I joined the Santa Maria club albeit as a junior member

[Mr. Bones]

Kettles are fer sharin!

Pass it on...

[Attjack]

Oh it's a good thing. Back when I had 1 or 2 BBQs I remember you sharing pictures of many of your cookers. Hell, you even shared a kettle with me! Now look at me and my family of cookers. I'm a much happier man now!

[Troutman]

No sadly, Gabby doesn't have a hook, just attaches to the guide angle. Introducing a carabiner will solve it, just might not be able to raise the grate all the way to the top. Usually that's not a necessity anyway.

[Attjack]

You can't just unhook it?

[Uncle Bob]

Attjack, I have a couple vortex cones, 10 & 13" on the wide end/bottom, they are stainless "knockoffs". The "normal" narrow end is correspondingly smaller, and used that end up are a typical vortex that folks use for wings and such. Inverted as shown, you're correct, they are a good containment vessel for concentrating the fuel/heat. As for height to the cooking grate I've also used some pieces of angled strap pieces and a chunk of expanded metal to raise the vortex to desired height.

[Troutman]

The Gabby’s Grill has the same cable and clamp arrangement. I’ve taken it apart to clean the grate but it’s a pain in the butt. I think what I’m gonna do with mine is to get a quick release set of carabiners. That may be the simplest solution!!

[Attjack]

Uncle Bob

[Attjack]

Thanks, I love it. The attachment really completes the Performer for me. I definitely sniffed out a great deal. I want to look into my options for dealing with some of the rust it has in a few spots though. Otherwise, it's in great condition for a 30-year-old grill.

Titan also makes exercise equipment and ramps as well. They seem like a great company. https://www.titan.fitness/

Nice cook you had there!

[Attjack]

@Uncle Bob

I am a champion of MCS and I have no qualms about instigating, facilitating, or planting its seeds in my forum brothers and sisters. If that makes me a trouble-maker then I wear that moniker as a badge of honor.

In order to remove the grate, you can just unhook the cables and lift it off.



The cheap grate that came with my Performer almost fits on top of the Titan grate. If I wanted, I’ll bet I could fairly easily modify it to accept a stainless grate. But I don’t know if that will be something I deem worthwhile or not.



The wheel stop is good but it’s not spring-loaded or anything so you have to manually engage it which isn’t difficult. You can micro-adjust the height which is great and it works easily and intuitively. I think it’s safe to say that it’s better than the pin system you described on the OnlyFire product.



I’m not sure if I will pursue a rotisserie or not. Right now, I like using the rotisserie on my gas grill with the infrared burner. Though I sometimes wonder how different the results would be over charcoal. But then would I want to get the attachment that will be released soon for the Primo? It seems like closing the lid is a valuable feature when cooking a bird or a thick cut of meat on a spit. If I do decide to add rotisserie to the Titan it would have to be a custom solution. Or I could buy the Gabby Grills kit. But because I have rotisseries for other grills, I would probably just fabricate the brackets that come in the kit myself and use the spit, forks, and motors I already have.

I was hopeful after you mentioned it but I cannot replace the lid with the unit attached. I can easily lift the whole thing off wearing welding gloves though if I wanted to snuff out the fire with the lid.



What is the vortex-like ring you are using? That looks like it would come in handy to corral the coals and raise them up for searing.

[Uncle Bob]

I'm glad you pointed out the removable grate thing in the earlier post, it was an important point for me. My Weber kettle grates fit perfectly, as well as a couple aftermarket ones I have, including the Hunsaker griddle piece. The elevation feature is a way to regulate griddle temp to a degree (I'll take that pun ).

[Troutman]

Uncle Bob That grate removal was genius on their part. I may try and rig that up on my Gabby's Grill. They also have a means of attaching a spit to mine as well, plus I have an old spit rod and motor. Hmmmm, maybe a new project is in the works !!

[Troutman]

Sweet setup Attjack. Can't believe you got that Performer for $80, nice catch !! I've seen Titan around, they do a lot of industrial and farm implement stuff so they are a known (and American by the way) company. Like I mentioned in another post, I like my Gabby's Grill for small to medium cooks but still want to upgrade to a true Santa Maria style rig soon. Love doing live fire cooking !!

[Uncle Bob]

So, brother Attjack , you know you're a trouble maker, right? Some months back you alerted the crowd about another device similar to this, albeit at a slightly higher price point. It's the one made by Onlyfire, offered on Amazon. Troutman noted that he was happy to see it had a removeable grate as the Gabby's unit he was familiar with was a bit of a pain to clean with the grate not able to be removed. Looks like the Titan is the same?

Anyway, as I wrote up elsewhere here, I bought the Onlyfire and have used it a few times, it works pretty well. One thing I notice is that the Titan you have has a wheel stop mechanism similar to the "big boys" that might give more range of hold positions that the Onlyfire lacks as it's pin system only stops each rotation. Not bad, just somewhat limiting in a way. The other difference of note is the Onlyfire comes with a rotisserie accessory, though the supplied drive motor is battery operated. Fortunately the mounting bracket is a "standard" (for as much as that is a thing with foreign produced goods), and the a/c motor I already owned fits and functions just fine. Also, I found at the end of the cook I can raise the grate, set the lid on the mounting rim, and while it's not a tight seal it's good enough to put out the fire and save some fuel. BTW, the Onlyfire price on Amazon has gone down now to $160-170 range.

I think you'll enjoy the cooks. It's a good tool for sear, then slow cook to temp, or vice versa. I'll post up a pic or two of some cooks I've done on the kettle, and a bonus pic of adapting the unit to the Bronco Pro barrel cooker.

[Mr. Bones]

Many Thanks fer them Kind Words, amigo!

Not quite certain if that means a good thing, or I owes ya a whole lotta money in MCS purchases...lol at this point, I'll choose to take it as a compliment

Tentatively glad I could serve as any kinda "Inspiration", though not entirely sure why?...

Crazy is kinda relative, as I've repeatedly tried to tell my Court Ordered Psychiatrists, to not so much avail.

[SheilaAnn]

I just had a friend go see the launch at vandenburg. He brought me home 3 bags of red oak!