Art, I too have heard people complaining about maintaining good temps with side vents, but I just haven't seen it. I've done a lot of indirect cooking on my JJ (now that I think of it, I've only done a tiny bit of direct cooking on it), and it's always worked really well. I simply take one of the old-fashioned wire-style baskets and put it at one of the non-vent sides of the kettle, line my food up on the opposite side, open all vents all the way, and it roasts up whatever I put in there in the 350 to 400 range.