Lang 60 Mod

[tomtel84]

I fired up the Lang 60 that I purchased used last week to see how it cooks and what I need to do to make it work for a long cook.

My "MO" has been to use Kingsford Charcoal in past cookers for all the reasons mentioned in The Zen of Charcoal, primarily for the predictability and reproducible results. The Lang came with a "well used" charcoal basket so I loaded my starter chimney and lit, then emptied the rest of the bag in the basket and it only filled slightly less than half the basket. Once the chimney had all the coals white I dumped them into the basket and "installed" the basket in the firebox of the Lang.

The Lang held 225 degree for about three hours but then started to cool. I opened the firebox to load the basket, but I couldn't figure out how to get the basket out to reload without getting burnt or burning down the house. I rigged up something to place the basket on that would not burn, and put my fire gloves rated up to 900 degree on and grabbed the basket and struggeled to get the basket out and on the ground. Once on the ground I reloaded it and struggled to get it back in.

After all of this I lost a lot of temp and it took awhile to get it back. At that point I knew that this basket wasn't going to work, so I made some modifications the next weekend.

I welded some rails and supports to the inside of the firebox so the basket would slide in and out. I also made it four inches off the bottom that allows for maximum airflow.

It was hard to get a good picture, but here is one of the inside of the firebox with the rails welded in place.




I had to remove one of the handles off the top of the basked and re-weld it on the front so the basket would slide in without hanging up on the top. The back handle works like a slide stop.



Here is a picture of the basket installed in the firebox and slid out so it can be loaded.



I ran it again this past weekend and now I can load more charcoal without any issues. It works perfect.

Mark

[Jerod Broussard]

good job!!!!!

[Jon Solberg]

very cool!

[David Parrish]

That's a nice mod. Well done! Nice job capturing the mod with all the pics

[Huskee]

Gotta love a stick burner!

I've always wondered why some makers choose only a side door on a firebox, which is fine for sliding logs in but not for adding charcoal. My Yoder has a flip up lid on the firebox like on the cooking chamber. Great mod to get around this!

[DWCowles]

There will be no charcoal in my Lang.

[Smokee1962]

I use a chimney for starter assist,and then nothing but stick.

[Marauderer]

There will be no charcoal in my Lang.

You are a hard man DW but, I agree with you. When i get my "Stick Burner" it will only see sticks used in it!!

[DWCowles]

Barry, the way that I see it why have a stick burner if you're going to use charcoal. If I want to use charcoal then I will get the WSM out and use it. I really enjoyed babysitting the Lang when I'm cooking with it. To me that's the fun part ( loading a log or two every 45 mins or so and kicking back drinking a cold brew while inhaling the smoke from the smoker). Just saying....

[Marauderer]

I think you have it down pat DW. What a great way to decompress after a trying week.

[Huskee]

You are a hard man DW but, I agree with you. When i get my "Stick Burner" it will only see sticks used in it!!

You'll love the meat Barry, it really makes it something special.

[Jerod Broussard]

There is a lot said to feeding a stick burner.

There is also a lot said to getting some sleep.

[DWCowles]

I don't like sleeping when I'm cooking.

[tomtel84]

As this is my first stick burner, and I'm learning more and more after every use, I have found that I can't use charcoal for the long burns. Well, I could, but I would need truck loads of charcoal.

I then changed to a combination of charcoal and wood for a couple of cooks, and lets just say it went okay, not great, but I learned a lot about heat control, primarily around the burning of the wood. Finally for my most resent burn, for Thanksgiving, I had a new load of pecan wood so I used wood exclusively for two cooks, one for ribs and one for the bird. It was much easier and I didn't use as much fuel.

Now I exclusively burn wood in my Lang. My mods did help in that it got the burn grate off the floor of the firebox that allows air to get under the fire and I get "good" smoke and an even burn. So for anyone interested in EOS try wood only as well as other fuels to see how well it works.

Another thing I learned was that MY Lang likes to cook around 225 degree and to push it to 250 or 325 it takes A LOT of fuel almost to diminishing returns. I guess I could say that it runs the most efficient at 225.

So I'm in the DW Cowles camp now.

[DWCowles]

Tomtel84 the Lang was designed primary for wood only. I like to start my fire with a weed burner. You will learn more and more about your Lang as you go along.