Brinkmann Trailmaster

[DATsBBQ]

Well I go it up to around 250ish for 2 hours then ran it up to about 320ish for an hour. Just could not ramp it up more. Do i need to do it again or am I good to smoke tonight. no mods on it yet. I saw some forum posts about adding more thermometers but that’s it. Yesterday was its first day out of the box!

That should be good, the idea is to coat the reflective surfaces. If you didn't calibrate the thermometer yet do so now. They are bound to be off. Most have a nut behind on the back side of the face, some have little adj screws.

Other mods are lowering the exhaust to grate level, extending the stack for a better draw, fabricating a baffle to channel the heat better. I've done them all except extending the stack on Bowie. All vents wide open, I'm lucky to hit 300°. I like to think its the thin air here but it could be a poor design.

[Nailit]

I'm new to this forum and new to smoking, but having fun learning and experimenting. I purchased a Trailmaster this past June and have been getting use to it and making mods as I go along. So far I have done the charcoal basket made out of expanded metal in the fire box, plus wrapped the opening between the fire box and the smoke chamber with aluminum foil. Installed a metal baffle with a 7" wide tuning plate in the smoke chamber. I did extend the smokestack down to the top grill and lined the bottom of the chamber with ceramic briquettes to help retain the heat. Plus all the seams, inside and out, in the smoke chamber an in between the fire box have been caulked with fire caulking.
We have smoked at least every other weekend from pork ribs to brisket, but still fine tuning and learning how to control the heat. We are finding out that this smoker does hold the heat, but if the directions say to have the smoke chamber at a certain tempature, I usually go about 30 degrees higher according to the smoke chamber thermo, which I did replace with a better one than what came with the unit.
I have had this Brickmann in use up to a 11 hour burn smoking two briskets, which came out great, but that's when we realized we needed to up the temp at least 30 degrees higher (260) and it cut the smoking time by a few hours, but still came out tender and with one heck of smoke ring...This weekend, a pork shoulder, this time around, the new mod will be the divider in the charcoal basket to extend the burn time of the Kingsford, plus using apple wood.

[sparky]

Morning, I currently own a vertical propane smoker, which I like. My son lives in upstate New York and has an offset rig. He has been goading me about getting a real smoker so thinking seriously about the Brinkmann Trailmaster. Looked at one at Home Depot. Very substantial. Home depot will order one into a store which currently stocks this model thereby eliminating shipping.

Well, this is my first post, looking forward to it.

[The Bundling]

you will love it. Have had one for about a year now (I think I was the one who started this post a year ago) and its great. Takes awhile to get used to it and become Familiar with its quarks but you will learn. I have learned that it will rust (like any smoker sitting outside). As long as you scrape the rust off and paint it again your good.

[sparky]

Happy Fathers Day to all. One step closer to the new smoker (caught the wife on a good day). Will probably get it this week. Looking forward to smoking some ribs perhaps next week, I will report on my success (or lack thereof).

[Jake707]

First post. Thinking about buying one of these smokers tomorrow from Home Depot. How have the held up?

Also has anyone thought about cutting a hole on the firebox side and moving the stack to that side? You would obviously need to weld the old hole on the left side. This would turn it into a reverse flow smoker correct? Isn't that more desirable?