If this has been covered before, my apologies for the redundancy.
Performers and M/Ts are favorites of mine, but the lid holder design is less than satisfactory, especially on the Perfomer. When you put the lid in the holder, it still blocks access to the grill, and makes it awkward to use the left side of the grate:
As a result, I often find myself setting the lid down on a table, or worse yet, on the ground.
With an M/T, this is less of a problem, as you can set the kettle with the lid bale directly away from you. However, as good friend and fellow grillfella recently found out, an M/T with its lid in the holder becomes a sail boat when the wind picks up, and can tip over very easily.
To solve this, I wanted a low cost, low impact mod that would work with both the Performer and the M/T. The lids on these kettles do not have a lid hook (like the OTS/OTG kettles do). They are "clean" underneath:
The idea then is to build a lid hook that will allow the lid to hang out of the way using the following materials/tools:
First, I taped and marked a hole 1" above the rim of the kettle, inline with the handle. I chose the "right" side of the lid - when I pick the lid up with my left hand, I move it left to hang it. Therefore it makes sense that the hook should be on the right side of the lid:
Most people use a "step bit" to drill a kettle. However, I have found that by using a small bit and gradually increasing in size to 1/4", I can get a good clean hole.
The corner bracket (zinc plated) goes like this:
It is fastened with a 1/4" SS bolt, SS washers on both sides, a SS locking washer, and a SS acorn nut. Total hardware = $4.00
Now it hangs nice and out of the way:
M/T pre, and post mod:
With the lid hanging down like that, and able to swing a bit freely, it is doubtful that a gust of wind would knock the kettle down.
Bisbee with the mod. It is pretty clean and not very noticeable.
Would I do this with a vintage kettle? Probably not. But both Bisbee and Jerome are working kettles where I value function more that originality. I think it makes the kettles easier to cook on and with the M/T, less likely to get blown over.
Cheers,
Winz