before drilling the bowl of my SJ Premium/Gold to add a vent lid from a silver, I tried some self- designed airvanes from the sidevents to below the grate. It works well, I can maintain 300 deg C over more than an hour, whereas it did hardly reach 250 before the mod.
Originally posted by Pat Smith:
How about showing us some pics of the airvanes themselves so all of us copy-cats out here can try our hand at this mod. We're all mod-aholics!
Another drawback is the coal grate, which is too small meshed so it gets clogged, obstructig airflow - which doesn`t matter as long the SJ is in original state, of course; I ground off every second bar of the grate and it works fine
Gotta do it! May also try it on my Smokey Joe Platinum.
Thank you for the example and the inspiration!
Great mod!
Pat
PS - that charcoal grate looks to be a different model than what comes on our SJG's here in the states. Here, the bar spacing is more akin to the spacing on the grill grate.
I always use the 3rd configuration and my SJG is always smokin hot. I spread the coals over 3/4 of the grate and leave 1/4 of the grate towards the open vent empty. No need to make anything or drill holes....unless you're bored of course
I was inspired by this thread to come up with an even easier mod:
Used expando that I had lying around. I confess that I have not tested it yet (just finished), but all i had to do was cut the expando panels. I think they will work well because they allow air to go from the side vents to the space below the charcoal grate, without compromising too much space in the bowl. I'll post results when I have some!