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Last edited by ItsAllGoneToTheDogs; September 13, 2024, 03:49 PM. -
Edited the first post to add what actually are flaws and my thoughts on the cooker after 1 month of use.Comment
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A small piece of wood under each leg will help with the sitting in moisture problem.Comment
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I'll give that a shot, though it's a simple fix at the factory to pop 4 or more dimples into the sheet to raise it up. -
It may seem simple to us, but for them, I bet it means retooling some machine that stamp out and tack weld them. Same reason soda water cans in Hawaii are the 1970-80 style cans. They only locally distribute, and retooling wouldn't save them enough money to be worth it.
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I don’t know about the rest of the Pit, but I’ve enjoyed the updates on the Roughneck. It’s on my list. As if I need another cooker🤦♂️Comment
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And the new thermo has condensation. I'll give HB one more chance but I'm gonna guess these bespoke HB TelTrus don't like NC humidity and will see if I can find a Wika (that fits) like what's on my MAK and has never had an issue.
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ecowper I suspect it's either a bad batch of these bespoke HB Tel-Trus or just really bad luck, but this is the first dome thermo I've ever had moisture issues with and this is the second of this type.
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After a cook last night I lit both ends of my U shape, it got HOT. Smelled burning plastic.. it was the bbq mat... granted the one I have is more for spills, so that's getting replaced with a more heat resistant mat. However when cleaning the grill today I noticed the expanded metal in the firebox is sagging, so the firebrick I was using is a no go. Gonna have to have a rectangle shaped thingy made of expanded metal or just get more careful with the fuel placement manually.
Good news is the hot cook got all the moisture out of the dial, so we'll see if that stays dry.Comment
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More mods have been kinda accomplished. A guy on FB in the HB group said he got these grates and just cut 1 bar off. I'm not the best with a tape measure, but my math says if you cut the 6 little nubs off each rack they'll fit. Since there's 3 per order I decided just to get 6 and use the 2 worst cut ones to elevate the ash pan... though I suppose dissimilar metals may cause other problems? I dunno.
Direct store Parts DS115 19 1/4" Solid Rod Stainless Steel Grill Grates Replacement for Brinkmann, Charmglow and Jenn Air 720-0337,720-0512,Kirkland 720-0193 720-0432,720-0025, 720-0108, Set of 3 https://a.co/d/69DVn7Q
Anyway, got the grates in this weekend and laid them out to double check just cutting the nubs off would work.
Then I got out the hacksaw, and quickly realized cutting 6 nubs per grate was more than that tool was capable of. Fine, got the Dremmel out and quickly realized it was gonna be 2-3 cutting discs per nub.
Fine, I used a band saw... but sadly it was dull WAY overdue for a replacement. I did get 6 nubs cut off and had 3 nubs cut off another grate. So I got out the bolt cutters and snipped a bar off 1 grate. I now have an assortment of options to test!
Anyone going this route in the future, you only NEED to cut 2 racks. The other 4 can fit on the lower grate rails and under the ash pan no problem. But I like to make life difficult for myself and WILL cut all the nubs one day!
So 9 nubs cut off doesn't cut it. 12 nubs for 2 grates WILL fit. 1 bar cut and 1 wholly intact does fit but I would prefer all nubs cut flush on 4 racks and ideally all 6.
This is 9 of 12 nubs cut off
1 intact grate and 1 bar removed off the other
2 intact grates
Last edited by ItsAllGoneToTheDogs; October 8, 2024, 02:28 PM.Comment
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Rust update, and also after that stupid high heat cook the the dome thermo has remained moisture free.
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Hey Rusty!
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And cue the sad music, and frustration...
The other week I went to roll the Roughneck and it was hard to roll... One of the wheels blew out. The good news is Hasty Bake was very quick to ship me not just a new wheel, but a pair of new wheels. The bad news is their QC is lacking compared to what I'm used to from MAK. The new wheels have a plastic rim instead of metal one of which is damaged but no big deal since I can put that to the inside, and the bearings used on one half of one of the hubs are too small to fit over the axle. The wheel that does fit... well, it doesn't because you can't get the retaining cap on. So now I have a non-rolling Roughneck. I reached out to them today, but we'll see if we get this fixed before Thanksgiving... gotta transport the grill to my parents house to cook the turkey.
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Mosca oddly it didnt happen while cooking. I moved the grill to clean the deck and the next day when I went to move it back, it wouldnt roll. Maybe the dogs were doing burnouts
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HB was a little slower this time getting back to me, but they are/were having a sale so I'm sure their people are pretty busy. If it wasn't for.me needing to transport the cooker to my Mom's house I wouldn't be too concerned about it, but we'll see.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I bought their hasty snake insert, the 12.5 is almost the right length, I might cut .5 or 1 inch off of it still. It's a little low height wise, I thought the firebrick worked great height wise. However the weight of the firebrick was causing the expanded metal to sag so needed something lighter. I've used it twice and it seems to work just fine. "Hasty Snake" - Slow Burn Snake Method Charcoal Divider – Hasty Bake Charcoal Grills
I also bought their grate tool, since I bought the aftermarket grates I posted previously. It works well though when playing with the lower grates when it's hot I wish it was a tad longer but it's no big deal. Hasty Bake Grill Lifter – Hasty Bake Charcoal Grills
These 2 items along with those grates definitely improve this cooker for me anyway. Hopefully the new wheels arrive in time, and fit, and thats the last issues we have.Comment
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Well, on a positive note I got my replacement wheel from Hasty Bake today.
I only needed one wheel and was hoping to have it before wednesday when the grill needs to travel so the rest of this post is just a sad observation.
Yay, they sent the correct wheels this time. Oh they sent me an entire wheel kit, that was nice... except the axle isn't long enough.
And of course the old wheel (good one thankfully) won't slide off the rusty axle and I don't wanna deal with those top hat things ever again.
Being that I'm stubborn and these top hat things are likely meant to be installed by 2 people or some sort of jig... I had to do it myself. First I tried multiple times to hold the one wheel and axle from popping out with the toe of my boot while I tried to straddle the grill and hit the other one... resulting in a bloody mess of a hand and lots of fantastic words for the neighbor kids to ask their parents about.
Then I more intelligently rigged up a keeper to hold a socket on the existing one while I slid the grill to my deck post while I hit the other one on using another socket.
Success! We're back in buisiness.
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So finally, what I bought this thing for...
I was able to lift it in my truck no problem, just had to take the insides out first. My truck is very low to the ground but I think I coulda done it with my old F150 (2016 model so not back when they used to be lower) I did scratch up my tail gate a little, but there's some other creative ways I coulda lifted it up to prevent that... getting the bed coated eventually so not worried about it.
For a longer trip I really would strap it a little different than I have it now, but just going a few miles down the road with a little highway action.
Once it's in, it's kinda like I have a little squared R6 Astromech
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A rust update. I'm fine with the grill body rust, I stopped doing updates because it really is subtle changes once it sets in.
I do have some concerns with the front feet, handles, and hinges rusting as I dont think they are corten since they were coated or painted. The firebox is my biggest concern as it has heavy bubbly rust, we'll see how long that lasts.
The replacement dial thermo is condensating again as well.
It's a solid cooker once you learn how to dial it in, but for irregular use I would have been better off with the stainless version, and at that price point there are better options out there for semi-portable smokers.
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STEbbq I could be wrong, they might be corten but I doubt it. We'll see how long this thing lasts. Worse case I have some SS stuff fabbed down to road to keep it going.
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