Pit build - Tuning plate help

[mking7]

Building a big pit. Going to put tuning plates in. Roughly how wide should I make each plate? 8"? Wider? Anyone have pics to share?

Pit is a 500 gallon tank.

[mking7]

[Fish and teach]

What distance are you planning on having between your plates and lower grate surface?

[k.a.m.]

I can get you some pics of my plates when the sun comes up mking7.
Including the locking tabs on my plates they are 7.5" wide, they cover a cooking area about 70" long.
I would imagine you will need at least 10" wide plates to cover your length. You may find that on the far end you will not need plates and you can reduce the plate width, maybe just cover the first two door areas.
It will boil down playing with the gaps to see what it takes, every cooker reacts differently to them.
As far as distance between the plates and the top of my grate I like 6".
Here is a pic of mine on my welding table after I added the tabs and handles.