Sorry guys, by the time I finished, showered and knocked a few back with the family I crashed hard for the night.
Asked the guy how hell cooks so much on a single grate, said he usually boils the ribs and finishes them on the UDS.. how did I know that was coming :tsk:
Got a lot of compliments, but just as important... I burned chit out of half his matchlight getting them down to embers before tossing them in the UDS. Made sure to tell the guy there's a KBB sale going on and maybe while he's there, try some royal oak :-D
Definitely spoiled by my WSM: get a chimney to ash over, minion method and I'm good for hours. Here I had to constantly make and feed embers to keep the temp going. By the time I got the charcoals to stop smelling horrible, more than half the briquette was gone.
The warped lid may have helped me in the end. The top vents are tiny slits (less than half the size of the holes on a weber kettle). The gaps may have helped the smoke from collecting on the top of that dome and dropping nasty stuff on the food.
Bend test, probe tender and twisting chicken legs saved my arse!