Okay so I know, not a lot of love for the Jumbo Joe Premium, but the size was right, and the price was hard to beat. I made some additions that I would have had to make with the Original Kettle Grill anyway, and other models just weren't what I was looking for so off to mod I went...
#1. First things first, got it put together, and made a quick run to Home Depot, picked up a hinged cooking grate to allow me to add coals during a long burn. Been loving that. Really dislike the OE grate this thing came with BTW... Very much not the same quality as the replacement!
#2. I had to have my cooking utensils close by, so I added one of those hanger deals that puts 4 hooks right off the side of the kettle. The hoops that hold it on were spread too wide, so a little encouragement by my quick clamp and it all came into line nice and snug how it should be.
#3. And lastly, but pretty close to most importantly, during my first burn I noticed it was painfully difficult to monitor my kettle temps, particularly close to where the meat was cooking, by sticking a probe down the daisy wheel in the lid. So I added a 2" Thermometer from Amazon to the lid, just between the end of the hanger hook, and the outside lip of the lid. This puts the probe about 1" above the grate which is perfect for me!
I also have a Smokey Joe Silver that I had been using as my main grill and just spending gobs of time keeping the coals going to have a succesful cook if I am cooking en masse for the upcoming week, or doing a party... I have now relegated this to camping and beach duty. I have ordered a fresh cooking grate for this little champ, and installed a thermometer in the lid of this one as well, in about the same position.
I am a former New Braunfels Bandera Smoker user. I loved that big thing, but the problem was, it was just too big, and unwieldy to store in my garage workshop. So I was looking for a way around that after leaving it out in the elements caused rust to grab a hold of that thing and kill it frighteningly quickly. I had prior experience with my little Smokey Joe grills, and had been learning to do indirect cooking even on the smokey joe... The 22" kettle was the next logical step, and seeing as I was already intimately familiar with the manual ash removal of the Smokey Joe, the Jumbo Joe Premium just, well seemed like an overgrown Smokey Joe to me... I can live with that...
Even on the longest burns I have done so far, which was the first burn, and that one took me 18 hours total, ash buildup was minimal, air flow was easy to maintain, no worries. So not super worried about the sweeper system on the better kettles...
Anyway, the point I was getting at is the 22" kettle seemed like an easy to move, easy to use rig, which it is turning out to me true, takes up very little space in my shop when stored, and even though the kettle table rigs look good, that just won't work for me. Which leads me to pending updates / mods...
Mostly, I want to add a second tool hanger. With 4 hooks, I can't hang everthing I want to. I have storage for the meat fork, silicone brush, grill brush, and tongs. I literally need 1 more hook for the spatula. (I actually have 2 very nice Pampered Chef BBQ Spatulas I want to hang...
To get that hanger capacity, I was considering a Weber 7478 Hanger Handle [url]https://www.amazon.com/Weber-7478-Charcoal-Grill-Handle/dp/B00FDOOQD0/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&qid=1530629420&sr=8-25&keywords=weber+kettle+replacement+parts[/url} to replace my OE handle. I am not certain it will fit my grill though...
Anyway, here it is in all its glory before the first burn and my addition of the thermometer. Pics of that to come...
Topic: Low end kettles rigged to work great! (Read 1980 times)