Won a 22.5” Weber Smokey Mountain smoker a couple of weeks ago in a Marine Corps League Detachment raffle/fundraiser for a brother Jarhead who’s wife is dealing with some health issues. Already done six/seven mods to it...
Added 3” locking casters to the three legs to make it mobile. Added the two black handles to the middle cylinder so you ain’t gotta grab it by the top rim to put on/take off. Added a LavaLock 1/2” x 1/8” thick gasket to the coal/water pan access door (the absolute weakest link to these WSM smokers is the piss poor aluminum access door...gonna buy a Cajun Bandit stainless steel door and latch to fix that *s-wordt). Added the Cajun Bandit stainless cylinder lock kit to lock the center cylinder section to the base (the three stainless L-shaped brackets and black knobs at the top of the aluminum legs). Added a Cajun Bandit stainless lid hinge to the top dome (to hell with setting the lid on concrete or the ground when spraying/pumping the goods down). Bought another OEM stainless charcoal grate and wire-tied it with stainless wire, perpendicular to the original grate (get more bang for your buck, longer smoke times with charcoal that doesn’t fall through the single grate to the bottom, and dies out). Bought a solid aluminum cover pan for the water bowl (fits loose enough even wrapped with foil to still allow some moisture during smoking, I’ll probably fill the water pan 3/4’s full with sand, be done with it. The water pan simply acts as a heat sink, whether water or sand, etc to stabilize temps. Water has very little effect even on barking the outside of briskets, butts, hams, etc. The water pan cover wrapped in foil makes cleanup a helluva lot easier.
One more mod I’m going to do is raise up the bottom of the two smoking grates two inches with stainless L-shaped brackets, to get it up off the water pan/cover a little higher. Will still have plenty of room for the biggest butts, ribs on edge in racks, etc.
And there it is fellas...hopefully it’ll see some Butts, brisket, or whole bird action next wknd.
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