22”WSM vs Drum for ribs

[Blowin' Smoke]

I’ve been nominated to cook at least a case of ribs for our annual Fourth of July party, assuming that Sleepy Joe allows such a gathering. Anyways, I’m considering getting a weber 22” and getting a rib hanger or getting/building a drum smoker. I’ve got an acquaintance who uses a drum and his ribs are insane. He’s walked me thru his method and it seems to work well. I’m not sure what the capacity is on one vs the other so any input would be nice.
I currently have an 18” WSM that I love, hence my leaning towards the larger version. I feel like the WSM and a drum will cook basically the same as far as setup and overall taste, but I wasn’t sure what everyone’s experience was with capacity.

TIA


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[kynmo2010]

I have an 18" WSM and a 55 gal UDS i made. Yes. they cook nearly the same. A standard drum with 2 racks and a 22 WSM will have the same capacity. If you use a Weber kettle lid for your drum you may be able to get an extra rack. I have never hung ribs, but have used rib racks and started the ribs out horizontal. In standard set up with 2 grill racks you can cook 12 racks of ribs using the rib racks. I know a company called Hunsaker makes a rib hanger for WSMs, but not sure if they make they for UDSs. I would assume they do since the smoker they make it out of a 55 gal drum.

 

[Callahan-que]

Take the water pan out of the wsm and you've pretty much have a drum smoker.

 

[huskerfan1200]

I've built a couple of UDS with 2 racks each using a Weber lid. Upper grate is an inch down from the lip. Lower grate is 6 inches down from that. Using rib racks I can get 3 or 4 racks of ribs on each level. I used a diffuser on the charcoal basket and rotated the grates halfway through the cook. Was able to do 15 racks of ribs on the 2 UDS for one a my bigger cooks.