New Pits

[Down Yonder BBQ]

Being rich isnt in my plans and then again Im rich just not in the money area and I really dont ever want to be there, comfortable maybe. Being rich brings problems. And as always I always try to remember everyone who puts us on the road map. Without our friends, family and customers you are nobody....................

[Papa Tom]

A doctor friend of mine told me once " I've been rich and I've been poor, rich is better".
Profound statements like that just kinda make me well up ya know.

[bigwheel]

Good looking pits there DY..sure yall will find a niche. Be sure to build a few of them Lazy Q's where old lazy folks can cook on gas if they want. Just makes em so much mo versatile.

bigwheel

[Down Yonder BBQ]

As for the doctor comment, I will say this and Im not braggin when I say this: Growing up I cant say that my family was poor, but Im not going to say that we were middle class either. We usually got what we wanted during the holidays and birthdays, had the best of cloths and never was hungry.

I grew up in a spoiled enviroment and found out that I was a snob when I graduated. I took a turn in my life and joined the Army and decided to go all the way, I went to Ranger school, joined the Special Forces and did well. What I did for a living in the service Im not proud of, but I deal with it. I thought that making $.24 cents an hour was a great thing. Then I got out and went to work for Halliburton Energy services as an engineer. I was making about 75K to 100K per year gross. Man I thought Im a up there now.

But then I got hurt and my career ended, I had to retrain for a new career, so I became a plumber. Now Im making 30K to 40K per year. Big deal, Then an oppertunity came by to move to the Northwest and make a fat check. As a plumber I arrived in Washington on July/2004 and worked my tail off for the remainder of the year. Within 5 months I had netted $92,000.00 But I worked an ungodly amount of hours. The next year my salary just went up and up 2005 [ 175,000] 2006 [200,000] 2007 [over 225,000] Then I got hurt again and had duel knee replacement in January 08. Now sure thats alot of money, but I can bet I worked more than 90 hours a week. Then came the burn out. As of now Im not interested in being rich, Money makes life easier but it doesnt buy happyness. And you cant take it to heavan when you die. Ive been around folks all my life that are rich and poor, and I have found that money doesnt make the person what they are, the person makes themselves what they are.

Just remember one thing; If you become rich beyond what you thought was possible; Some folks have money and have no cooth. Others have money and have more cooth than needed. Where do you want to be???

Like I said I dont want to be rich I just want to be comfortable and be able to BBQ all the time and teach the field and be good at it.

[Puck]

My Brother and I have been in the planing stages of building a for home use smoker out of an old propain tank ( yes its plugs have been out for 25 years, and we plan to try a sawzall )
He had a great idea for tires and wheels.......said we could use the ones from an old riding lawn mower. Since you cant use them on the highway, nobody would be wanting to borrow our smoker and take forever to return it. Unless they had a utility trailer to haul it on.

I know its sorry to be that way, but when the beer is cold and you feel the need to grill then is not the time to go hunt down your smoker then find out it has a flat tire.

[Down Yonder BBQ]

Ive tried the saw zaw thing and its not the greatest tool to use, sure it may do the job but the lines are never straight and you go through blades like crazy, You can rent a plaszma cutter for about 60 dollars a day from hertz or some rental company and its well worth the money. The cuts are need and clean, unlike using a cutting torch. I can burn through 3/8" steel with mine in a tenth of the time it takes to use a saw zaw or torch. I can usually cut and prep a 1000 gal propane tank with all the fire box cots, doors, stack and smoker boxs in about 7 hours............

[Puck]

Ive tried the saw zaw thing and its not the greatest tool to use, sure it may do the job but the lines are never straight and you go through blades like crazy, You can rent a plaszma cutter for about 60 dollars a day from hertz or some rental company and its well worth the money. The cuts are need and clean, unlike using a cutting torch. I can burn through 3/8" steel with mine in a tenth of the time it takes to use a saw zaw or torch. I can usually cut and prep a 1000 gal propane tank with all the fire box cots, doors, stack and smoker boxs in about 7 hours............

