Need ideas on how to "tune in" my beast.

Classic fixes for hot spots are extended baffles and water pans but with each pit comes different tendencies and more often than not, it's best to understand and embrace the pit instead of trying to force it to be something it is not.

do you run 2 fires in it at once?

OK, lets break it down. I'm assuming you have 1 cook chamber fed by 2 fireboxes. Eliminate variables! Try using just 1 firebox, small hot fire. Set your exhausts wide open, don't mess with them and try to adjust fire/temps with the intakes only. Now, you got 2 exhausts so you might need 1 closed and 1 wide open but the point is to let the pit exhaust all it wants to and control heat with the intskes.

Try a baffle or tuning plates to help distribute the heat further from the firebox.

If I have 4 butts on one of them is bound to be a little stubborn. If your luck is like mine I would leave the hot zone alone and use it to your advantage when you have a couple butts or ribs not becoming tender when you start probing use that hot zone to your advantage and let those meats catch up to the other ones.

Patience and perseverance !!!:decision:

he said there was a baffle in the middle so Im assuming its actually 2 cookers

Center the firebox.

SmittyJonz said:

Center the firebox.

Click to expand...

It is baffled in the middle, making to separate cook chambers. Essentially it is 2 side by side vertical offsets. I think tuning plates are the answer...

If those 2 fireboxes are going directly into the chambers, like peeps said you could try some tuning plates to direct the heat more towards the middle before it rises to the top. Not sure how much you'll be able to change the left to right differences though, if you're burning 2 fires they'll never be exactly the same. Tuning plates may also help keep the heat from rising so fast that you're top is hotter than the bottom.

Like others have mentioned though, you're probably better off just trying to learn it and love it. We have an insulated Battle Box cooker and even that has hot spots, pretty good difference between top and bottom. We have learned to use the hot spots to our advantage when needed and rotate meats so they all get equal time at the different temps.