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If I paid $800 for a grill you can bet your ass I'd tell people it was the best thing since sliced bread. Kamado style cookers are efficient so they'll hold heat better and are pretty versatile. They however won't magically make your food better. You have to practice and experiment for that to happen. More dollars doesn't always mean better food. You're usually paying for efficiency and convenience. I would say you need to define what you're looking to do with it. Are you going to smoke food more than grill or grill more than smoke? Do you want convenience or are you willing to make it a process? Are you going to be cooking for groups of people or just you and your gf/wife? What I'm getting at is define what you're looking for and then get a list together that fits those requirements. You don't have to have the latest greatest thing out there to make good food on the grill/smoker. I paid like $180 for my smoker which I also use as a grill. I can buy a lot of meat with that $620 difference in price.

I'm more proud of our 6th in pork and 10th in chicken than the 3rd in ribs. Everyone makes good pork butt so to place 6th in that is saying a lot. Chicken, for me, is by far the hardest thing to cook right and have the skin bite through instead of pulling off and things like that. I think we're doing Kettering next month. Still on the fence about it but leaning towards going out there. We're really out classed on a lot of stuff. We don't have the experience or the equipment to hang with most of those folks. We just do what we always do with the cookers we have. Ribs like any other type of bbq is 99% practice. No matter what someone tells you to do you're gonna eat some shitty ribs until you get the hang of it. I know I ate a bunch of bad ones before cooking some good ones.

Me and some buddies did the Brickstreet BBQ contest in Marietta last weekend. Had a frigin blast. Met some cool people, cooked some bbq, and drank a ton of beer. This was the first contest we've ever entered so we weren't expecting much other than to just have a good time. Our equipment isn't probably what anyone would consider contest equipment. Just some texas style smokers from Wal-Mart mounted to a utility trailer from Tractor Supply. There were guys there that had thousands and thousands of dollars worth of cooking equipment. We placed 15th overall with a 10th in chicken, a 6th in pork, and a 3rd in ribs. Learned a lot in the process and just had a good time overall. We were getting some strange looks when we were cracking beers at 5:30am on Saturday. http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/brickstreet2.jpg

my buddy has the chargriller duo.....pretty decent grill/smoker. I've seen some that included the side box and some that you add the sidebox too. The only problem I have with it is it's a little small for what I do. Can be had way cheaper than $600 and chragriller has a decent site to buy replacement parts if you need them. I have a chargriller pro series texas smoker that's 10 years old. It's been used pretty much weekly since I bought it too. I just replaced the original firebox last week getting ready for brickstreet in Marietta. We'll have 4 of those there. As far as ribs.....I use a home made dry rub on mine and finish with a home made sauce ( although I do like sweet baby ray's). For someone just starting out I would say to take your time and not try to rush them. Depending on smoker temps you could be looking at 4-6 hours. I would also recommend after 2 or 3 hours to wrap them in foil. Hard to mess them up doing it that way.

I put all my charcoal on one side of the grill and get it nice and hot. I sprinkle seasoned salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika on both sides of the steak. Throw it directly over the heat for a couple minutes each side to sear it then move it to the cool side of the grill for a couple minutes to finish the cooking to medium rare. Then I put a little pat of real butter on them and let that melt down over them. I prefer ribeye but will eat a t-bone from time to time. http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/005.jpg

agreed......the first guard kinda bumped him back so he pushed the guard back then a completely different guard punches him.

if you watched the video and watched him walk up from behind the bus to where he ended up......he was shit tanked. The article I read made it sound like he had a couple of drinks but wasn't drunk....video to me looks like someone that's tore up.

it got Andy Griffith

most of it is practice. It does help to have a diesel for hills and stuff like that. This is a pretty light trailer really. It has an all aluminum frame which cuts down on weight quite a bit. It comes in right at 10k pounds. That duramax yanks this thing around pretty good. As far as backing up.....I'm still getting used to it but using my wife as a spotter I put it beside my house without much issue. The more times I do it the better I'm getting at it. I have a 2x12 on the low side to put the tires on. I backed it up last time and had the tires on the 2x12 the first try. Last weekend I hauled it out a couple hours East of Pittsburgh. There's a ton of construction out there and their roads in general just suck balls. It was pouring rain, at night, in construction, between concrete barriers, and getting passed by semi's. Can't say that was a whole bunch of fun. Matter of fact I was so nervous you couldn't have driven a pin up my ass with a jackhammer.

