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Nice way to spend the day...

10 hours for beef ribs is a bit long and will definitely dry them out. Either you kept opening your pit or the cooking temp was too low--peeking all the time looses heat. Really no need to open it at all during the first 4 hours and then just a quick temp check every hour after that. Using a remote ...

Yes...mount to the frame. Decide if you want to step onto the trailer to cook or want it to be ground accessible as both have advantages. It's hard to cut up new trailer but remember you can cut the floor/notch the crossmembers to drop the firebox thru so you can adjust the height and foe/aft locati...

Beef ribs get pulled according to internal temp....I aim for 200-203. Pork ribs are done when you grab half of them with a pair of tongs and the meat "breaks/pulls away" at the center- I never use a thermometer on pork ribs. 225-250 is perfect for pit temp, and yes, always bring your pit up to temp ...

I don't wrap ribs, beef or pork, as I reserve that process for the longer smokes of bigger pieces of meat. And yes, those bigger cuts get wrapped (in paper) and let rest for up to an hour in most cases. Ribs, on the other hand, go right to the dinner table as soon as they are done on the pit. The wa...

Some days it feels like that around here as well. I don't fire up the pit too often in the summer cause it's just too hard to keep the fire small enough when the "cold" pit temp is 125-130 from sitting in the sun.

Fall is almost here......

Smoke stacks legnth on a grill is not a factor. In a smoker, you have a small fire and need to "pull" the smoke thru the maze of the pit. A grill is wide open and hot. No need to trap the heat as it just rises and leaves the grill. My grill has a 2 inch wide vent across the entire lid and the bottom...

For any firebox, 0.25" seems to be the gold standard tho you can go thinner if you want. Anything thinner than 0.125 is going to have a pretty short life. Obviously, the outer skin just needs to be thick enough to resist dings and hold the insulation in.

Sorry, you will need to convert to metric.

You are correct. Use the inside dimensions in the calculator....you are looking for volume of the pipe and the thickness of the material is not revenant to the calculation.

Nothing wrong with thicker but the difference between 0.25" and 0.3125" would probably not be real noticeable or worth the investment. Thicker metal will last longer and hold heat a bit better but comes at a higher cost and is harder to work with. In my opinion, 0.25 is kinda the " sweet spot" and w...

Sounds like you are making a charcoal grill and not a smoker. If so, remember a grill is hot and fast so excess oxygen is needed to keep the coals burning. I would first think that your intakes are too small for that but your question was the exhaust. If it is a grill, exhaust is irreverent but shou...

Tires can take a fair amount of heat and do so every time they are on the road so it's really not as big of a problem with a firebox as many think. I would look for about 6 inches of airspace between them. Once you use it a few times, measure your tire temp with a laser thermometer and make sure it'...

Nice job!

What length of logs are you using? Mine average 18-20 inches long so having a firebox that is only 13" long would simply not work. Round fireboxes are tough, especially when you try to use same diameter as the cook chamber because they often end up being too short to fit a log into. Another way to t...

Good idea.....

I would not want that big of a firebox on a standard offset. I would expect a higher "comfortable" running temp, greater temp swings as you add wood and a larger (unusable) hot spot in the cook chamber from the throat heat. Some of this can be overcome with better fire management and accurate air co...

Frank likes the 0.25 flat bar for some reason, lol.

Happy to add confusion to your build...lol. To answer your question, the exhaust is often times a place where creosote and soot build up so placing meat directly below increases the chance of particles dropping onto the food. This is easily avoided by simply not putting meat below the stack. Another...

A bottle jack is your friend. Grab it from under the seat of your pick-up truck but remember it might not be strong enough and a bigger one might still be needed. A large H-frame shop press can also be used. Stop with the torch/hammer.... Don't forget your gasket will help to even things out. It app...

Lava rock makes a really good peel-and-stick tape style gasket. As long as you clean the metal properly and let it cure properly, it will last a long time and has absolutely no mess like the glue applications. I've had mine on for 6 years now and no problems.

Acceptable door warp is dependent on how picky you are and the size gasket you are using...lol. A typical gasket will crush about 50% so if you have a max gap of 0.125" then you would need a gasket thickness of 0.250" to seal properly. This is a very common size gasket and a reasonable gap if you ar...

I would like to see 10-12 inches long but 14 would probably be ok.

A 32 of an inch is just half way between each 16th. Measure to the half inch point, which is 16/32, and then halfway before the very next 16th is 17/32. No need to buy a new tape measure.

Diesel is still flammable as are the solids that have dropped out of solution and become embedded in the tank pores. If it were me, I would follow the same procedure as a propane tank. It's your call...

They sell for around $2.99 a pound.