# My new smoker...big time spam!



## Slightly Dangerous

I had seen a lot of feedback about the smokers made by Joe Chavez on this forum so decided to go see what he had available at his shop. He had several new smokers in the build process and I decided they were all extraordinary and ordered one for myself. The one I ordered was not the largest by any means but more than sufficient to handle four or five briskets, lots of ribs and any number of pork butts or chickens. Joe told me that keeping a nice 225 degree temperature would be easy with his pits. He also stated that it would be that way the entire area of the smoke chamber...not just at the far end or in the middle of the chamber. I told him I needed to be able to use the wood chamber for grilling steaks, chops, fish or even veggies so it had to have an adjustable grill setting.

He promised it would meet all my requirements.

Two weeks later they (he and his brother) delivered my pit to my home, placed it where I needed it and then gave me a crash course in how to properly feed it and use it. I must admit it is a stunning example of great workmanship. The Texas star on the handle is a nice touch and the counterweight makes it so easy to open. Anyway, the very next day we grilled rib eyes, corn on the cob and eggplant so my wife could prepare Baba ganoush and it all took half the time my regular grill did and it was excellent.

Then yesterday I decided to do ribs for some friends and family. The results were out of this world. I used hickory and charcoal and only about half of the space in the wood box. Keeping the temperature at 225 was so easy. I checked it about every 30 minutes at first but later every hour. The temp is almost a second thought with this smoker...but then again, they told me that. I am no novice at smoking meats and can easily tell when a smoker is good, bad or in the middle and and this my friends is a great smoker. If it were not it would be going back to his shop.

I feel very comfortable giving Joe a great review and at least 4.5 out of 5 stars for this pit. The only thing I would ask for is that it ring the dinner bell when it is done. Hey...a great idea....a dinner bell mounted at the top.

Thanks Joe, you did very good.


----------



## Law Dog

Congrats on the new Pit! I totally agree, Joe and his brother built my custom pit two years ago and up it's been an awesome BBQ Pit !!!


----------



## CavassoCruisin

Sounds awesome! I'm a Gatorpit man myself, but that 8-10 month wait is a kick in the pants sometimes. Congrats!


----------



## tank11

The pit looks great glad you like it.


----------



## Tail'in around

CavassoCruisin said:


> Sounds awesome! I'm a Gatorpit man myself, but that 8-10 month wait is a kick in the pants sometimes. Congrats!


Wow, I thought my 3 month wait was never going to come fast enough!!! They do build nice stuff though.


----------



## jmack

Great review and very nice smoker. I'm a Gator pit fan also but may have to give these pits a look.


----------



## tank11

We have had a lot of customs go look at gator pits ,klose, and j.j pit and still come back and say we have better quality products and and better price. So next time your looking for a pit come see us. And there's no long wait time.


----------



## K Man

My next pit will be form Joe and his guys!


----------



## 24Buds

Great report. I have been eyeballing them for some time. I don't "need" a new pit but I sure do want one. I need to up size a bit from what I have!


----------



## jmack

Hey Slightly Dangerous can you post up some more pics of your pit?


----------



## Slightly Dangerous

*More photos*

Here are a few more:


----------



## ubekewl454

*Joe and Kenny*

Yup, these guys are good. They built my trailer pit for me and I couldn't be more happy. Once I get it hot its like on auto pilot and very easy to maintain my temps. They don't know it yet but they will be building my next pit for me too haha.


----------



## randeg

*Pit*

Ordered mine yesterday. From all I have heard and talking to Joe & Kenny, I can't wait. I will follow up after I test it out.


----------



## Rubberback

I know Joe Chavez. Tell him Randy Hooper says hello & wants his Ruger 44 back.


----------



## jmack

Thanks for the pics that was exactly the detail I was looking for. I'll have to call Joe up and see if he can do a small trailer pit for me.


----------



## randeg

*Pit*

Picked up mine today. Workmanship is excellent, when he rolled it out I was blown away. They are great guys, very friendly and helpful. Seasoning going on as I type. More to come.


----------



## jmack

randeg said:


> Picked up mine today. Workmanship is excellent, when he rolled it out I was blown away. They are great guys, very friendly and helpful. Seasoning going on as I type. More to come.


Awesome! Keep us posted and post some pics!


----------



## Blue Fin Charters

Do the tuning plates in the last picture fit tight to walls of pipe?


----------



## Slightly Dangerous

Well, the metal that they sit on is welded to the sides of the pipe and the plates make a sure seal with that.


----------



## CaptJack

beautiful smoker


----------



## Blue Fin Charters

Slightly Dangerous said:


> Well, the metal that they sit on is welded to the sides of the pipe and the plates make a sure seal with that.


so the heat and majority of smoke passes under plates to exhaust stack end, and the radiant heat from plates cooks meat?


