Roughneck

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I will document my journey here. Just like I did with my MAK and PKGO I will post from reception through a few cooks but then probably won't post specifically to this thread unless (like the PKGO) I start trying to do things unique to the grill to make it easier for people to find down the road.

I wanted a semi-portable (I'll review this aspect) charcoal grill with more space than my PKGO has. It's mostly going to live on my wood uncovered deck. I wanted something stainless or extra durable with minimal maintenance required, the Corten steel should achieve this and as a bonus I don't even need a cover... covers and hurricanes don't mix. I did debate a few other traditional barrel cookers but the firebox access and weight were the final deciding factors.

Anyway, I got my shipping notification yesterday, just a few minutes ago I got a message from FedEx to schedule delivery... and we're off to a great start as the fedex link fedex texted me won't let me proceed to scheduling. I'll give it a few hours and try again.

Things I can't really find about this cooker (in videos, but I've found SOME on forums/facebook)

How to fire it up for different cooks (how much fuel, pile or snake, etc)
Conflicting information on vent settings
Hanging poultry
Conflicting information on deflector use (one guy says he never uses it, then the next video he's showing when he inserts it)

Anyway, this should be fun... stay tuned

9/22/24 Update

Ok, so I've had the Roughneck a month now and feel I can finally point out the actual negatives.

1. The top front and top back on the lid really could be constructed differently. If it wasn't an area hanging over food I'd think a bead of sealant would solve things. Under certain conditions a little smoke leaks out the seam, that's not a huge issue but when it rains water gets in and pools on the ledges of the lid and fills up the U channel in the fire box door.


2. The ash pan on the bottom should have some stamped bulges, so it doesn't sit perfectly flat on the bottom. Water and grease pools under the pan and I scraped off a large amount of rust today. I sprayed the bottom with duck fat before a cook today, hopefully that helps. I wish I had a weed torch, I'd burn that in to try and seal it. Im a bit concerned about this area of the grill as a major point of failure with weathering steel can be certain conditions where the rust continues in a certain environment like that stadium in Hawaii. This about half a cup of rust that lightly scraped out of the bottom.




3. Might just be my grill but the issue I had with the lavavlock sticking (hasn't stuck again since though) led to me chasing fuzzies. I just trim with sissors as they appear.



4. My TelTru has a moisture issue. I did reach out to HB amd I'm hoping they'll exchange it. *EDIT* They reached out and have sent a new one, no hassle, easey peasey.



5. I wish the front feet had a thin layer of rubber or plastic on the bottom. At least on a BBQ mat they sit in a puddle of moisture, whether from morning dew or like right now... the cooker sometimes drips moisture or grease out of whatever doesn't hit the ash pan. Then they leave rust spots on the ground. Not a major issue, but something to be aware of.




Otherwise, this is a great smoker. Still playing with different fire management options. This seems the best layout for me so far, but the firebrick I think blocks too much air flow. I might have an expanded metal box made in the same shape. The maze I tried with firebrick was ok but didn't always fully ignite across the turns.

[PNWBrandon]

If you are on Facebook I recommend joining the HB Community group. Lots of wonderful information there!

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I'm on it, most of the RN cooks aren't hanging things and while there are people saying they do X Y or Z and people saying they do otherwise there is no detailed discussion on those topics.

[Huskee]

I look forward to this. It looks like something I would enjoy using.

[Clawbear57]

waiting patiently

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Current delivery says Thursday but I have a doc appointment I've been waiting on for months and over an hour away... hoping the fedex scheduling thing works tomorrow so I can push it off until Friday.

[Jessterr]

Congrats on the new smoker, looking forward to hearing of your fun with it.

[Uncle Bob]

If you change your mind on the cover thing an economical alternative is sold as Air Conditioner cover, roughly the same dimensions/square box shape.

