How much load can it take?

[cdenney]

Am about to purchase a 4 or 6 rack, but looking from all of you to see what will work or not work.

I normally cook 60 LBS of Pork butt per week on my Weber - Can I say that here  :-[  , but now getting older, laze and much liking my bed, but still need to get this done each week.

I dont wish to over load the box and learn the hard way so am looking to get some feed back of what most people have done for both the 4 and 6 rack? MAX LOAD

Also I have noted reading that its best to get the rack kit to bring the top rack down 1/2 rack space to give more room for air flow so there isnt any "Black Rain" I think they called it.

Any help would be great!!

Almost forgot about cooking time ... more load more time I know.  Right now am at 14-15 hours at 225' on the Weber for the bigger loads.

Keep on Smoking,

C

[Ka Honu]

The most I've done at once on my unmodified OBS (4-rack) is four butts totaling 39 pounds.  After the four hour smoke phase I finished them in the house oven and crockpot.  It came out very nicely but I wouldn't want to do it every week without a more powerful (or second) heating element and a PID. If I were doing 60 pounds, I'd definitely go for the larger box.

[beefmann]

have done 43 lbs of tri tip in the  4 rack,,, and as the tri tip finished it was  removed and let the others   finish,,,if you are  going t be doing  60 lbs on a regular basis...  get the 6  rack just for the extra space, smoking time  would be about the same, also  would recommend getting  several  7 quart crock  pots which will  hold 8 lbs  each,, or a couple large  22 quart roasters that  will hold 30 to 35 lbs  of shredded pork.


60 lbs of pork in the bradleys  will take between an  hour and  hour and half...    per lb

[Habanero Smoker]

If it is not 60 lbs. at one time, and you are cooking 3 - 4 at a time it can be done. If you are cooking that all at once, that is a lot for a Bradley with it's 500 watt element. In either case, if you go either route, you may want to install a second element.

If you have a WSM, you may want to look at purchasing a charcoal controller such as the Stoker, or BBQ Guru to free up your time. Of course you will still have to add coals, but you won't have to baby sit it overnight. The Stoker give you Wi-Fi ability, so you can monitor the cook on your computer or smartphone; depending on what application you are running. Also the Guru now produces a Wi-Fi version.

Having said that, I have never been able to get the great taste of pull pork as I do from the Bradley.

[KyNola]

Welcome to the forum. 60lbs of pork butt each week?  Sounds like a commercial operation. The Bradley won't handle that load all at one time.  What type of Weber do you have that will handle 60 lbs of pork butts?

[NePaSmoKer]

I had a WSM 18.5 and could not fit that much meat in it. You might be able to if you have the 22.5 WSM.
With a stock out of the box Bradley 4 or 6 rack you will struggle to get to temp with that many lbs of meat.

Photos? Most of us like them, Some are just full of BS and blaa blaa  ;)

[RHOUSER]

My OBS 4 Rack all stock with an auber chokes on 3 slabs of spare ribs (about 12 pounds cut and spread between the 4 racks).  I am doing this right now and after 2 hours it still hasn't come back to the target 230 degrees.  It will get there and I can wait, but, I am now committed to converting to the 900 watt heating rod.  Fortunately I have my stick smoker going as well so the other 3 racks of baby backs and 2 slabs of spares that I need for tonights family gathering will be ready.

I bought my OBS for smoking Sausages and it does well for that because the temperature requirements are low.  After 3 months, I find that I wish I had gotten a 6 rack OBS for the extra hanging room (height), but, am pleased with the design and function of the smoker for the cold smoking.  I installed the optional cold smoking unit from Bradley for ease of control for the cold smoking but, I have found that I need the heat from the smoke generator to help with Turkey Legs, Wings etc. 

I believe that this smoker really needs some more btus from the factory, but, it performs perfectly for the artisan stuff that my stick smoker won't even get close to doing.

All in all, I would keep your Weber for the 60 pounds of butts.  When the collagen conversion begins, that amount of pork will need to pull more heat than the 500 watt burner will generate.  Same with a big load of briskets.  I use my stick burner where it is called for and save the Bradley for what the stick burner can't do. I really do use both.

This is just my 2 cents.  rch

[cdenney]

SUPER EVERYONE!!

Well after reading I've gone with the 6 Rack and it should be here within the next 7 days  ;D

I will start off with trying to do my normal load of 4 large that should be around the 50 mark.  FYI - Type "O" on the 60 ... should be 50 LBS ... Which by reading it should be no problem.

Thinking I will test that before looking to add a 5th or 6th with a fan and/or adding an extra bulb.


NePaSmoKer - On it!  Will post my photos when I get started in the next week when I fire up the new Smoker and will do a report to see how it goes.

With the Food Fest coming up on the 28-29th I hope to have a lot of smoke rolling by than