Char Griller Duo with Side Fire Box and Mods

I recently purchased a Char-Griller Duo Model 5050 and a Side Fire Box Model 2-2424. I got them from local retail. The Duo had several damages inside the box. The company promptly corrected the decencies. The grill works great out of the box with gas and with charcoal in the adjustable burner tray. The paint is cheap and burned off of the trouble spots on the side fire box within 2 hours of the first firing. With the side fire box added flipping the burner tray over doesn't provide enough of a baffle to adequately distribute heat and smoke in the cook chamber. I built a water reservoir baffle and heat tuning plates that fit in the contour of the cook chamber. These would fit in just about any offset smoker of this style. They help to baffle the heat and smoke down and across the cook chamber and up through the gaps between the tuning plates.

I have never been a fan of extending the chimney to the cook surface with the flex tube because I dont care for the look and taking up the cook space. I fashioned a false wall in the lid that covers the chimney opening and directs the flow to a one inch gap along the entire left edge of the cook surface. You can look down the chimney and see the smoke pulling evenly all along the baffle. If I were making this lid from scratch I would double wall the cold end by one inch and elbow the chimney into the end of the lid instead of the top. This would put the chimney input at grate level all along the cold side of the grill.

My next mod is to make a jacket and lid seals out of grill cloth (heavy terry cloth). I was trying to come up with a good idea to seal the cook chamber. At the same time I was using terry cloth towels to cover the lid to insulate the cook chamber. The cook chamber doesnt get hot enough to scorch or burn the towel. I plan on sewing some fitted terry cloth covers for the lid with thermometer (Which I plan to add) flaps and a chimney opening. For the seals I will hem up several strips of terry cloth about one inch wide and the length to fit around the edge of the cook chamber and seal the lid. They will also help soak up the lid dripping and are washable.




char griller duo trio side fire box mods tuning plate plates offset smoker baffle Char Griller Char-Griller Smokin Pro Grill Charcoal Smoking Grilling Smoke Cooking 5050 2424 2-2424 Smoke COS Off Set OffSet Setup Up How To Hold Temps Long Cooks BBQ Low And Slow Stoker System Rocks NBBD Pit ribs babyback baby back brisket beef pork dry rub sauce mop flavor taste

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• char
• griller
• duo
• trio
• side
• fire
• box
• mods
• tuning
• plate
• plates
• offset
• smoker
• baffle
• Char
• Griller
• Char-Griller
• Smokin
• Pro
• Grill
• Charcoal
• Smoking
• Grilling
• Smoke
• Cooking
• 5050
• 2424
• 2-2424
• COS
• Off
• Set
• OffSet
• Setup
• Up
• How
• To
• Hold
• Temps
• Long
• Cooks
• BBQ
• Low
• And
• Slow
• Stoker
• System
• Rocks
• NBBD
• Pit
• ribs
• babyback
• baby
• back
• brisket
• beef
• pork
• dry
• rub
• sauce
• mop
• flavor
• taste

[munkys112]

This is by far the best looking baffles I have seen. I hate to copy but it looks like it works very well. I am gonna try and attempt the same thing. The water box/baffle is damn cool.

[whitscot]

@munkys112 The exhaust mod is probably equally as efficient as well. When I did that the cook surface became very stable. I would like to improve my metal workmanship though but I wanted to do both the mods without altering the original grill. If I had a spare lid I would cut a couple inches off the end and ad it to the side of the lid making a "false side" to put the chimney draw on the cold end of the cook surface. I also have another video showing seals for the lid.

[whitscot]

@whitscot I'm getting ready to order a replacement ash tray for the side fire box. The one I have is still in good shape. I plan to mount a propane burner in it so I can slide it into the side fire box and use propane instead of charcoal. I can just switch ash trays and use charcoal also.

[whitscot]

@munkys112 Thanx Munk, copy away. The cardboard mock up made it easy. The size of the reservoir is not too important. I don't fill it all the way because it reduces the temperature in the cook chamber too much.

[whitscot]

Please watch my video "Country Style Ribs" for a good view of how I seal my cook chamber. Thanks for watching.

[Tempter69]

The baffle with the water-box is awesome! Can you fabricate one similar but with a thicker gauge steel? Same with the tuning plates? I know the engineering, but don't have the equipment ( or friends with the equipment) to do it myself.

[whitscot]

@Tempter69 Thank you. It took me all day to make that. To do it again and send it to you would cost alot. Just show the video to a local welder. A pro should be able to put one together in no time. Thanks for viewing.

[AnotherAmateur]

I like this guy's spirit! This is what YouTube is all about. I use a Smokeshack smoker oven for my pulled pork. Marinade in apple juice and onions then smoke it for 17 hours. Pull it, mix it up with homemade BBQ sauce and I have the best pulled pork sandwich in Silicon Valley! Thanks for a great video!

[whitscot]

@carnypimp That is all explained in the video and text. It is made of diamond plate steel. I made them.

[carnypimp]

Where did you buy the tuning plates and what kind of metal did you use?