Looking to build towable

1. Decide the kind of smoker you want.
2. Weld it to a trailer.

Your design space is kind of broad at the moment to get any specific answers.

A very popular design is an offset horizontal smoker set on a small flatbed trailer. I built one of those from an old horizontal air tank and an old used small utility trailer. Mine works very well. I did a lot of my basic design work by following tried and true procedures that are very well documented online e.g. the "BBQ calculator".

Another trailered design that I see fabricated quite a bit is that of a DPP clone. DPP stands for "Diamond Plate Pits" (I think). It's just a different layout of an offset horizontal smoker design.

I would encourage you to pay attention to the basics of trailer design as well. For example, in order for a 2-wheeled trailer to track correctly while being towed, about 45% of the weight should be on each wheel and about 10% on the tongue weight. A lot of smoker designs make it tough to get any positive tongue weight at all. We like to hang really heavy fireboxes off the back, which makes the tongue want to fly up in the air. If you don't address this in your build, your trailer might whipsaw back and forth every time you get it over 45 mph.

Unless you are a skilled designer I'd suggest you build something along the lines of a cooker that works. Don't try to break too much new ground. It would be very tough to fix a cooker that doesn't work well, much much easier to build it right the first time.

Also, building a trailer smoker is at least medium difficult metal fabrication. If you aren't a fitter/welder then you might want to take a few classes before you start your project. If you think about it, you are going to hang about a ton of steel on some wheels and go pull it down the freeway at speed. If your welds start falling apart out there the liability could be ruinous. So make sure you know what you're doing.

Good luck! I had a ton of fun building my smoker. Now when I cook for big groups of friends I just love the feedback I get!

seattlepitboss

I built mine out of a 250 gallon Propane tank... and 1/4 plate sheet metal. Has served and continues to serve me well.. nothing like building your own! good luck and we like pics!

Here is one build to look at, just to get ideas.
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Wild-Pig-Smoker/?ALLSTEPS

reflynn said:

I am a metal fabricator, and well experienced welder, so that part is not an issue, Seattlepitboss you gave some very good advice about my build, i do currently have a boat trailer that I can start build off of. Think I may be looking at offset horizontal with possibly a cabinet. Will submit plans to the site as I go. Thanks again for the input so far.

Click to expand...

This sounds a like like what we did, started with a 20' boat trailer!!

Everything you need to know about building a good, towable smoker trailer is right HERE.

(Sorry, sounds like you are skillful enough to make your own. If I wanted one, I'd would go to that link above.)

Just a bit of advice:
1) consider a reverse flow offset design
2) before you do anything check the bearings and weight capacity on the trailer axle - in my experience by the time someone is willing to donate a trailer to repurpose for a cooker they can be pretty worn out and the bearings are the first to fail.

IMHO the trailers are the tricky part. There is about as much work in making or setting up the trailer as there is in making the smoker. Since you already have a trailer, keep the smoker loose where you can adjust it forward and backwards until you get the balance right. The weight will also add up faster than you think. My smoker has a 72 inch X 32 inch 1/4 inch wall air compressor tank and a 400- 500 lb home make wood stove. When I finished with the heavy duty trailer frame and grill on the front it ended up about 11 feet long before adding the tongue, and it weighed over 2600lbs.
I personally would go with the longer tank, and stay away from the stainless one. I have no doubts that you have the skills to build a nice smoker. I would probably look to bracing and beefing up the trailer once you get the balance point set and I would also replace the bearings and springs, if not the whole axle assembly if anything is questionable at all. For cheap axles I use older dodge caravan rear axles, they have heavy duty round tubes and spring pads, are easy to cut down to shorten or lengthen, and they come in both 14 and 15 inch tire sizes( just make sure which you want first). Best of all they are cheap from junk yards.