Maintaining a heavily used Silver B


 
S

SSchoe

New member
So I am pretty tough on grills. I grill 2-3 whole quartered chickens every 4-5 days. I used to burn off the grease by running it on full for 20 minutes at the end. That seemed to cause the firebox to warp on the bottom. The bottom edge looked wavy and the drip tray would keep falling straight down. I just did a major rehab by just buying another grill off craigslist (I got one that had a rusted cart but good parts) and swapping out the firebox and drip tray. I am not sure if I could just pound the old one back into shape with a hammer and block of wood. Getting the firebox mounting bolt out was a PITA I tried hitting it with a hammer, dissolving the rust with ammonia, using a propane torch, finally I hacksawed it flush on the inside and drilled the rest out and replaced the bolt with a new one and wingnut.

Anyways the cart bar on the left hand side of the firebox is starting to rust I will probably need to take it to a welder in a year or two. I've seen a couple threads on this.

Any tips?
 
seUnless you had a full on grease fire I doesn't see how you warped your firebox. How rusted is that cross-member. You might sand it and paint it, put some rust converter in it. Then use a washer in between the firebox and the cross-member to help keep the galvanic corrosion at bay some. Make sure and use some anti-seize compound on that bolt.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
seUnless you had a full on grease fire I doesn't see how you warped your firebox. How rusted is that cross-member. You might sand it and paint it, put some rust converter in it. Then use a washer in between the firebox and the cross-member to help keep the galvanic corrosion at bay some. Make sure and use some anti-seize compound on that bolt.
Click to expand...

-Yep had a couple full on grease fires from all the chicken fat thermometer off the scale. I won't do that anymore. I just let it burn everything. Normally when I grill the chicken I keep the middle off and the other 2 on about 2/3 power that keeps the grill 250-350 deg F cool enough not to ignite the chicken fat. It takes about 50 minutes to cook the chickens like that but the fat really builds up quickly and the grill get very dirty. Not sure how to clean it in winter as I can't use the hose. I grill all winter in as little as 15 deg F.

-Not sure if antiseize can withstand the heat in the firebox.
-The cross bar is bumpy but looks like it has a few rust spots on the outside but may be more significantly rusted inside the bar. I probably have a year to 2 until it needs to get fixed.
-There is a space between the firebox and crossbar but it still gets hot and that speeds up corrosion as well as gets greasy.
 
Trying to bend the firebox back into shape is really iffy. I have successfully bent the front edges of a couple back in after they bowed out. The bottom of the firebox might be less forgiving and run a real risk of cracking the aluminum.

Yah, you will probably have to replace that frame bar at some point. I did it on a Silver C last year using https://www.mcmaster.com/threaded-tube-inserts
on piece of frame from another grill. you can buy the square tube stock at most big box home supply stores as well. I just ran a bolt through the front and back of the frame into those threaded tube inserts. Worked great.

Those bolts on the side of the cookbox are notorious for rusting out like that. I don't even try to mess with them. I just either twist them off with a wrench on each end or cut them off with an angle grinder and cutoff wheel. You ALWAYs want to use a new STAINLESS steel bolt and nut to replace it as well and a bit of antisieze is recommended as well.

Here is some photos of where I replaced that frame cross bar.
https://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?72...C-today-BUT!!!&p=807225&viewfull=1#post807225
 
Bruce said:
Trying to bend the firebox back into shape is really iffy. I have successfully bent the front edges of a couple back in after they bowed out. The bottom of the firebox might be less forgiving and run a real risk of cracking the aluminum.

Yah, you will probably have to replace that frame bar at some point. I did it on a Silver C last year using https://www.mcmaster.com/threaded-tube-inserts
on piece of frame from another grill. you can buy the square tube stock at most big box home supply stores as well. I just ran a bolt through the front and back of the frame into those threaded tube inserts. Worked great.

Those bolts on the side of the cookbox are notorious for rusting out like that. I don't even try to mess with them. I just either twist them off with a wrench on each end or cut them off with an angle grinder and cutoff wheel. You ALWAYs want to use a new STAINLESS steel bolt and nut to replace it as well and a bit of antisieze is recommended as well.

Here is some photos of where I replaced that frame cross bar.
https://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?72...C-today-BUT!!!&p=807225&viewfull=1#post807225
Click to expand...

Yea the cookbox is made of aluminum and aluminum doesn't take as well to bending as steel. Still I may try it as otherwise I am just going to throw it out (not that I need it I already have a replacement).

That is a good idea with the inserts. The you just have to drill a hole for the bolt and there are no forces trying to pull the insert out. Or I could always take it to a welder. It shouldn't be prohibitively expensive, I've had stuff welded before for less than $40.
 
I do my birds on a rotisserie and when grilling I also have the center burner off. Since I like to use the grease for gravy I “hang” a deep baking pan between the front and rear flavorizer bars. I used two metal coat hangers which I bent to shape. This way no grease in the grill. This here was a 12 lb turkey.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/imtSqx9VU9iVWYqAA
 
I did a 14lb turkey on my roto last Thanksgiving as well. I use a pan to collect drippings also with front and rear burners only on. No worries about grease fires.

Just keeping the inside of the cook box scraped out as well as the grease drip tray cleaned up will go a long ways to preventing the big infernos. For you SSchoe, that might be a weekly or at least bi-weekly chore.
 
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