mod required for grate


 
yup mate several times we have found as the charcoal burns the unburnt stuff gets covered in ash and it tends to smother it,thus causing the temp to fall a couple of times ive went to load more coal on only to find a good quantity of unburnt fuel under the ash layer
 
I'm not sure what brands of charcoal are available to you but if you can switch brands, I'd do that. Occasionally kicking a leg will knock most of the ash off.
 
I removed the heat shield from the charcoal bowl. It helps a bit. Have also raised the charcoal grate/ring about an inch by making some brackets that attach to the top bolts of the leg supports on the inside of the bottom bowl. Somewhere in this forum is a write-up on how to do it. Can't seem to find it right now - but it's there. Between the two, you can get quite a bit more room for ashes. Some brands of charcoal produce less ash, so you might pursue that direction.
 
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Sandy. I have heard of the problem, but never experienced it. Having said that, I only use briquettes for long cooks using the tin-can minion method, not charcoal. The briqs tend to burn evenly in an outward direction. As Phil says, give the leg a wee hoof every now and then. I also grab two legs and give it a shoogle.
 
Try putting your lit coal and smoking wood on the bottom. That way the load burns from the bottom up.
 
Sandy, just had a thought. The charcoal grate you have does it have the bars very close together? I had one of these, (nearly double the amount of bars), and it didn't allow the ash to fall through to the bottom. I swapped it out for a charcoal grate from a SJ.
 
i just use aldi bricquets and the grate is quite well spaced weve modified the 14 by adding a new middle section to it, were just sourcing another door for it-it makes a big difference capacity wise but does not effect fuel consumption or temp ,i will publish the mods later,basically we ground off the bottom ring of one section which allowed it to sit in very securely without the need for retaing clips.
 
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