wrote in message
...
Hey Joseph - POST!

New blood means new subjects and topics, and it will keep
the group
alive as well as more fun.

That being said there are forums with whole sections on
modding out
the Chargriller.

Check this link out, and you can just start reading:

http://tinyurl.com/3w7dx9

Or go hear (with a cup of coffee!) and look at what folks
are doing.
There is a sticky called "Chargriller family" or something
like that
which has hundreds of responses. That is in addition to
all the
others on that page.

You will find pictures, ideas and tons of good advice on
both.

On my Chargriller, I added the flex tube to get the
exhaust down to
the grill level, I drilled into the lid and added to new
thermos on
each side of the grill at grill level, bought a giant
chrome fruit
basket to get rid of their charcoal arrangement in the
SFB, and made a
mini baffle to extend the opening from the SFB into the
cooking
chamber.

It took longer to gather the parts than it did to execute
the mods.
Lowe's had the 3" aluminum flex (dryer) vent and the .99
hose clamp,
and my local restaurant supply had the thermos and fruit
basket, and I
used a piece of aluminum to bend an arc into a piece of
metal that
just sits inside as a baffle/extension.

With a little work you can make this thing perform like a
big boy
cooker. I can easily hold temps in this thing, and the
first load of
charcoal/oak mix will go a full three hours without adding
fuel.

Here's my personal mod: I bought two of those king
sized fruit
baskets. At about 2 hours and 45 minutes (actually I look
and see how
many live coals and remaining fuel I have left in the
burning basket),
I take the second basket filled with fuel and start it
with just a few
coals from the chimney.

When it is just lit, I take the burning basket out of the
cooker and
pour the remaining coals over the top of the fresh one.
With a little
practice, you can get back on temp really fast. Six to
seven hours
for ribs can be done with just one fuel change. Works for
me!

Robert

Great Post! Thanks for all the info. I'll get that
cup of coffee.

I am planning on the remote thermometer install at
grill level. I already have the materials you mentioned
except maybe the 3" pipe clamp.

I smoked ribs first, two racks of baby's and two racks
of spares. plenty of room. Part of the baby's were a
little rubbery but I think the mods may help there.

I really like the slide out tray in the SFB, it did go
three hours before fuel was running out. I filled my
starter and lit it up. when I changed out the fuel I dumped
the old into my old smoker and filled the basket with the
new. I tonged anything worthwhile from the old into the
tray with the new.

Joseph