# Propane Conversion of New Braunfels Vertical Smoker



## adiochiro3 (Jun 23, 2010)

I bought a Coleman gas grill on CL last week to replace my worn out Kenmore gasser.  This model came with one of those side burners for beans or whatever.  I have had side burners in the past and NEVER used them.  My SFB/Vertical combo smoker (AKA "Grillestate") works great; but occasionally, I need a few more BTU's in the upright.

Until now, that problem was solved by placing an electric burner in the bottom of the vertical section to boost the temp into the butter zone for certain smokes.  I decided to cannibalize the side burner out of the new Coleman grill and a few bits from the old Kenmore gasser and add a propane option to the vertical section of "Grillestate" -- providing a plethora of options and configurations for my various smoking needs.  Below is a picture of "Grillestate."  This propane mod went into the vertical portion only.








Conveniently,the New Braunfels vertical smoker accepts the same fuel bowl as the ECB's.  I happen to have one that is pretty well on its way to burn out, so cutting out the bottom with tin shears was a piece of cake.  If you try this, please wear goggles because these bowls have some sort of coating that flakes and flies while cutting.







I had to cut a couple of notches for the bar that supports the burner.







As you can see, the fit was beautiful.  I was even able to reuse the original nuts and bolts from the Coleman grill to bolt the burner to the bowl.







I harvested part of the control panel, the valve & knob, and the ignitor/spark generator from the Kenmore and mounted it under the vertical smoker. 







The whole system worked out great!  I hooked it up to the propane, hit the ignitor, and had flame!  You can see part of the bracket I made to mount the controls under the smoker.







The nice part about this conversion is the flexibility.  I can:

use just the vertical portion of the smoker with propane (which will be awesome for jerky smoking and dehydration, among other things).
pop out the conversion, put another bowl in, and use it as originally designed with coals/wood.
use the propane in conjunction with the SFB and boost the heat in the vertical portion on big smokes.
leave the burner off for smoking cheese, etc. (The vertical portion stays nice and cool when the SFB is smoking and I use the vertical as the "chimney.")
Thanks for looking!


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## matts (Jun 24, 2010)

Nice conversion and recycling.  Can we see a pic of the burner installed?


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## mballi3011 (Jun 24, 2010)

Thanks for that tutorial there James. I have a extra smoker and it's a charcoal New Braunfel and my SOL wants it to convert over to gas so he can smoke like Grampie does on the new back porch we built last weekend.


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