First overnight country smoke concerns


 
Troy S

Troy S

TVWBB Fan
Hey everybody!

I'm planning on doing my first ever overnight smoke tonight. I have a weird concern, though. I live, pretty much, out in the country. I usually set my WSM up next to my house, as I have a nice table to sit my lid on while I'm adding or removing food. I have some weird fear -- and maybe it's unfounded -- that while the food is cooking up in the middle of the night, that a critter will try and interfere with the WSM or knock it over or something. I know it sounds crazy, but I'll be sleeping while the 8 lb. pork shoulder is smoking away. Since I've never done an overnight smoke in my life, this crazy anxiety/fear is on the brain.

Got any tips/thoughts if you are in a similar environment?
 
I've wondered about this as well...will be interesting to hear if any other members have had issues with critter interference on an overnight cook.
 
Your fears are not unwarranted. I was doing a cook on my Santa Maria, and it started pouring, not just pouring, hailing. Went on for 10 minutes. I assumed there's noting to worry about, after all it rained. Woke up to the smoke detector blaring, looked out the window and the fence was fully engulfed.

Just like the tee shirt says: **** happens. So do fires :(
 
I have also have had similar thoughts. Even though I live in NJ there are bear, coyotes, fox and raccoon in my immediate vicinity. Just about all of my cooks are of the higher heat variety so I don't do overnighters just early morning starts. So far, so good.

Jim
 
I don't live in the woods, but I am out in farmland, 30 miles out. (I recorded 2 foxes playing in my yard (2 acres) just last week). I've thought all those things too, but (my) logic says if it's (the smoker) hot they won't touch it.

On the flip side, this concern may be the tipping point (pun not intended) to adding locks to keep all the sections together. It might tip over, but it shouldn't come apart.
 
I have used my WSM 22 many times for overnights, so far NO problems with critters.
Dan
 
Bill Elwell said:
I don't live in the woods, but I am out in farmland, 30 miles out. (I recorded 2 foxes playing in my yard (2 acres) just last week). I've thought all those things too, but (my) logic says if it's (the smoker) hot they won't touch it.

On the flip side, this concern may be the tipping point (pun not intended) to adding locks to keep all the sections together. It might tip over, but it shouldn't come apart.
Click to expand...

That's been my working theory as well. It puts off a good deal of heat when it's running, so while something might come sniffing around they're not too likely to mess with it.

That said...it's a good concern, and I won't be doing any more overnight smokes with mine sitting on the deck. I live in a fairly urban area, but my neighbor has seen a coyote in my front yard, so, who knows what could happen.
 
Thanks for the replies, everybody!

Well, I went through with it. Started it in my gravel driveway -- away from the house -- at 7pm and everything was still going great at 6am this morning. I last checked it at 11pm before going to bed. I'll always be a little creeped going out at night, because you never know what's out there! Especially with some delicious food going.

Nonetheless, everything went all good, and this amazing WSM cooker was still holding temp, if not slightly lower, than what it was at 11pm last night!

I'll experiment with more overnight smokes in the future, but I'll stay vigilant. I have an extreme fear of my house catching on fire at night while sleeping (irrational or not), and with a fire going outside, I feel it's a warranted fear!

I genuinely thought this thread was going to be laughed at and made fun of. Happy to see that's not the case! :)
 
Critters other than folk don't seem to care much about warmth from a grill or smoker and the smoke is another deterrent as well, after the things are cold is a little different story,
We were at my sister in laws cottage and used the 22 almost nightly, I took up new charcoal baskets, cooking grate, and, handles for a bit of an upgrade in thanks for the use of the place. When I got there, I realized I should have ordered new sweepers to install as well,(wasn't told about the part failure until the night before departure). Anyway, back to the critter interest part, since I could not close off the bottom vents effectively, I had full throttle for every cook. The cheese, ham stuffed, bacon swaddled, burger bomb suffered a bit of an explosion. Cheese managed to slip through the bottom all beefy, bacony, and delightful for some interesting looking "kitty" all black with some white stripes. Yep, SKUNK! Daughter in law was actually considering going outside to either pet or shoo it away until,the grandchildren said "Mom, that's a freaking skunk!" Step son said, "If you want to sleep with the mosquitoes, go right ahead and bother it." She thought better of it.
I had noticed the ash bucket (old kettle) had been "out of position" the morning before too so, this skunk knows where good snacking can be had!
 
Seems like another good argument for latches between the parts. It may get knocked over, but it won't spill the fire. Your BBQ cook alarm will let you know something is up.
 
Darren L said:
Seems like another good argument for latches between the parts. It may get knocked over, but it won't spill the fire. Your BBQ cook alarm will let you know something is up.
Click to expand...


My new WSM may not be 100% critter-proof...but should be even more sturdy after I get it up and running.

I ordered the Cajun Bandit wheel kit that has the latches for the base and main chamber. Being able to roll it in/out of the garage will be nice.
 
I have a pair of large lawnmower wheels from the "help yourself" bin at the (now closed) family hardware store and am trying to figure out my design so I can clear a little space and have greater mobility! When,you have ten pounds of "stuff" in an eight pound garage, you need creativity in packing or loading said garage!
 
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