July 4th bbq need advice

You should be able to leave in cooler for 6 hours if wrap butts with foil and towels. Butts maybe pretty hot when you pull them out to pull/chop. Have a great 4th.

If the cooler is sized to the butts and you can keep them in the coolers for a long time. Do you have a wired temp probe you can stick in cooler with butts to monitor temps? If so you can keep them in there at 140* or hotter as long as you need. If it drops lower stick them in the oven at 170*

I didn't read it good enough before. If they come off at 2am I would bust them up a little and shock them cold in a ice slurry in ziplock bags and refrigerate until tomorrow evening and reheat.

If they're done at 2am you can wrap in foil, cover w/ towels and place in a cooler until you're up in th AM. Pull those butts and then keep 'em covered in foil and wrapped in the fridge until about an hour before you're ready to serve. Spritz with some apple juice or apple vinegar and put them in an oven at 300°, covered in tinfoil. Check and "stir" every 15 min. until the meat is warmed through and ready to serve. Good luck!

I agree with the three posts above. If I was in you situation, I would pull finished butts at 2. Wrap in foil and towels in cooler. Get up 6 to 8 hours later and chop/pull. Place in pan or container and use plastic to cover to retain moisture. Take a nap, wake up and about 2 hours before I plan to serve remove plastic and foil pan. Place pan in oven and set oven to the warm or 170 and let it heat up. Splash meat with a little apple juice or blues hog Tennessee red. Curl up one of the corners slightly so bark won't get "gooy" don't worry I'm sure your friends will raving about your q!