noxskuses wrote:
Line the bottom of the smoker or drip tray in foil to save on cleaning up.
I also put some ceramic floor tiles in the bottom of mine to help maintain heat and made a fire basket out of some chicken wire to hold the charcoal better.
Pete
These seems like really good tips
Ive just ordered a Landmann Tennessee as my first smoker, which looks really similar to nickb23's, would putting floor tiles in the bottom of that be a good idea? Only issue is the firebox in the Tennessee is round so it might be difficult to get them to fit, but I guess breaking them up and laying them as flat as you can around the curved bottom is going to really help keep the heat in.
Kid,
I have a landmann ttennesee from last year and would offer the following advice and tips.
The smoker box on the side chokes far too easily. They advise you to use a single coal grate in landscape, I use both in portrait this raises the coals up higher and gives better airflow.
There is a massive variation in left to right in the smoking chamber.. you can use this to your advantage if you want the different temps but be aware of it, the thermo in the lid is almost certainly going to be wrong.
If you want a hotter roast like a chicken abandon the firebox completely and put the coals in the main chamber piled up on the left and mr chooky chook to the right. The steel of the landmann is quite thin so it struggles to hold the highrer temps.
Finally it rusts like a bar steward, I have it sat next to an 8 yo outback but if you looked at the 2 you would place a large sum that the mandmann was the old fella.
All thid said I think it is an ecvellent value bit of kit and I have had many excellent meat products off of it.
Thanks for this guys top tips. Realise now that tiles need to go in the smoker not firebox! Hopefully this will help the landmann hold high temperatures a bit better. I saw this great video on YouTube about tile mods for an offset smoker, the tile baffle should help with the left/right temp imbalance.
Will def take steps to raise the grate in firebox also. All I need to do now is get it built and learn it's unique characteristics, I will report back!
I too have a Landmann Tennessee smoker and I've gone down the route of mods as well! Not sure if you've seen these, but here's a couple of links to my posts from last year with piccies, which may be of use:
