Stacker Flip


 
B

Brandon A

TVWBB All-Star
I had a little ambition today so I decided to get after fliping my stacker over. I figured this is a mod so it deserves its own post, the other thread is getting so long.

This mod is meant to keep the entire smoker "sealed to the inside" so that the bar-b-goo stays on the inside. When the stacker is flipped the assembly goes in this order,
1. Charcoal bowl
2. Stacker (flipped, water pan and bottom grill)
3. WSM middle section (top two grills)
4. Lid

So I went to the hardware store and bought stainless nuts/washers/bolts. I like the 1/4" stuff.

First I removed bracket with the eyelet in it, didnt take much force at all, I just gripped the bracket with a pliars and pushed down. The rivit broke easily. Then I took out the other two. Their screws are tiny, will be much better with the 1/4" I bought. Once I got them all removed I flipped it over.

I then put a piece of 1" masking tape just under the (now top) lip. This is to give me a somewhat level line to drill my holes by. The door is 5" wide so I marked the tape at 2 1/2" for a center point. I estimated the original holes are about 10" off center so I placed a mark at 10" inches left and right of center on the tape. For the one on the back I just eye balled it, using the original hole as a guide.

All holes drilled and the original brackets reinstalled I was ready to assemble, and pretty excited to see it all together. I go to place the water pan in and
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the brackets are too short... <span class="ev_code_RED">The Weber brackets for the water pan stick out 2" the stacker brackets only 1.5"</span> so I will have to have something fabricated tomarrow at work. Just thought I should bring this to everyone attention if you plan on doing this mod. Once I have everything done and put together I will post photos
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Brandon
 
Yes, I noticed the same thing. The brackets are too short to hold either the Weber water pan or the Brinkman charcoal pan. I guess they expect that the Stacker will be used on top of the WSM middle section and therefore no water pan is needed in the Stacker section.

But it's really a shame that something that costs over $100 by the time you pay for shipping needs to be flipped over and modified. As I said in my Stacker video review, I think the design misses the mark. It would have been just about perfect if only they had duplicated the detail at the top of the WSM middle section so the lid goes on the inside, not the outside.

Maybe they will do a revision if enough people complain?

Brandon, by the way, there's a mod on the website that you might be able to leverage for your inverted Stacker:

Extending water pan flanges

Regards,
Chris
 
I figured out this thing was built wrong the first two minuntes I had it. Like I said in my other post just a few "L" brackest and your smokin but it is a shame that you must fix a new product, none the less it is well made and will last.Hopfully if they decide to make one for the 22.5 weber this will not be an issue.
 
Stacker flip complete, well for now anyway. I took the brackets off and cleaned them up, then took them to work to see what my trusty maintence man could do for me. I told him I didnt care how he did it, be it screw or weld, but add a half inch to them for me, here is the result.
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These worked well for holding the water pan, but I may have made an oversight. When I first sat my wsm middle section on I realized I might have drilled the holes too high. The section wouldent sit in completely, and was about a half inch higher then the lip.

After alot of thought (should I redrill, modify brackets etc..) I added 2 washers between the stacker and brackets, this gives the middle section just enough clearance to properly seat flush with the stacker. You can see them in the photo.

I decided to flip the handles also, so they woulden't be hanging open all the time. It was pretty easy, didn't even use a wrench. I just held the nut with my fingers and unscrewed with a drill, then flipped them over and retightened. Eventually I may add a better set of handles (Weber) but we'll see, I dont know if they would be really needed, but they'd look cool
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I also bought some smaller, maybe 1/8", stainless bolts/washers/nuts to plug the old holes.
I won't get the chance to take her for a test drive this weekend, but I'll be patiently waiting for next!

edit: heres the slideshow


Brandon
 
Well I used my WSM Stacker unit this weekend at a competion and I had heard about the lid and stacker unit "sticking"together fronm the forum here.Before putting the lid and stacker together I sprayed Pam cooking spray on the "joins" where they connect and no sticking AT ALL ! I also went ahead and re-sprayed with pam about 1/2 way thru the cook (about 7 hr. mark)just to be sure, and had absoulutley NO problems with lid sticking to stacker unit.The Stacker performed great,now to get one for my other unit.Also I found that it was awesome haveing the handles for the top unit to remove during cooking.I say don't flip the stacker,just spray with Pam !
 
Besides the lid sticking, I dont enjoy the trails of bbgoo that ran down the outside of my cooker. Any trouble with that when using pam?
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Brandon
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Brandon A:
I dont enjoy the trails of bbgoo that ran down the outside of my cooker. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>That's just wrong.
 
I would tend to think that the buildup of the PAM on the rim would end up causing goo in the long run. But I haven't tried it, so there is no proof to the idea. I haven't ever had any problem with any kind of goo to begin with. The mod to the Stacker definitely looks interesting. Yeah, it's a shame that you have to modify a brand new product, due to poor design.
 
I havent had any problems, with the goo either. Not like the ones that have been posted in this thread.

The inside of my lid is a perfectly even layer of black "tar" its even kind of shiny. There are no streaks, but apparently when the wsm is in action there is some movement (of goo) going on. And that needs to be contained, this is just my experience, and maybe it is not typical.

I have never cleaned the inside of the wsm (I would guess ~50 cooks since last year) so maybe this is also a factor. Bottom line, I flipped the stacker to avoid these problems all together.

Brandon
 
Thanks for the info. I did the flip this weekend with the knowledge you posted. This works way better then the way it was designed.
 
I'm working on an easier mod which will only require drilling 3 holes to add 3 new brackets on the opposite end of the stacker. This way I can use the stacker flipped on my SJP and create an entirely new smoker with two grates and use it on my WSM with the lid inside the rim. I'll keep you posted.
 
First off this mod was not my idea, these are just some pics of my setup and my implentation of the mod.
There were two main reasons I performed this mod, they were pretty much everyone elses complaints about the Stacker.
1) The first time I used the Stacker as intended I ended up with some goo collecting along the upper lip where the lid slides over the Stackers lip.
2) It was very difficult to remove lid while cooking.

What I did:
At the local HD
I purched a piece of bar steel 24" x 3/4" x 1/8"
qty. 6 1/4" x 3/4" Stainless steel machine screws and nuts.
I cut the bar steel into (3) 4" pieces
Then in my bench vise I bent each piece so that the end that holds the water bowl was +/- 1 3/4" long.
I then cut the bottom lip off the original brackets.
I measured the distance on the WSM center section from the charcoal grate to the water pan bracket and then set this as the distance for my new brackets.
I drilled two holes to bolt the new brackets with the orignal bracket to the Stacker.
I botled in the original bracket bolts into the original holes to deal them.
The other thing I did which helps out alot is flip the handles over.

Intended Use:

Stacker Lip:

Flipped:

Water Pan bracket:

Stacker on the Charcoal bowl:

With the Water pan and clay pot base:


Other pics of my setup and mod can be seen here
 
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