Very true!
Up until I got feed up (9 months ago), I worked for a Government Contractor in a Machine Shop for 25 years. I still have several ties to local welding supply stores and salesmen. I could get a loaner for free I bet. Besides, I just bought a new Miller 302 Trailblazer from one of them for about 3400.00.
On the subject of blades for the Sawzall, you need to run it at low speed to keep from burning up the blade also use some cutting oil (WD-40 in a pinch). I can cut a pretty good line with a 00 tip in my torch and a piece of angle iron for a guide. You can also use small angle for a guide when using a Sawzall or even a Plasma-arc.

I was reading on another thread about yall building UDS's. Maybe if I built and sold a few of those, I could buy the Heli-arc and Wire Feed to go with my welder! LOL

The part I didnt tell yall about this "Smoker In The Works", we also have two small ball shaped (aprox 27" dia) tanks that we were going to use for fireboxes. You have to picture the idea in your head....long propain tank with two round tanks attached to the end side by side down low. Then paint it pink (knowing the pink would soon burn off, but who cares)!
Were gonna name it "The Big Johnson".
Guess you just have to understand how my Brother and I think when there is a 30 pack in the cooler and ribs cookin.

[Down Yonder BBQ]

We have high temp paint here in the NW that comes in about 100 colors, you should post your pics of what ya got so far, some folks maybe able to give ya some tips and then again maybe not, but its always fun to see what the begining stages and through the project stages are like and even the finished stage.

Im fixing to start a custom hydralic lowboy trailer and turn it into a custom rodeo cooker. We bought the trailer from an auction surplus for 300,00. We have ordered two 1000 galllon pits for back to back pits, then ordered two 500 gallon tanks for rotissere systems. We will have 8 pot cookers, A combe oven, fajita griller plates, and 12 refrigerated keg chillers. There will be a on demand water heater with a gasoline generator, then we will have a air pressured hot water system also made with Stainless kegs and copper located in the pits for hot water backup. Will have a 500 gallon fresh water tank and a 250 gallon black water disposal tank. Last but not least a storage cabinet for woods and spices and what ever else we can think of. This should be a 2 to 3 year project doing it part time. We figure the estimated cost to be about 75,000. And should feed approx. 3500 folks per day if fully loaded!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Papa Tom]

We have high temp paint here in the NW that comes in about 100 colors, you should post your pics of what ya got so far, some folks maybe able to give ya some tips and then again maybe not, but its always fun to see what the begining stages and through the project stages are like and even the finished stage.

Im fixing to start a custom hydralic lowboy trailer and turn it into a custom rodeo cooker. We bought the trailer from an auction surplus for 300,00. We have ordered two 1000 galllon pits for back to back pits, then ordered two 500 gallon tanks for rotissere systems. We will have 8 pot cookers, A combe oven, fajita griller plates, and 12 refrigerated keg chillers. There will be a on demand water heater with a gasoline generator, then we will have a air pressured hot water system also made with Stainless kegs and copper located in the pits for hot water backup. Will have a 500 gallon fresh water tank and a 250 gallon black water disposal tank. Last but not least a storage cabinet for woods and spices and what ever else we can think of. This should be a 2 to 3 year project doing it part time. We figure the estimated cost to be about 75,000. And should feed approx. 3500 folks per day if fully loaded!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heck of a project but check local health department codes they usually require waste water tanks to be 150% larger than fresh water tanks.

[Papa Tom]

On the subject of blades for the Sawzall, you need to run it at low speed to keep from burning up the blade also use some cutting oil (WD-40 in a pinch). I can cut a pretty good line with a 00 tip in my torch and a piece of angle iron for a guide. You can also use small angle for a guide when using a Sawzall or even a Plasma-arc.

My son told me to just use vegetable oil and it works great......

[DATsBBQ]

We have high temp paint here in the NW that comes in about 100 colors, you should post your pics of what ya got so far, some folks maybe able to give ya some tips and then again maybe not, but its always fun to see what the begining stages and through the project stages are like and even the finished stage.

