There's not a ton of info here on jerky cooks, so I thought I would document my first one for others and see how it works out.
I'm shooting for about 150 degrees for 4-6 hours. I went with a 1x1 snake using 6 coals to start the snake as recommended by a member here in AZ. For smoke I went with hickory chips and some apple towards the second half as I ran out of hickory chips.
I basically cut a clay brick in half to use as supports to prop up a 18" grate for a second level. With this configuration I think you will max out at somewhere around 3 lbs of beef.
Here's the marinade recipe I found which looks good. The recipe was for 5 lbs, so I halved it for 2.5 lbs of flank steak. The butcher at Albertson's was cool and sliced up my flank steak to pieces around 1/4" thick. Anywhere from 1'8" to 1'4" seems to be the norm. The less fatty the better as the fat can go rancid. I didn't have the McComick's seasoning so I didn't use it. I did add a dash of Tabasco, one tsp of cayenne pepper and a little meat tenderizer.
From what I've read 4 hours is the minimum time for the marinade. I went with overnight.
Marinade (5 lbs of beef)
2 Cups Soy Sauce
2 Cups Teriyaki Sauce
2 Cups Worcestershire
1 Cups crushed pineapple
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
1/2 Tbsp. Salt
1 Tbsp. coarse ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. McCormick's Mesquite seasoning
2 Cloves fresh chopped garlic.
Snake setup:
2.5 lbs of flank steak is on: