New Smoker, Brinkmann Trailmaster Limited w mods

Scribbles · Newbie Joined: 20 Oct 2011 Posts: 81

Got my new smoker today, posted pics with a fiew basic mods. well on to the pics!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/scribbles2001/photo.jpg

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http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/scribbles2001/photo1.jpg

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http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/scribbles2001/rock.jpg

Next to the old smoker, Man she looks big.

Smoker looks great at first impression, nice heavy steel; grill weighs just over 200lb. Went together easy took just under 2hrs, directions were good. Started with just a few very simple mods to get going. I made a charcoal/wood box out of expanded steel I don’t like it and will make another soon. I added my old diffuser to the inlet between fire box and main smoker I added 2 thermostats to the grate level. And I added 20lbs of Lava Rock to act as a diffuser and heat sink. Smoke heat enters below the rock. We will see how it works.

Got it seasoning now, shocked at the temp difference between grate level and top of smoker, factory thermo. 100 degree difference. 210 on the grate, and 300 factory thermo locations.

Nice thing less than 5degree difference from left to right thermo with the rock.

Scribbles · Newbie Joined: 20 Oct 2011 Posts: 81

Ben running the pit about 4 hours now, Empty, just seasoning and I love it so far.

Few preliminary oberservations

#1 only problem so far it does not have enough air intakes that will be easy enough to fix. Will add 2 more intakes. It seals really well for a store bouht pit. The doors did not fit out of the box, but 30 min with bending and tweaking them, they fit great. Very little smoke leakage.

#2, it is a stick burner, lol. I could not get it up to temp with lump. Highest I could get grate thermo was 180 Part of the problem is lack of intake air, but when I started tossing in warm logs, that problem went away quick.

#3 big pits are great, it is windy as hell, and raining today, but it has held steady at 225 for 3 hours straight with very little maintence, toss a log in every hour or so and it just keeps cranking away. Old pit would lose 20d with every wind gust it would not hold above 180 on a day like today, and with the gauge being on the top of the grill, I wonder what temp I was actually cooking at on grate level.

SoEzzy · Posted: Mon Mar 19 12 3:30 am Post subject:

Please read PMPNLT650pxOTLS!
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Scribbles · Newbie Joined: 20 Oct 2011 Posts: 81

Sorry bear, thought i had them sized corect, resized befor i posted, i'll leave them as links,I really suck at using photo bucket and with 100 views no commemnts no reason to take an hour to fix them all.

k.a.m. · Posted: Tue Mar 20 12 10:47 am Post subject:

Scribbles, I have been out of the loop for a day or so. Congrats on your cooker she looks fantastic. Very Happy

In my opinion before I add more intake I would thin the rock or leave gaps in rows much like tuning plates. I do not think your heat smoke can produce enough draft with the coverage you have and when you add meat to the equation on the cooking grate your going to be super heating your firebox to get it to temp.
These are just thoughts I hope it helps. Smile

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Scribbles · Newbie Joined: 20 Oct 2011 Posts: 81

Thanks for the reply kam, not going to do anything with it till I cook a few times, today is the first cook, just a half dozen chicken breast with Roxy’s glaze, pan of potatoes w/bacon, and some cornbread. We will see how it goes. Nice thing is it has a removable ash drawer, so I just cracked it 1/8" and had the all the intake I needed, Also I was seasoning in 30mph winds, and rain. Does not help a stick burner out. Today when I lit it up I had the same settings with calm warm weather and the pit was up to 320 grate / 450 top thermo in a matter of 20 min. Took another 20 min to bring it back to 250.

Scribbles · Newbie Joined: 20 Oct 2011 Posts: 81

This thing is a beast for a backyard pit, the firebox is bigger than my old offset

SWP5767 · Posted: Wed Mar 21 12 7:51 pm Post subject:

I like that offset and read a lot of positive reviews on it. The one concern I have is with the lava rock you have in stead of tuning plates. I would think the rock would build up with grease and such, where the tuning plates not so much. I like the idea using it for a heat sink/defuser tho. Maybe is something that would get swapped out every now and then.
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Scribbles · Newbie Joined: 20 Oct 2011 Posts: 81

nice thing is the rock cost a total of $7, and i can just toss it on the gass grill evrey couple months and crank it up to 600d and cook it clean

SWP5767 · Posted: Thu Mar 22 12 11:19 pm Post subject:

Black Mtn. BBQ · Joined: 01 Dec 2011 Posts: 8

Just pick this same unit up yesterday. I can think of a couple mods that may get done, but I'm going to run it a few times as it is to see how it cooks. I ran the measurements through one of the calculators last night, and it comes up suprisingly close to ideal ratios. I'll most likely use a disposable aluminum pan for a water pan placed on the bottom rack right at the port from the fire box. this worked pretty well in my last cooker to even out the temps a bit. Besides the moisture it also works to redirect the airflow down and around the bottom a bit.

Scribbles · Newbie Joined: 20 Oct 2011 Posts: 81

Smoked a 13lb shoulder today, and a big pan of beans. Love this smoker. 14hr smoke in the ran like a champ. You just half to watch it it will get up yo 500d with the ofset if you want it to. Heated it up tp clean it when done. This pit wants to run hot.

Scribbles · Newbie Joined: 20 Oct 2011 Posts: 81

couple more smokes in and it is starting to season.

The Duderino · Joined: 14 Jun 2009 Posts: 19 Location: Westboro, MA

Scribbles, this looks great, I'm thinking up picking this up to do the same upgrade, can I ask what you did for your heat diffuser mod?