1st smoke tomorrow morning. What am I missing?

Got my new 18" for Christmas and I'm firing it up tomorrow. My only smoking experience comes from my homemade flower pot smoker. It made good PP and spares but now it's time to get serious.

My plan is to do a minion start with a foiled 14" clay saucer on top of the water pan. I'm cooking 2 butts totaling 14 lbs, 1 rack spares, 1 fattie, and some ABT's (trying to start off with a bang!). The temps will be in the teens to low 20's and I have a good wind screen so wind should not be an issue. I'm lighting the coals at 7 am and I'll need about 12 hours of cooking time (gonna pull both butts off and finish in the oven in time for dinner). Since it's my first cook, I don't feel comfortable doing an overnight.

How much lit and unlit K should I start with? Is there anything else I'm missing?

Full ring of unlit. I'm guessing 40-50 lit.

Oh, and I'd shoot for a lid temp of 260-275.

Aloha Jerry...this is how I would do it: cut each butt into two, start with a full chimney of unlit and several chunks of your "flavor wood", start a full chimney of briqs and assemble the WSM to preheat. Since the meats you are cooking require different times. Smoking at 250 deg; place rubbed butts in first, a few hours later the ribs, then the fattie and finally the ABTs. The ABTs would take at least 1-1/2 hr, the fattie about 2-1/2 hr, the ribs about 4 hrs and the butts at least 8 or nine hours. Use a meat thermometer. If the butt isn't tender enough to shred or pull, just slice. Remember the above is not set in concrete, be prepared to adjust.

Good luck... joe

Wow, thanks for the quick responses. Kevin, when saying 40-50 lit, are you taking into account that this is the first smoke? I've heard that it may run hotter the first couple of times.

Joe, what you wrote is pretty much what I had in mind. Thank you.

At the ambient temps you're looking at you'll need more than usual. (Imo, the jury is out on a new cooker running hotter when new.)