15 gal drum SJS project


 
I'm now thinking about ordering a tamale pot for this so I'll have a choice of two bodies depending on the type of cook and use the 15 gallon body as a dedicated meat hanger. :)
 
i guess that might be an option though not sure if it would make much differance. for sure look around at mexican/asian stores. they
usually have ones cheaper than ordering from target and such.
 
Actually, I decided to wait on the tamale pot for now, but instead just ordered a SJ Gold from Amazon. Unless I use lump with my current setup I'm going to have lots of ash to deal with. I'll just set aside my old SJ silver for now and transfer the heavy duty legs onto the SJ Gold. :)
 
to bad yer not closer as i coulda loaned/sold ya a gold to try out. i find that the gold kinda strains to keep the temp up with a bunch of meat on unless its really hot out.
will be interesting to see how it goes with the drum.
 
The one thing that always turned me off about the gold was the intake being above the coals. I've seen mods that others have done to somewhat redirect the air. I'll play around with and see what happens. :)
 
i'm still lookin for the old style sj that had wire legs and had three vents on the sides below the grate. used to have one but i loaned it to my dad loooong ago and someone threw it away when he moved. that i suspect would be ideal. just look at the wsm's.
to be honest, i think you would really just need one vent on the side as that would provide enough air.
 
George l, Howdy;

I was able to order 3 of the inlet disks from Weber's online store.
Didn't cost much and shipping was very reasonable. Had them in about a week.

hank
 
Thanks Hank, for that info! I will keep that in mind should I ever decide to further modify the kettle. That would be the ideal solution short of finding a vintage tri-daisy wheeled SJ that George Curtis brought up. :)
 
So, I loaded the Smokey Joe 16 with 2 racks of spares and a rack of baby backs yesterday and smoked them for close to 4 hours straight, no foil, no saucing. Lid temperature read 250F during most of the cook so I figured the rest of the pit was running close to or at 300F where I wanted. I used K-Blue with 4 chunks of hickory thrown in.
Overall, I was very pleased with the results with even doneness from top to bottom on all three slabs. I'm already liking this setup. :)

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Thanks George! I'm having my SJ Gold delivered today and see how well it will work on my setup.

I used a taller can this time to shield the ash but again, after letting the coals completely burn out, ash build up was up to grate level, essentially burying the 4" diameter can with vent holes punched out on its sides. I'm figuring the 16 gallon drum uses more briquettes compared to the much smaller volume of a tamale pot. Hopefully the SJ Gold will remedy the ash situation for longer cooks. We'll see. :)
 
yea, i can see that might be an issue. so i guess you will let us know. i cooked last night a small but on my mini using a gold with a charcoal ring.
cooked over 6 hours and the ash was just up to the coal grate but i don't think it was intefearing with the burn as there were still coals on the outside.
so yer idea of figuring how to raise the coal grate a bit might need to be pursued.
 
So, I got my SJ Gold in and upon looking at it I imagine would I need an expanded metal ring to contain the coals to keep them from essentially butting up against the side vent holes. I'll do a cook with this new setup in a couple of days.
 
:) there ya go ! those are the reasons that many will put up with the lack of high heat cooking though most say thay have no problem doing that on the sjg. have cooked using it yet ?
 
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