# oklahoma joe smoker  vs old country pecos



## rober49 (Feb 14, 2016)

has anyone seen a current old country smoker in person recently. old reviews state it's built out of 1/4" steel. the current specs show it as being 14 gauge ( 1/16" ) chamber & 11 gauge ( 1/8" ) doors. the nearest dealer is 1 1/2 hours down the road. if this is true the Oklahoma joe is looking better considering it's 3/16" steel & i have a lowes less than 2 miles away.


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## joe black (Feb 15, 2016)

I think your thickness is correct for the Pecos.  However, the Old Country Wrangler is thicker.  I really like the looks of the Wrangler for the money.  Folks will say that the Pecos is larger, but I think that the Wrangler has a second rack.  I would always go for thickness, IMO.

One and a half hours is not a bad trip to look at a smoker that you will have for a number of years.


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## rober49 (Feb 15, 2016)

yes, the specs for the wrangler say that it's I/4" steel. academy is not showing the wrangler. did the brazos replace it?? I haven't found a website for old country.


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## joe black (Feb 15, 2016)

As far as I know, the Wrangler is still available.  Folks are still talking about them.  The Brazos is a larger smoker and a little higher priced.  Old Country may have eliminated the Wrangler to force folks to move on to the Brazos from the Pacos.  

At the price of a Brazos, you are moving into a similar custom smoker.  I was about ready to pull the trigger on a Brazos about 1-1/2 years ago and saw a post about Bell Fab.  I contacted them and spoke with Craig Bell.  He is a very good guy and makes a really good quality product.  The material and construction are first class.  You can contact him at:  bell[email protected].


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## rober49 (Feb 15, 2016)

thanks a lot!!!! another smoker to consider..............


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## rober49 (Feb 15, 2016)

lowes has the Oklahoma Joe at 10% off making it $386.00 & I get 5%if I use my lowes card making it $367.00. the plot thickens.


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## rober49 (Feb 16, 2016)

I went back to lowes & kicked the ok. joes tires & took a good look at everything they had. one lesson is take notes. the ok joe is 3/32" metal not 3/16" like I posted above. something stood out though. looking at the ok joe longhorn I can see that the metal gauge, components, welds, fit, finish, size, etc. are nearly identical to the older brinkman pitmaster deluxe that I just picked up at the scrap yard. the chargrill models are about the same as the newer brinkman horizontal models that I looked at being closed out at home depot. I wonder if these were built at the same or neighboring job shops.

 you know this is worse than shopping for a truck. I looked at bellfab, gator, tejas, hoder.............the list goes on & most are out of my price range. the price of shipping has gotten to be just plain stupid so with the weight of these things I need to find something relatively nearby.  the drive to acadamy is at least $40.00 in fuel. I think that for now I will cool my jets, clean up & use the pitmaster & keep looking & researching. there is nothing urgent about this. in april I have to go to a farm & pick up some hives near academy so I can check out the old country smokers.

more questions:

all the research I've done points to attaching the exhaust stack below the food grates. lyfe tyme, gators, & yoder all have stacks above the grate. do these stacks extend down internally?

are these horizontal offsets fuel hogs??


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