The fire/fuel basket is about 14" square and reasonably deep so there are lots of ways to configure fuel/fire. I've used fire brick that I've got on hand to wall the fuel into a more compact size when doing short cooks. Any heat resistant alternative would accomplish the same thing. As for vent settings, you run into that old "argument" about exhaust wide open and throttle with intake, vs, use both to throttle in and out. I'm in the camp of using both to throttle because I'm not afraid to experiment and learn.

The deflector panel is somewhat similar to the vent thing, some people take the time to understand it's function, others don't. It works fine for longer smoking events and protects the hanging or grate formats from direct heat consequences. With it in there's plenty of hanging space, not dissimilar to a Bronco or PBC. Removed you can emulate the drippings flavor fog that users of the alternatives "brag" about. I also remove the deflector when I want to emulate pit fire cooking, I use the lower grate position to bring the food closer to the fire. If I want it even closer, there's enough room to raise the fire box another inch or two (again, the fire bricks come in handy).

BTW, don't know if you bought the optional thermometer but, even though it's a TelTru, there's a good sized difference between what it reads at the front of the lid compared to what the grate level temp is, particularly toward the back where the exhaust is.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I appreciate all the input! As to the thermometer I'll use it just like the one on my MAK... test with my ambient probes for a few cooks and then the TelTru just becomes a way to monitor whether temps are holding or changing.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

So of course the fedex link still doesn't work and shows the grill coming Thursday with no way to schedule it around my doc appointment... then out of the blue they call, it is actually coming Friday. So assuming it's in good condition I'll have time to burn it off, season, and maybe even throw a butt on it!

[Clawbear57]

Still waiting😁. Looking forward.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Clawbear57 me too... hope it's an early delivery tomorrow so I can play. I'm prepping some chicken thighs tonight in anticipation. Also, super sad the sauce and rub place I also posted elsewhere, well the owner told me the one on his showroom floor is on sale... cheaper than I got mine before tax anyway, coulda had this thing on the patio already and supported a local small business to boot... oh well, maybe next itme.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

So the packing method leaves a lot to be desired, but it's square and in mostly good shape. There is a corresponding scratch on the lid where the cardboard was knicked through, if this was the stainless version I'd be mighty upset, but with this being the corten the patina will eventually hide it.

It's nice that it came with the option to use the HB or Kent Rollins branding, though as soon as I can find someone to cut me a custom logo those will be replaced.

Also I didn't know of it would have the ash pan or not (the other 2 models do but it wasn't clear if this had it and the store I looked at one in person also didn't have it)








Oh yay, bonus nut...

[Alan Brice]

Man! Nice addition.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Dumped a full basket of budget brand lump in, without the delector it got to 425ish according to the dome thermo. Sprayed it down twice with duckfat and now I've closed the front vents down to about 1/4 and threw in the deflector. We'll see how fast and how much it comes down... and then throw on some thighs.

So far the only thing I see that this thing needs is a proper probe hole, I don't like the idea of using the rear vent as it's below the grates. I'll drill one in the lid at some point.

[TripleB]

Why a probe hole in the lid? Every time you open and close the lid you can get the wires to snag or drag. I put a probe hole in my PK360 in the body, on the indirect side. Works great and no snagging wires when I open and close the lid. FWIW.....

I love the Roughneck. Someday maybe for me, but don't hold your breath.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

TripleB there's no space in the body above the grates. The way the lid moves I THINK a probe port on the back of it won't be an issue.

[TripleB]

ItsAllGoneToTheDogs - I put mine in the body, below the grate. Then just snake the probe up through the grate openings. Have not had an issue, but it's whatever you feel comfortable with. Cheers.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Thighs are on, dome thermo says 260ish fireboards giving me 299 at the grate and slowly coming down, I'm hoping for a sub 250 hold on these thighs, but since we started wide open and hot as heck I'm not gonna hold my breath. Also planning to run this basket until it dies so I'll have an idea how long it will run once I have the airflow dialed in.

