Welcome!

**Spinaker** · October 28, 2019, 01:48 PM

I love it. I can't wait to see this pit. These are some amazing pieces of backyard hardware.

**ofelles** · October 28, 2019, 01:52 PM

Good. Congrats. I can live vicariously through you. I'm fighting getting a LSG smoker.

**RonB** · October 28, 2019, 02:35 PM

I'm lookin' forward to your adventure.

**scottranda** · October 28, 2019, 02:49 PM

Congrats!! Gators are super nice!

**Huskee** · October 28, 2019, 02:55 PM

Congrats! Sounds like the same dimensions and weight as the one I have, different brand though. You can fill that baby up! I like their wrap-around shelving and large stack. Happy for you!

**Ground Chuck** · November 12, 2019, 08:33 AM

Well, she is finally here, and man is she a tank! Gator shipped her up here from Houston to Northern Kentucky (Cincinnati) via Road Runner Transportation on Wednesday, October 30th. The pit was due to arrive on Tuesday, November 5th, but the company didn't have a correct phone number for me. Luckily, I kept checking the tracking information and saw that the notes said they were unable to reach me. With a big purchase like this, both Gator and Road Runner want you to be home to inspect it and I guess ensure that it is exactly what you ordered and in great condition. So I call, and since I have to be there, and work office hours, I painfully pushed the delivery back to Friday, November 8th. I was told the driver would call first, but would be between 2 and 3 which was perfect. I'm always down to sneak out of work early!

So Friday rolls around, and the guy calls, and he is already at my house. So I ask him to wait 20 minutes, which he said was fine, while I rushed home. I get there and the pit is on a pallet, wrapped heavily in saran wrap on his truck. He loads it up on a pallet jack, and then uses the truck's lift to lower it to the street. I can see once he gets in down that some of the packing tape had been ripped through, and the paint was peeled off. Mostly on the firebox. Obviously, I was willing to live with that since I know the firebox needs touched up from time to time anyway. The guy asked where I wanted it, and asked if he would wheel it down the drive. He said he would although he insisted he was only a curbside guy. I'm thinking to myself, "Brother, you've got the thing on wheels. It is 650 pounds. Let's just get it to the garage." So he did wheel it to the garage which was nice, but I sadly expected him to help me get it off the pallet somehow. He kept insisting he was curbside only, but asked if I had tin snips because it was tightly secured to the pallet with metal straps. So I rush inside, and can't find them. I go back to the garage and the guy was gone. My wife came out and said, "He wasn't offering to help you. I don't know why he said to go get the snips. He said don't you guys have any friends and left." So I guess it wasn't his job to help me out. I wish I would have known curbside delivery was literally just that. I also wish I knew I was responsible for getting this tank off of a pallet! Needless to say, the guy left before I could tip him, and before I could offer to pay him to assist me.

Slight Damage:

I feel bummed Friday night because I know I'm going to need to call people to help me get this thing down before I can use it. Late Saturday afternoon, my wife asks if I want to try to get it down with her. I said, "babe, there is no way we can this down. 650 pounds." But, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this marriage thing after two months, so I tell her "but, yes, dear." I'll tell you though, she somehow masterminded a great gameplan! It was like I was married to a sexier Bill Belichick! She audibled to the big garden shears, and was able to clip the straps. She drops back, and then passes me the rock, and I was somehow able to actually lift my side of the pit into the air. Then, she sets up these flat skinny boards to act as ramps for this thing. I'm thinking there is no doggone way those are going to hold this thing. But I lift my side up and get it free. Then she gets her side up and gets it free. Now, the moment of truth! We are going for it on fourth down! She wants to pound the rock right at the defense. She snaps it, hands it to me, we are bulldozing our way toward the goal line..... Boom! I go helmet to helmet with the smokestack! Touchdown! We got the thing down, and I passed concussion protocol! (Sorry, just testing to see if anyone made it this far, lol).

I forgot to take pics of the pallet since I was so excited, but I did manage to get a few. Mostly once I oiled her down for the seasoning process on Sunday. Glad I decided to do it Sunday, because it was about 60 degrees out. We are now sitting with a high in the 20s and about 2 inches of snow out there. Anyway, now for what any of us all care about.... Pictures!

