After using the snake method on the kettle for a few years and loving the technique. I decided it was time to trial it on the ranch to see if i could get the same results. The goal being to set it up for Low & Slow cooking with temps sitting between 225-250f, and being able to set it up, position vents and be comfortable the ranch would be sitting within a range of correct cooking temps.
First trial method was to try the snake the same way i do on the kettle which is 2 Heat bead briquettes wide and 1 high and light 12 which are added at the start of the snake
After 2hrs with all vents open and a temp probe sitting on the opposite side of the grill to the lit snake the temp was 167f
At 2 1/2hrs the temp had moved to 176f and at 3hrs the temp was stable at 176f and didn't seem to be climbing. I then moved the probe to the centre of the grill and had a reading of 178f for the next hour.
At this time it was obvious to me i wasn't going to get to the required temp so i pulled the the snake apart and let the Ranch cool
Second trial was using 4 briquettes 2 wide and 2 high and 20 lit. After 2 1/2hrs temp had stabilised at 185f and didn't seem to be climbing
So i decided to pull it down, let it cool and start again
Third trial i used 5 briquettes 3 wide and 2 high with 20 lit. After 2hrs temp was sitting at 184f and was starting to lose hope but at 2 1/2hrs temp hit the magic number of 225f with all vents open
At 3 1/2hrs temp was at 239f and slowly climbing so i closed down two of the bowl vents closest to the snake. The temp kept climbing slowly and at 4rs was at 248f. So i closed the last bowl vent down by 3/4
and 1/2 closed the top vent. Slowly the temp dropped to 237f by 4 1/2hrs and stabilised. I then moved the probe to the centre of the grill and the temp only changed by a couple of fahrenheit.
I used 80 briquettes in the snake and the temp stayed stable for the next 9hrs. Very Happy!!!
I know Kingsford is a different size briquette to Heat Bead but i'd say the same snake in Kingsford would yield the same result
I'll be trialling it with some meat on the grill over the weekend now that I'm confident in getting to temp
I think because of the large area of the ranch it took a while to heat up but once it did it sat steady. So next time i'll use 30 briquettes to light it and see if i can get it up to temp quicker