Weber Kettle Hinge - Lid vent side or back?

[manno]

G'day guys,

I was just gifted an old weber that was found on the side of the road, waiting for collection by hard rubbish. And ive since been giving the old girl a new lease on life.

Ive bought the unknown bbq hinge and im about to drill...

I plan on doing most searing over hot coal on one side then bringing up to temp indirect on the opposite side on a raised rack. So my 2 options are fire on the right side which means vent on the left. Or, fire at the front and vent to the back.

What do you guys think??

[HoosierKettle]

Fire to the front means your reaching over a hot fire. You didn't mention this as an option but I would do fire in the back and vent to the front.


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[bamakettles]

I put my hinge on the back, usually put my fire in the back leaving the sides and front open for business.  Vent on the front.  Works well for me.


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[bamakettles]

Vent and thermometer placement......


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[manno]

Thanks for the replies, especially the photos. Much appreciated. I wasnt ready for a third option though!! Haha

The only reason i hadnt considered that is that i was keen to run my probes through the vent holes, which would be pretty inconvenient if that was at the front.

So i like how the kettle looks with vent to the left and lid handle running left to right. But i was told its not great to have the fire directly against the bases handle, which i would that way.  Vent at the back would avoid that, lid handle running front to back looks a bit odd. And yes id have to reach over coal but once the meat was at the back there would be a minimum of need. Most of the fiddly hands on work would be searing at the front...

Will see how we go.. can always change it and plug up the holes if i dont like the way it works i guess.

[bamakettles]

You might also look up Tom Horsman on YouTube...he's done quite a few mods to his kettle, one of which is lid hinge on one side.  He's also made some other easy and cheap mods like leg extensions, thermometer installation and probe port installation that helped me out a lot.

[jhagestad]

If I were to do this, I'd put the fire in back, vent in front and have the hinge in back.  I have a slightly older kettle with the built-in lid hook, so I find the hinge unnecessary.

I concur with @bamakettles on the Tom Horsman vids - I based many of my kettle mods on his step-by-step guides. Good luck!