"smokin' " deal on craigslist and some mods


 
Rick Body

Rick Body

TVWBB Pro
About a month ago I bought a new 18.5 and have been getting used to it. My original goal is to eventually do some competitions when I retire in a few years, or sooner. So the other day I was looking for some stuff on craigslist and came across a guy selling a 18.5 that was 2 years old but had only been used twice. It came with everything including 4 bags of wood chunks in various types, 4 bags of charcoal and meat claws still in the package. He only wanted $175. He said it needed grates so the price was negotiable. He was out of town for the holidays so I was chomping at the bit to get it. Yesterday I called him and turns out he only lived like 2 miles from my house. Went over and picked up an almost new smoker, gave him $160. The grates just needed cleaning so no extra money spent.....yay

Today I received some twist locks I had ordered for the first WSM but since I am smoking a butt, I put two of them on the second one. I know some of you wont agree with this mod since it required drilling extra holes, but I wanted to be able to move and load the smokers in the truck and only have to put one strap on them and not have to go through breaking them down or using a bunch of straps. I take my smoker to work alot. I havent decided if I am going to put two on the lid as this will require a little bit of cutting of the lip to make it work

Anyway here are the locks
clip2.jpg~original

clip.jpg~original

They worked out really well as the lip on the bottom part of the smoker acted just like the lip on the second part of the bracket so I didnt have to use them, plus this means I can still turn the middle section in any direction.

I also did the grommet mod a little different than most. Since my thermoworks thermometer came with a clip for the second lead instead of the bar probe, it wouldnt fit through the lamp thread. So I went to lowes and got a 1/2" fitting in the electrical department. Worked out great, just a bigger hole. Now I have to order more probes for the second smoker
grommetmod.jpg~original


I have gotten alot of good ideas from this site so thanks to everyone.....
 
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I like the lock idea. Transporting my smokers to comps is a pain, but I can put one strap through all of them. I'll keep the locks in mind, but I'm still going to have to strap them or they will dance around all over the inside of the trailer.
 
Ya, the first time I transported mine I set all 3 pieces seperate in the back of the truck and bungeed them.I was afraid if I left it assembled it would blow over or fall. I figured this way I can put the whole thing assembled in back and use one strap to hold it.
 
You should try transporting 4 of them plus a mini! Actually, they are so light they aren't hard to strap down. We just sit them side by side and run a strap through the top handle on all of them.
 
I ordered them from this website. It took me a while to find them online cause I didnt know what they were called.

http://www.reliablehardware.com/latches.aspx

The ones I got were the large low profile latches, but you can see they have alot of choices. I ordered the "keepers" but didnt end up using them. I also only used 2 bolt each because I felt they were sturdy enough and didnt want to put the extra holes in the WSM

I have now installed them on both of the 18.5's. I like the abilityto attach everything together
 
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