Im fixing to start a custom hydralic lowboy trailer and turn it into a custom rodeo cooker. We bought the trailer from an auction surplus for 300,00. We have ordered two 1000 galllon pits for back to back pits, then ordered two 500 gallon tanks for rotissere systems. We will have 8 pot cookers, A combe oven, fajita griller plates, and 12 refrigerated keg chillers. There will be a on demand water heater with a gasoline generator, then we will have a air pressured hot water system also made with Stainless kegs and copper located in the pits for hot water backup. Will have a 500 gallon fresh water tank and a 250 gallon black water disposal tank. Last but not least a storage cabinet for woods and spices and what ever else we can think of. This should be a 2 to 3 year project doing it part time. We figure the estimated cost to be about 75,000. And should feed approx. 3500 folks per day if fully loaded!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heck of a project but check local health department codes they usually require waste water tanks to be 150% larger than fresh water tanks.

The helpfull folks at the Boulder County (Colorado) Health Dept requires that the black water tank be 20% larger than the supply. Also, tank has to be a single tank not a pair of 'em hooked together.

[Down Yonder BBQ]

I understand most of the health dept codes, but if we are not going to sell on the corner and we only use for cook offs the we are not going to need it.

[Papa Tom]

And a correction I should have said 150% the size of fresh water or 50% larger.

[OSD]

I must be missing something here.

First you talk about feeding 3500 people a day. then you say you are only going to use it for cook-offs. If you were not going to cater or do vending ( even at cook-offs ) then why would you need this big of a set-up to do comps??

Second, if you do build this set-up, I would think you would build it so it could be used in any type of cooking situation. Catering, vending, or cook-offs.

Third, if after you build it, if you ever decide to sell it, it's value would be more if it were set-up right. The next person isn't going to give top dollar for something he is going to have to spend a bunch of money on to make it usable and legal for his use. It would be easier and more cost effective to build it to legal specs from the start.

JMHO...............YMMV

[Down Yonder BBQ]

So letme clarify, Im not sure I would want to sit on a corner and cook, Im not sure I want to cater, Im not sure of anything at this time. Its a new toy to build, with the LLC and the Corperation we own we have to spend a certain amount per year for the two company's either together or seperate. Since DYBBQ is owned by Global BBQ Corp. then we have to spend money either way. The cost to build this unit is large, but to me its more of a fun thing to do. Some folks buy big expensive boats, or fancy expensive cars, me I want some big fancy out of this world BBQ trailer. Sure I may not use it for big, big things but who knows. And as for feeding lots of folks Id say that when we cooked the Ft. Bend County Fair and Rodeo 8 years back it was all by sponsership. So the big sponsers were Harris County Sherriff's Dept and their familys, Ft. Bend County Sherriff's and all of their family's, Certain DPS Units that were nearby and all of the Halliburton Energy Employee's and their family's for the greater area of Galveston, Fresno, Houston , and other surrounding areas that were able to attend. We operated on a pit that was 1 1/2 -500 gallon propane tanks welded together. And it was fun but in the same token it was heck due to the fact that we were always scrambling to chill coolers /kegs of beer, making store runs for cases of beer, going to the restrooms to wash hands.

So all Im saying is that this is more for fun than anything, and Im the kind of person that if I build it and its paid for why would I want to sell it, if ya started a resturant, it would make for good advertizing icon. And as always everything in life depreciates in value.

But also it has to do with the looks on people's faces. Can you imagine pulling into a cook off during setup and getting it stationed in place. Imagine the awe and ohhhhhhh and the looks you would get. Some folks may worry that you have done well and they may not know youre cooking ability's. Some may be intimidated by the size of youre rig. Who knows, I dont, but it sure looks like fun.

Maybe Im not making sense to you but, in my own mind it makes sense, but then again my mind is a scary place even for me.

And before ya all say Im strange, ya should look at the bbq trailer pit for sale on Ebay for something like $2,000,000.00 it takes something like 4000 lbs of charcoal per 12 hour sitting...........

So let me clarify on something else, all the plumbing, waste water storage, fresh water storage and supply systems will be above what the general regulating UPC codes and Health codes ask for. So if buy some chance I ever do decide to sell it, then it will be of legal standard for the area for which it is used under the governing body that has jurisdiction for the state which it will reside.