Which portable?


 

Lew

TVWBB All-Star
My current portable is a 22.5" kettle. A real portable would be nice but which one do I get? I need room for burgers and dogs for 4 or a couple of decent sized steaks. I prefer charcoal but my neighbor has a Coleman gas portable and it works pretty well. Would like something you can get off CL. Thanks.
 
the smokey joe is actually a great portable and cooks better than you think. also there is the q100 or q120 that would work very well.also there is the go anywhere but harder to find.
 
Lew, the smokey Joe is a awesome portable grill, It will cook for 4 but some times it can be tight. Keep your eye out for a jumbo Joe/Smokey Joe platinum on Craigslist. They are the larger 18.5 inch older,discontinued model. Good luck.
 
I don't know if the JJ has the same issue but the SJP is fairly tall and the legs are fixed in place, and because of this I can't fit it in the trunk of my car. If I needed an 18" portable I'd probably pick up a regular kettle off of CL and assemble it on-site when needed.

I've seen a legless Bar-B-Kettle used for tailgating but because there's no ash pan it makes a little bit of a mess.

Brad
 
i've always advocated that getting a 18.5 kettle and then installing short legs is the way to go. as to ash just place a pan underneath.
 
Portable-wise I have a Gas-Go-Anywhere, SJS, SJG, and SJP (acquired in that order). Gotta say I use the SJG more than any other when traveling or for small cooks at home; did a couple of bone-in ribeyes just this last weekend. Will use the Gas-Go-Anywhere if I don't want to mess w/ charcoal, which isn't often.

Thought the SJP would be my goto for family camping, it takes too much cargo space. Haven't even fired it up since acquisition. The SJG and a camp-dutch-oven seem to fit the family camping bill.

We're a family of 2 adults and a couple of kids < 5yrs. A couple of steaks or a package of brats (including sides) is more than enough.
 
paul makes a point. i have a new sjp that has not been used yet. i got it cuz it was cheap, $20 from ace and i had dreams of using it as a portable. never happened.
 
OK, I've decided on a Smokey Joe Silver or Gold. I like the idea of a handle for a portable grill, but I'm not sure about no bottom vents (SJG). How do they compare? Any recommendations? I plan on picking up something before I leave Friday. Since they are so cheap, I'll forgo CL and pay full price at HD, Lowes, or ACE.
 
If you can deal w/ ash leakage and managing bungee cords when traveling, then go w/ the SJS. (Sorry George, I got fed up looking for cords while packing everything else up.)

I'm trying to make SJG work for me; still learning how to cook well on it. Have read about the various ways to place briquettes, but can't seem to use those techniques during the dinner rush. Just (re)read the latest no drill airflow mod and want to try it out, but wonder about my ability to pull it off, and it's stability/durability.

That being said, a longer cook w/ the SJG (at lower temps), is better than a burned kid/vehicle w/ SJS. (I'm the only one in the family that cares about grill marks
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When I saw the design of the SJG, I wondered why Weber didn't put in a simple baffle to redirect the air under the coals. Now I see I'm not the only one who thought about redirecting the air, and people are modding their golds to do just that.

I've read tons of reviews since I decided to get a Smokey Joe. Lots of people say there is no performance difference between the gold and silver and lots say they can't keep a fire going in the gold. I don't understand how they can be using the same product. One thing is certain: while a good number of people say the silver performs better, nobody says the gold does.

If I thought the gold would work just as good as the silver without mods, I would jump on it because $5 is nothing for a locking lid and no ash blowing about. If it doesn't, it seems that is would be easier to mod the silver to carry than to mod the gold to redirect the air. I'm leaning towards the silver. Somebody tell me why I should get a gold!
 
Lew, an 18.5 otg is a great portable grill, a few mods like shorting the legs,making a lid lock a strap works great.
 
I went to Ace to look at the Silver and Gold side by side. The Gold's "bottom" vents are right next to the lid. It may work fine, but I just can't see it. I got the Silver, and for the extra $5, I got 3 bungee cords.
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They work great. The only thing I can't do is move it when it's hot. Test drive this weekend.
 
I've got a Gold and the thing that made me decide in its favour over the Silver was the carrying handle and the fact that you can can move it while it's hot, if circumstances force you to. One such circumstance may be grilling out in the open and then having a freak thundershower hit when you least expect it - this did happen to me, twice! The handle proved its worth.

I think I've figured out a way to make the Gold work just fine. It's all about creating a convection inside the grill, and to do that, you have to lay the charcoal down in very specific ways:

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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Paul A.B.:

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</div></BLOCKQUOTE>



FWIW, I use my gold all the time as a minismoker and sometimes as an indirect cooker, and I think think it's ideal for those purposes. It's very easy to control and maintain temps up < 300 degrees.

However, I've never gotten it to work as a decent grill so I bought a cheap silver for those duties. If I could get my SJG to work as a grill, I might sell the silver. I may play around with these setups.

So which one of these set up works best for keeping goals hot?
 
Lew u have a decent portable right now.. Your WSM if it's an 18. Just remove the middle section or find a lid for a 18 kettle and use it with the bottom of the WSM which is just a bottom piece of a kettle.

John
 

 

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