[Uncle Bob]

Just a comment on the packaging. My first generation was packed in a cardboard box (no protecting foam at all), completely disassembled, including the lid. The wheel kit came in a separate box, even got delivered a couple days earlier. The box showed dirt from floor contact on pretty much all sides, so I'm sure it got some good tossing in transit which led to mine being out of square. With all the various pieces just thrown into the main body there were a couple body dents to straighten out. Good to see they now palletize it, less likely to end up on its side or top along the way.

You didn't show the deflector, but it's my understanding they changed the design from the initial run. That, the dust pan, and that little knob on the lower door are changes from the first gen.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

So definitely an improvement in packaging. I would have liked to see thicker cardboard on the top and something on the sides.

The deflector I'll have to take a pic of tomorrow.

I don't know how I feel about the grates, the edges are kinda sharp. The overall construction is miles better than most stuff at Lowes or whatever, but definitely a step down (some sloppy weld grinding) from the quality of my MAK where even the only touch it once places have been kissed with a grinder or buffing wheel

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Uncle Bob not the best pic but I might forget when I'm cleaning it up later this weekend.

[Uncle Bob]

Okay, thanks, that looks a lot like what mine has. The pictures I've seen of the powder coated model have vents that look more like scoops than louvers, supposedly in line with what they do in their more conventional cookers.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Uncle Bob I've seen a video with one that the front lifts up I think that was on a powder coat version

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

So yesterday was not the best day to learn a new grill thanks to random swirling wind, but I did do ok once I thought I figured it out staying within roughly 25 degrees. Around 6pm is when I opened the vents and put the chicken on the lower grate.




After this is when things went wrong. I choked the fire down intending to try to get sub 250 and to see if I could get it to sit there (no more opening the lid etc....) Well that lasted about an hour and then massive temp drop (I killed the coals). At this point I noticed a bit of grease/oil had dripped out the front so I figured heck, I'll just throw the rest of this budget lump (lots of small pieces, great for the PKGO not so much for this) on and burn everything off. Well, temps went to 450+ and I went to pull the diffuser out and the lavalock (or whatever brand HB uses) had fused to the grill body which pulled a corner of it off, I pushed it back on with my scraper and hoped for the best. The diffuser was also stuck and I couldn't get it out, bummer as I wanted those high temps to burn off more of the duck and chicken fat... then the lid was stuck and left behind a lot of lavalock.



All this to say my biggest disappointment of the grill is that HB has 0 instructions for it. This thing has been on the market for quite a while, it's obviously a good selling product since they released 2 other versions of it. So where are the dedicated instructions? I wanted to read and see if maybe I messed up by going too high of a temp, no info. The QR code they ship for the Roughneck links to the generic how to use every HB grill but no info on the Roughneck what so ever.

Anyway, this morning everything is nice and cool. My massaging of the lavalock last night worked and it's holding back in place though I did have to scrape a bunch of fuzzies off the top of the grill which then required a full hose out (no one wants to eat Nomex coated bbq). The diffuser is catching on something and not actually stuck so I'll have to take a look once everything dries up back there.

None of this is a massive issue, I don't have any buyers remorse or anything but just want to make sure I point everything out since the majority of discussions on this grill are overwhelmingly positive by lifelong HB owners of other models

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Just to try to get some interesting initial rust on I did swirlys with my finger and then put the KR emblem on the top, while it was still warm I wiped the sides in a swirly pattern with a wet rag I used to clean out the grill (if you have a glass top stove and you try to clean it too soon you know the pattern I was trying to achieve), and then (sorry maybe gross but...) after doing yard work before I took a shower I wiped my hands on myself to get body oils and put multiple palm and finger prints on the front.

The sides aren't showing the swirly pattern yet on camera but I can see it.

[fzxdoc]

I like that coffeepot Kent Rollins logo. Too bad your name doesn't start with a K as well.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

fzxdoc if you want it I'd be happy to mail it to you in a few weeks when I'm done seeing if it will rust that shape on the lid.

[fzxdoc]

Thanks for the thoughtful offer, ItsAllGoneToTheDogs , but I really don't need it. I just think it's nice looking on your new cooker.

K.

[DavidNorcross]

Loving this thread!