----------



## stxhunter

I really like that pit!! I need to contact them and see what they can do for me.


----------



## randeg

*Big Bear Pits*



> so the heat and majority of smoke passes under plates to exhaust stack end, and the radiant heat from plates cooks meat?


The cooking chamber still fills with smoke. What the tuning plates do is keep the sharp acrid smoke flavor out of the meat. If you like heavier smoke flavor, leave about an eighth of an inch gap in one or more of the plates. I haven't tried that yet because the wife loves the flavor of the meat I have cooked.

My biggest problem is, I take photos when I put the meat on, but I always forget to take 'em when the meat is done. Too anxious to taste the finished product. Sorry, I'll try to do better in the future.

For my money, there is not a better offset smoker made. Call Joe and go see the shop, you will not be disappointed. Joe and Kenny are cookers and old school craftsmen.


----------



## Blue Fin Charters

Tuning plates are for distributing heat evenly. Smokers are supposed to smoke. Maybe if you are getting a sharp acrid smoke flavor you might change wood. I'm not knocking the pit, it looks like good quality craftsmanship. I was just curious about tuning plates. I have pits with large upright smokers and have tuning plates to get adequate heat through main chamber into smoker. They have gaps to allow smoke to rise above tuning plate. We do BBQ cook offs and have built a few pits. Like I said I was not knocking pit. It is a good looking pit.


----------



## randeg

*Big Bear Pits*

I won't argue. I am not a cook-off participant, nor have I built a smoker. I am just giving my .02 on the pit. I do know that it is a good product at a fair price, and they are good people.

If you are a competition cooker, what is the point? You know tuning plates? I just cook for my family and friends. I thought you were asking about the smoker.

Since you are a builder of pits and competition cooker, you know where to put the wrong wood.


----------



## Blue Fin Charters

randeg said:


> I won't argue. I am not a cook-off participant, nor have I built a smoker. I am just giving my .02 on the pit. I do know that it is a good product at a fair price, and they are good people.
> 
> If you are a competition cooker, what is the point? You know tuning plates? I just cook for my family and friends. I thought you were asking about the smoker.
> 
> Since you are a builder of pits and competition cooker, you know where to put the wrong wood.


I said I was not knocking pit. I also said the pit looked good and the craftsmanship looked good. I was simply asking about the tuning plates in the picture. Maybe I should have worded comment differently as to suggest experimenting with tuning plates. Im not in the pit building business nor am I pushing a different pit manufacturer. As far as where to put the wrong wood, it sounds like you may know more about that than you do about cooking. Once again nice pit Slightly Dangerous.


----------



## stdreb27

He's just wondering how the pit smokes up, if the tuning plates are sealing off the smoke.

Those things are to help more evenly distribute heat. If you didn't have em. One side of your pit would be 500 degrees and the other 200. Depending on how long it is.


----------



## arcross32

*my new pit*

I got mine from Joe also. I wanted one with the firebox on the left side. He had one ready to roll but I also wanted to keep it in my patio. He modified the stack and damper so I could do that. It works great, makes look like I know what I'm doing.


----------



## Slightly Dangerous

My pit makes a lot of smoke in the cooking chamber even with all the plates in place. They told me to knock the bark off the wood if I wanted the smoke to be less obtrusive. I did that when I smoked some chickens using apple wood and it worked perfectly. My wife doesn't like the meat to be too smoky flavored either and I have to say I have not encountered that with this pit, even with the bark on the wood. Also, I use wood charcoal to start my fire and get the heat up to 225 and then start adding the wood. Not sure if that makes a difference but the taste is great.


----------



## randeg

*Big Bear Pits*



> I got mine from Joe also. I wanted one with the firebox on the left side. He had one ready to roll but I also wanted to keep it in my patio. He modified the stack and damper so I could do that. It works great, makes look like I know what I'm doing.


 Great looking pit and I can relate to the last statement.


----------



## Buckru

Great looking pit. Congratulations and if you think your food taste good now, wait till you have a couple years under your belt.

A comment on the acrid flavor and tuning plates.

As stated, tuning plates help distribute heat evenly across the cooking grate and don't really have anything to do with smoke flavor unless you have them sealed up so tight most of it flows out the stack.

The acrid flavor comes from cooking with white smoke. White smoke is a sign of a dirty fire that is smoldering. When you put wood on, there will be white smoke for a little bit but you want to see a light blue smoke start rolling through soon. That is a sign of a clean burning fire. You cook with heat and flavor with clean smoke. 

If you keep getting too much white smoke try this. One is to pre heat your wood by setting it on the firebox for 5-10 minutes. Hot wood catches fire quicker reducing the acrid white smoke. 2 would be to reduce the size of your logs.

Best of luck and let's see those Labor day cooking pics.

Buck


----------

