The smoker I currently have came from my wife. She owned it before we married. Its paper thin, tends to run hot, and won't hold a steady temp for more than 30 minutes. It works, but its not the most enjoyable to use. I started using the minion method on this last year and it made it 10x better. Ive had to patch it a few times, and the fire box has almost had it. Its showing its age. So Im looking to upgrade. After researching, we decided on another offset, but only this one a trailer mounted reverse flow. We also figured we'd use an old propane tank. That seems to be pretty common. Theyre nice and thick, and looked to be readily available.
So I started searching for materials. Mostly on FB marketplace and craigslist. I originally wanted a 150 gallon. Those proved very difficult to find. I changed my mind and decided to look for a 250 gallon and still didn't have much luck. A few came up here and there but they were either priced way too high, or they were sold before I called about them. After surfing the net a while, I figured it must be a regional thing. If I search down south toward Ok, and Tx, I can find them all day long for dirt cheap. It seems the further north you go, the harder they get to find. But that makes sense. A lot of people here are on natural gas, and if you are on propane, you don't have less than a 500 gallon tank. Most people have 1000 or better. You might find a 250 on a garage or workshop, but that's about it. Not much came up over winter, I guess no one was looking to get rid of there yard junk when it was covered with snow anyway. Last week, after the majority of our snow melted I found a 250. I called and the guy said someone was coming to look at it. He took my number and said he'd call if it didn't get sold. I assumed I wouldn't hear back, but the next day he called and said he still had it. I grabbed my trailer and headed down to get it. It was just over 1 1/2 hours away. When I got there, I was surprised at its size. I thought it was a 500 gallon. The guy assured me it was a 250. I checked the tag. He was reading the shell thickness. .250. Gallons was listed at 300. I took it anyway, just because its a 30", the same diameter of a 250, and I kind of figured we'd chop one end off to make room for a warmer anyway. He took $200 for it, so this is what I have to start with;
The original plan was to chop off one end to make room for a warmer and use the rest for the CC. The end I would probably turn into a fire ring. But the extra length also opens up another possibility. I have 105" of length to work with. If I go a little shorter, say around 52", I have enough cook chamber to build 2 of them. Not that I need or want a second one, but I could possibly sell it and recoup most of the money I spend on material. Of course that's a much larger upfront investment, and will be much more taxing on my time. I have no desires to build these as a business, but the thought of recouping money spent on steel is more than tempting. Last quote I got for 1/4" plate was $285 a sheet.
My last debacle was one door or two? I like the look of the 2 door, and minimizing heat loss when checking, mopping, whatever. But the single door leaves it wide open for larger cooks. A whole hog even. But I would think you'd lose a ton of heat opening it up. I think a single door would be more difficult to get to seal right too? Any one had both and have a preference? Opinions?
Our kids were still a little on the young side so on top of my full time job, only parenting became a full time job of its own. After a full day of work at work, and another full day of work at home, Ive had absolutely no time to do much of anything else for the last couple of years. Now that they are a little older, and becoming more self reliant, I decided to get back to the smoker. Its sat at idle for way too long. So today I emailed my steel guy and put in an order. It should be here by the end of the week. 
