact that it needs babysitting. It just seems strange that my old smoker never had this problem. Maybe it's me and old age. Any advice would be appreciated