One final note, my fire management skills are horrible! I tried starting it with about half a chimney of lump. The grate in the firebox, as you can see, has such big holes, that most of the coals fell through. So I then tried a half chimney of briquettes, and added a log and it smoldered. So then I loaded about 3/4 a chimney of briquettes, and a couple logs, and had it rolling good for a little bit, but then I think i was losing too much of my coal bed, and was filling up with quite a bit of ash. I tried putting a Weber grate on top of the firebox grate to shrink things, and it definitely helped I would say, but still wasn't perfect. Always open for suggestions!

**Spinaker** · November 12, 2019, 10:10 AM

Great write up and pictures.

Fire management will take time. One thing that I would invest in would be a weed burner. Stack your wood in the fire box and hit it with the weed burner, that will get the wood going and allow for the coal bed to develop.

**scottranda** · November 12, 2019, 11:50 AM

Awesome! So, are you going to cover it? Bc I’m STRUGGLING with my offset. Not sure what to do without spending a bajillion dollars.

**tbob4** · November 12, 2019, 11:52 AM

Great ending but terrible start to the story. I would have been really mad about the delivery. I would reach out to the company and send some photos of the scratches. Love the cooker! It will take time getting to know it. Put thermometers front, back top and bottom during a 225 degree cook as measured by the thermometer on the unit. Oh - calibrate the thermometer first. Make note of how you can maintain 250 on the outside thermometer and take notes about temps inside. With more cooks, the seasoning will seal any gaps you notice at first. You don’t have to rely on the outside thermometer but it gives you an idea of what is going on inside at different parts of the cooker.

**Dewesq55** · November 12, 2019, 12:09 PM

Congrats on the awesome new pit! I'm curious about the food racks. They appear different from the ones I saw on the Gator site.

**Steve B** · November 12, 2019, 12:48 PM

Congrats on your new rig. As Spinaker said it will take some time to learn how to control the fire and your temps.
Any questions we are here to help.

**Huskee** · November 12, 2019, 04:23 PM

Congrats! I enjoyed reading this! Sorry about the scratches. I remember thinking the same thing when mine was delivered on a pallet, dang I wish this guy would help me.... But then I thought WWMD ('what would MacGyver do?") and tore the pallet apart if I remember correctly. Mine came on a cold snowy early March morning and my wife was busy inside with our kids who at the time were 1.5yr, 3yr, and 5.5yrs so no chance she was interested in helping me wrestle 660lbs of cold steel in the snow.

I start my fires with ~half a chimney of briquets well-lit, lay them on the firebox grate and stack about 4 logs box-style on top of & around the coals. Then I don't have to stand there in the cold, or the bugs, or the rain, holding a torch. I cut my logs about 10-12" long (give or take) and at least 1/4 split if not 1/8 split. Season your wood asap, nothign more frustrating than hissing steaming wet wood. Find a good source for firewood if you haven't already. A Kindling Cracker XL, a 4-lb sledge hammer, and a cheap miter saw will be your best friends. And a covered area to stack firewood, or in my case a firewood tarp. I also like to us ea BBQ Dragon (with good rechargeable batteries) for the days when the wind is still and the extra airflow is needed.

Remember- keep your fire small but HOT! Resist the urge to power a steamship across the Atlantic, you only need a fire big enough to get that cooking chamber to cooking temps, and after an hour-ish of preheating you'll quickly learn that it's pretty small really. Once a decent bed of coals is established you'll probably only need to add 1 log about every 20-30 mins, depending on weather. Rain is the single worst enemy, far worse than cold & snow. When it starts raining you can watch your temps drop faster than a fat guy falling off a low roof.

Have fun and ask lots of questions when they come up!

**Beefchop** · November 12, 2019, 04:57 PM

Congratulations! I was down to Gator vs. Shirley and went with Shirley, but part of me wishes I'd just gotten a traditional offset. I'd love to hear about how it cooks, esp. without the tuning plates. Had a similar "Oh My God What Have I Done" moment when they unloaded my Shirley. I was like, how am I ever going to move this?!? Still need to develop a plan for getting it to my back porch. Mine is in my garage and I wheel it out when I want to cook on it.

**JakeT** · November 12, 2019, 05:57 PM

Bummer on the slight damage but great looking smoker nonetheless!! I, like Beefchop was thinking of a Gator Pit, but I went with the LSG.

Beefchop...I'm in the same boat, I may have to rent a 4wd forklift to get it down to the cook area!

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