Did not notice that the bolt went all the way through to the back and out the other side. I assumed you drilled a whole to the back of the smoker then insert the bolts? Would this be possible, remove the back panel of the smoker and remove the Neutral, Ground and Power from the AC adapter, rerun 14 gauge heat wire both the neutral and the hot running to the 900 watts element and then ground the ground wire to some sort of bolt/metal on the smoker. This way I bypass the slider, the inline fuse and anything that is original, if I ever want to go back to stock I can. I guess I can add some sort of rocket switch with a light or just a light source so I can tell there is power going to the smoker. By any chance would I need a inline fuse with the new element or any other protection in case the PID fails to prevent over heating the smoker? Would you have any pictures of your install by any chance.
just to be clear, the heater is mounted on the back interior wall of the smoker,, you would have to remove the back cover to drill the holes,
as for the wires, leave the ground in place ( unless you want to upgrade to heavier gage though keep it connected to the tower ) and yes it would be a good idea to run 14 gage high temp wire to the element, also use the high temp crimp on connector on all connections,
there is an over temp sensor built into the bradley you may want to run the heater through it , though i dont .. i run mine through the pid only.....
here is the link for my heater mod,
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=17329.msg209917#msg209917in picture #2 you see the bolts for the heater which has a washer on the inside wall of the smoker and a all thread bolt which is approx an inch long.
picture # 4 is how the heater is mounted and wired inside the smoker
picture #5 if you look close just above the black panel you will notice a couple inches in from the sides the silver bolt heads with washers , these are the bolts for the heating element,
you do not have to mount the heating element as high as i have, the only reason i did is to use the blower for maximum heat transfer into the smoker. To the best of my knowledge i am the only one running this exact configuration, blower runs full time heater is ran through the pid
hope this gives you some visual help