Adding a Third Grate

I’m new to this forum, but I have found it to be a gold mine when it comes to finding information about the WSM and other grills and this inspired me to come up with a way of adding a third cooking grate in my recently purchased WSM. I have so far made both ribs and beer can chicken on the WSM and this modification will not allow you to have high meats on the lower and middle grate but it will give you some extra space for lower meats such as wings, fish or ribs laid flat and still allow for high meats such as whole chickens or briskets on the upper grate.

The modification will cost you less than $20 (including a new grate) and it takes about an hour to do. It will give you a distance of ~100 mm between the lower and middle grate and ~90 mm between the middle and upper grate. Sorry for the metrics but I’m originally from Europe and it’s hard to change to Imperial ;o)

Hardware bought at Home Depot
• Shelf Support (1 x 8) $1.82
• Hex Nut 5mm (2 x 2) $0.82
• Machine Screw 5x12mm (2 x 3) $1.80
• Weber Cooking Grate 18.5” (#7432) $13.99
• Total cost $18.43 + tax

Instruction
• Remove the 4 water bowl/grate brackets from the WSM
• Mark the halfway point between the lower and upper support (~100 mm) Please note that the bolt to fasten the shelf support will be exactly halfway between the lower and upper support wile the actual support rest will be 10 mm above this mark. Something I first noticed after I have drilled the holes so you may want to compensate for that when marking where to drill.
• Drill the holes in the brackets. I used a 1.5 mm drill to make a pilot hole and then a 5 mm for the bolt and finally on the back side of the bracket I used a 10 mm drill to be able to sink the bolt head.
• Grab the pin on the shelf support with a locking pliers and the shelf support with another pair of pliers and gently rotate the pin until it’s loose, you don’t need much force. This is the hole that the bolt will go through.
• Put the bolt through from the back of the bracket and add the shelf support on the inside (toward the grate) and fasten with a nut. I cut off the excess part of the bolt with a hack saw, you don’t have to do that but I wanted everything to be flush. I could have used a shorter bolt but that would have resulted in another trip to the store.
• Make sure to turn the shelf support so that the bolt and nut are below the support, if you turn it the other way the grate will not fit.
• In order to fit the new grate you may have to cut off the upper bolts for the brackets, again I used a hack saw and cut off the bolts evenly to the nut. I tried to put the grate in without cutting off the bolts but it was too tight for the grate. However if you use the lower grate then you don’t have a problem but I couldn’t find that grate in the store.

Done! Just to fire up the WSM and start cooking ;o)

Here are some pictures of the mod.

wow!
that is neat!
Wish I had thought of it. No holes in the WSM just in the brackets

Jonas - I really like this, thanks for the write-up. Very clean install.

Couple this modification with Larry Wolfe's addition he uses on the top grate, and you should have plenty more room to lay ribs flat, or cook a ton of smaller items (wings, abt's, etc).

Awesome idea. Are we OK with nickel plated stuff in the smoke chamber?

Good question! I didn’t think about that, however when I Googled I found the following grill accessories made from Nickel plated Steel.

Smoke Shelf
Rotisserie Spit Rod

That doesn’t mean its safe it just shows there are grill parts that are Nickel plated. Personally I don’t have an issue but that’s just me

Cheers

Very cool implementation. It seems that just a bolt/nut would work as well without the shelf bracket. It looks like a factory option with the brackets installed.

Larry Wolfe's top grates:
http://wolfepit.blogspot.com/2...on-grill-grates.html

I wonder if a hinged top grate from a OTG would also work to get access to the middle tier without removing the top grate. I don't know how large the hinged sections are.

Craig, you are correct a bolt and nut would work just fine. In all honesty no one else but yourself would know the difference once you put in the middle grate. I just find it fun to make things look as they were factory made

Any tips on how to get the pin out of the shelf support? I have tried and it doesn't seem to give.

I used two locking pliers, one attached to the pin and he other to the bracket. I then turned them the opposit way, it doesn't take much force to loosen the pin.

Nice work on the grate mod!
I considered adding another grate level on mine, but like cooking at a higher level in the domes of my BGE and Drums. I use a BGE flip grate.

Wow, add all the mods together and we're created a monster

Bri, Fat side down on those Briskies? or super-trimmed?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bill Comerford:
Bri, Fat side down on those Briskies? or super-trimmed? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Super trimmed Costco flats.

Thanks for the mod Jonas, has a great clean factory look to it and will certainly be useful for when I do big appetizer runs.

A word of warning to others who are without a home depot, most of the shelf brackets I found today at 2 smaller hardware stores were zinc plated. The 3rd had nickle coated brackets. I won't use zinc.

Chuck Apodaca - don't know if you're still having problems but mine were quite firmly wedged in there too and vice grips were going nowhere fast. I flipped it over on a socket that was just big enough to support the bracket (I think it was an 11mm) and then gave the end of the pin a good tap, they all popped out easily into the socket that way.

Nice mod...it's definitely on my "to do" list...thanks!