I was very happy with my Oklahoma Joe's Highland, however I felt the firebox size and stack diameter was one big handicap.
A buddy has an Old Country Pecos, I liked how his ran, so I bought one.
Instant regret... Kept having to run too hot of a fire to keep it lit, always battling flame outs and dirty smoke... Hot spot dead center, making the entire right half of the cook chamber useless. Smoker runs 320° and hotter in order to keep a fire burning, and with constant adjustment and babysitting.
After seeing how Franklin and Mill Scale have an outlet "scoop" deflector, I decided to get out the grinder and welder and do some modifying...
now, My hot spot is relegated to about 10" on the far right of the smoker.
Heat exits firebox at the grate level, instead of from bottom up. I can run larger splits, no flame-outs, no adjustments, and no "rollercoaster".
Also brought my high Temp down to 320° with box wide open and a big fire...
I can stay dialed in 250°-275 all day with little/no adjustment, minus a few small tweaks while compensating for outside temp as the sun comes out and day gets hotter...
Here's what I did... Definitely changed the game for me!
A buddy has an Old Country Pecos, I liked how his ran, so I bought one.
Instant regret... Kept having to run too hot of a fire to keep it lit, always battling flame outs and dirty smoke... Hot spot dead center, making the entire right half of the cook chamber useless. Smoker runs 320° and hotter in order to keep a fire burning, and with constant adjustment and babysitting.
After seeing how Franklin and Mill Scale have an outlet "scoop" deflector, I decided to get out the grinder and welder and do some modifying...
now, My hot spot is relegated to about 10" on the far right of the smoker.
Heat exits firebox at the grate level, instead of from bottom up. I can run larger splits, no flame-outs, no adjustments, and no "rollercoaster".
Also brought my high Temp down to 320° with box wide open and a big fire...
I can stay dialed in 250°-275 all day with little/no adjustment, minus a few small tweaks while compensating for outside temp as the sun comes out and day gets hotter...
Here's what I did... Definitely changed the game for me!