Got a call from the wife while traveling back into town from a work day trip. Could I detour 50 miles to walmart a couple towns over? The Oklahoma Joe Bronco she got me for Christmas was on clearance for $184 and was last one. And, guess it was too big to fit in her car. Surprise, new smoker!
Anyway, wanted to share what I'm seeing on this guy as far as assembly, seasoning, and trial run/temp control. Since the Christmas suprise that wasn't is now up and running, might as well figure it out and plan a Christmas dinner.
Assembly- easy, effortless really. It's a heavy unit and well built. Need a bit of muscle to man handle but goes together very easily.
Seasoning - full load of charcoal, lit about 15 briquettes, dumped lit briquettes into hole in charcoal pan on one side. Opened both intake and exhaust all the way. Got it up over 350 in no time, dialed it back to experiment with temp control. Got it down to 300 +/- for about 4 hours. Easy enough to get to temp but a little learning curve on which damper to move and by how much.
After about 4 hours, decided to play with the temp some more to learn lower air intake vs exhaust adjustment for temp control. Gonna be a learning curve to get it just right but I can say it does respond well and holds temp pretty dang well. She ran at 235 +/- for a good 3 hours. A couple times I messed with it just to see how it responds but it would have held well I think if I would have just let it be. Went to bed with it still rolling. Figure it ran 8+ hours on a full load of charcoal. had it running hot for over half that time so bet itll go longer with a more controlled cook.
Trial run - Couldnt stop this morning trying learn so wanted to see if I could run it at lower temp for sausage, sticks, and jerky. So, took the snake method alot of us use on the weber kettle and am 2 hours into a trial run. First hour was able to get it going and got it up to around 130, was wanting to keep creeping so dialed back exhaust a bit, tweaked the intake down, and I had this thing hold at 135 for over an hour. Opened the exhaust a bit trying to get it to creep up to 145ish, took about 30 minuted but crept to 165. Wife needed another cup of coffee anyway so got up and dialed back the exhaust just a bit and closed the intake just a very minimal amount. Gave the wife her coffee, watched the term and for last 30 minutes or so its held right at 165. Gonna just leave it right here and see how long I can get while keeping this temp.
Overall impression - the bronco well built, easy to put together and seems to hold temps well. While there is a learning curve, it responds well to adjustments.
Still gotta dial it in and learn to fine tune it but in just the minimal amount of time on this thing I'm loving how versatile it appears to be. Seems to be able to do it all.
Anyway, wanted to share what I'm seeing on this guy as far as assembly, seasoning, and trial run/temp control. Since the Christmas suprise that wasn't is now up and running, might as well figure it out and plan a Christmas dinner.
Assembly- easy, effortless really. It's a heavy unit and well built. Need a bit of muscle to man handle but goes together very easily.
Seasoning - full load of charcoal, lit about 15 briquettes, dumped lit briquettes into hole in charcoal pan on one side. Opened both intake and exhaust all the way. Got it up over 350 in no time, dialed it back to experiment with temp control. Got it down to 300 +/- for about 4 hours. Easy enough to get to temp but a little learning curve on which damper to move and by how much.
After about 4 hours, decided to play with the temp some more to learn lower air intake vs exhaust adjustment for temp control. Gonna be a learning curve to get it just right but I can say it does respond well and holds temp pretty dang well. She ran at 235 +/- for a good 3 hours. A couple times I messed with it just to see how it responds but it would have held well I think if I would have just let it be. Went to bed with it still rolling. Figure it ran 8+ hours on a full load of charcoal. had it running hot for over half that time so bet itll go longer with a more controlled cook.
Trial run - Couldnt stop this morning trying learn so wanted to see if I could run it at lower temp for sausage, sticks, and jerky. So, took the snake method alot of us use on the weber kettle and am 2 hours into a trial run. First hour was able to get it going and got it up to around 130, was wanting to keep creeping so dialed back exhaust a bit, tweaked the intake down, and I had this thing hold at 135 for over an hour. Opened the exhaust a bit trying to get it to creep up to 145ish, took about 30 minuted but crept to 165. Wife needed another cup of coffee anyway so got up and dialed back the exhaust just a bit and closed the intake just a very minimal amount. Gave the wife her coffee, watched the term and for last 30 minutes or so its held right at 165. Gonna just leave it right here and see how long I can get while keeping this temp.
Overall impression - the bronco well built, easy to put together and seems to hold temps well. While there is a learning curve, it responds well to adjustments.
Still gotta dial it in and learn to fine tune it but in just the minimal amount of time on this thing I'm loving how versatile it appears to be. Seems to be able to do it all.
