Picked this up yesterday.
Was thinking it would be nice to get a Jumbo Joe for camping & was debating on just buying the newer one because it's a couple inches shorter so it would be a bit more compact. Also read that some liked the newer version having the vents at the bottom and the grill a couple inches closer to the coals.
This one has a wood handle.
It also has a hook on the inside of the lid to hang the lid on the kettle by putting the hook over the kettle side.
It does NOT have the "lid lock support", which is the part that (at least on other versions) holds the "lid lock wire" in the horizontal position (which allows the "lid lock wire" to be used to hold the lid).
I'm curious if others with the "lid lock support" also have the hook on the inside of the lid or if this was what they did before using the "lid lock support" to hold the "lid lock wire" so the lid could be held by the wire.
(There is one small chip in the lid & some rust on the leg bottoms)
Yesterday was rainy & dreary, so I didn't try it out then. Today, my wife was going to throw some packaged pre-cooked barbeque baby back ribs in the oven. But I looked at accuweather.com & they showed I had about a 3-4 hour window before raining again, so I started up the chimney vent & got to it!
I "cooked" one slab of pre-cooked baby back ribs. 12 kielbasa and 25 bratwursts. Basically, I cooked what I had available. Although it's just me, the wife, a 2.5 year old & a 1 year old, whenever I fire up the grill or smoker, I cook for PLENTY of leftovers.
Based on what I found searching the forums, it seemed like nobody really sings the praises of this little gem and instead there seems to be a slight preference for the newer Jumbo Joe version that isn't as tall because of the bottom vents and the grate being a bit closer to the coals.
Ok, this was just my first test drive, but I LOVE THIS GRILL, even for using it at home! I set it on the ground & it was a really good height for just sitting on a lawn chair & being able to tend to the grill WHILE SITTING DOWN! Really nice for cooking things that you have to tend to, just lean over a bit every once in a while to lift the lid & then get to work with a pair of long tongs. Obviously, it wouldn't work quite as good if the wind was uncooperative and changing directions all the time.
For what I was doing, I had plenty of heat for cooking. So I didn't have any issue about the kettle vents being on the side instead of the bottom or grill height from coals.
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