I go to Restaurant Depot and see what they have on the clearance cart. Picked up a nice Angus Beef Whole packer for $2.29/lb. that will be my next cook.
You should be able to get 11-13 hours out of one load of charcoal. I very rarely have to add coals to my 18.5 You can search YouTube for the minion method and I'm sure you'll improve your burn time.
I just picked up a SJ Silver used and it has a thermometer in the lid. I've never seen this before. Is this something Weber did for a short period of time?
Yes they are SS. I decided to place it above the top grate because I very rarely use the lower grate. Having it above the top grate makes it easy to deal with the probes (1 IT probe and 1 ATC probe for my DigiQ Party Q).
Got the bottom cut out, the lip around the top trimmed, the holes drilled for the upper grate drilled and screws mounted. Plus I drilled the hole for the probe grommet. I'm gonna paint it tomorrow. I'll post pics later.