I own Old Country Wrangler offset BBQ pit. Personally I believe its a good quality pit for the money. A few things bothered me about the pit. I own a 8ft reverse flow off set custom pit on a trailer constructed from 3\8" steel I call "La Ruca". The Old Country is constructed pretty well. Mine, I changed some stuff around, built a adjustable tuning plate to level the heat on both sides of the cooking chamber, got rid of them junky metal wheels and installed some nice 400 lb rated 10" hard rubber mag wheel style tires on all four corners. Got rid of that flimsy metal drop down shelf and installed a nice sturdy stainless steel shelf. I installed (2) 2 1\2" tel tru thermometers, one high on the cook chamber (the above shelf) the other lower about 6" off the lower shelf. Installed some wood stove door insulation 3\4" by 1\4" on the door of the cooking chamber.
I read a lot of grips on them on the internet, some saying they can not manage the heat to be consistent. They leak and do not hold heat. Plus these are most likely the same folks that "if your look'n you aint cook'n". I have no problem maintaining consistent heat in the cooking chamber. I do not peek at my meat, my cook chamber door is closed at all times unless I'm basting or spritz'n. To me I figure these folks do not know what their doing or can not solve (fix) simple problem to minor hick-up in their pit. But what do you expect for a 500.00 plus dollar pit, I guess these are the same folks that expect the same quality as a Lang or Jambo cooker. LOL! I run my pit's (both of them) with the fire box door open and I adjust the door opening or closing to maintain my fire. I do not use the damper. I learnt this from old timers on their pit's cooking with them. I've been doing this the better part of 20 plus yrs and produce some good BBQ.
Most of the time I run my temperatures anywhere 235 & 250 on either pits. Every once in a while I run 325 for a faster cook. I can maintain that consistently throughout long cooks @ 235 to 250 or medium cooks if I'm running hotter like 325. I started out yrs ago with an really old Brinkman tin can off set pit, and got pretty dang good with it doing long cooks & medium cooks. But them tin cans require tons of time maintaining temperature, stoking that fire. Then I bought my custom built trailer offset reverse flow pit 16 yrs ago. I find that good pits require less time in fire management. I wanted a smaller pit, a decent off set actual stick burner (not a charcoal burner). It didn't matter if it was a traditional direct flow or reverse flow. I just wanted a small pit that wouldn't break the bank and had thick enough metal that it would maintain the heat in the fire box and cook chamber. Then I stumbled onto the Old Country Pits, & I looked at them and bought one 2 months ago.
This winter I plan on media blasting the out side of the pit and re-coating the exterior in a high temperature ceramic coating that's good up to 1400 degrees. This is the same coating I put on NFA guns (full auto)
I have to say I like the Old Country Pit, I consider it a true stick burner pit, the firebox is large enough to accommodate 16" White Oak, Post Oak & Hickory logs I cut here on my farm. The thickness of the metal is satisfactory at best for holding good heat for the small size of the pit.