I gave ~$25k for this one. I had the pop up to trade and they gave me a very fair trade in price on that plus they saved me ~$500 on the hitch. Probably not the greatest deal out there but I was happy with the deal and I was also tired of camper shopping. The problem I have with C class type stuff is that when you go somewhere you either have to tow a DD or have some alternative means of transportation. You could always strap a couple motorcycles or bicycles to one but then there's the rain thing. With a 5er I unhook and have my DD available. I towed it 6 hours each way out to PA last week and it towed really well. Has good manners on the highway and I got between 13-14mpg on the average of both ways. There is not enough to be said for having a hot shower available when camping.

Finally upgraded my camper. We've been going a few times a year as a family and the pop up just wasn't cutting it anymore. Needed more room. Got a new 2010 KZ 34' bunk house 5er. Has 4 bunks in the nose with the master bedroom in the rear, large dinette that breaks down into about a queen bed, 2 slides, jack knife sofa, fridge, tv, dvd player, indoor/outdoor speakers, power awning, microwave, oven, a/c, heat, shower, shitter, and tons of storage. Taken it out twice now and it's nice as hell. Like a home away from home. http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/01.jpg http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/02.jpg http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/05.jpg http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/06.jpg http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/08.jpg http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/03.jpg http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/09.jpg http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/camperhome.jpg

as far as what to look for right out of the gate strut rub is the biggest and most common probably. Most common in the 04's but I was able to get a good specific alignment using numbers posted on the web and never had any issues after that. 05-06 have a fairly common problem with the ignition cylinder.....not extremely common but common enough. Door actuators is another issue to look for. Had my drivers side go out while it was still under warranty. Overall they're badass cars for the money. I had a yellow 04 with an 05 hood and loved the car. I got a TON of compliments when driving it....they just aren't that common and people love them when they see them on the street. Loved my yellowjacket http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/cotm/IMG_1495-800x600.jpg

I guess I've been out of the loop too long. When did Mongoose stop being the bike to have? When I was a kid if you had a mongoose you were the shit and your parents spent a ton of money for it. My son's b-day is this month (8) and he's due up for a new bike. He did want a Haro but that's changed now to a diamondback. Back when I was riding bikes ( granted....that's been longer ago than some of you guys have been alive) mag wheels was the shit. Now most have went back to spokes. Anyhow, Dick's carries Diamondback bikes but does anyone know a place that carries haro bikes? His ass may just end up with a mongoose just because I always wanted one.

nice truck. You're gonna love the brake controller install. I just put a prodigy P2 in my 06 duramax. Get the plug/play harness (may have one in your glove box if the previous owner didn't use it) and it'll take you longer to open the box than it will to install it. Next to the brake pedal is a fuse/relay box. Take the cover off of it and there's a place in there to plug the controller in. That's it.....mount it to the dash and you're done. Straight pipe it. I put a 4" straight piped turbo back on mine and did a 90HP tow tune. Gets along pretty good for a 7k pound truck.

this.... I'd be much more impressed if they did it without the dogs.

funny you should mention this...I was sitting at a light the other day around the 5pm rush hour and was watching traffic. Started watching cars that only had 1 person in them..... I bet it was in the 80%+ range. A huge majority of the cars passing by only had one person in them. I know everyone likes having their car because it represents freedom to move wherever you like but I bet damn near all of those people drove to work, let the car sit all day, and then drove home. We need a better mass transit system. To the subject of the thread.....everytime gas prices go up someone makes a thimble full of some alternative fuel and releases it to the public so they can try to get huge grants to work on it. That's all this is.

got a harness for him and we pulled a hickory log up that I use for smoking. He's still too young and this was too much for him. I helped him out with it and then put it on a wagon to make it easier. Definitely going to start with something much lighter. He could move it but gave up pretty quick. Just wanted to get him used to the harness and pulling things a little. Did some reading on pulling and I'll need to start way smaller and it'll take some time. I just need him ready by next fall so he can pull out my deer when I shoot one. http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/harnesspull3.jpg

Got the barrel in the mail while ago. Strap is a little too big for him but he'll grow into it in no time. It swings too much when he walks so we'll have to let him grow into it a little more before he can really wear it around. This was a quick cell phone pic. I'll have to get the regular camera out and get a better pic. Hard to keep him still too so it blurred some. http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj37/0rion_album/chunkbarrel2.jpg edit: took a little better picture....still with the phone though

so would everyone else....that's why it's $500. Bet you see that sign next time.

I will....I'll definitely get one with the keg barrel on him. I need to get another one to carry around a Liter of coke so I can have jim beam and coke just a whistle away. I'm now wondering that if I have him carrying around a liter of bourbon if that'd be considered an open container when he's in my truck. I bet it is. If I can ever find a cheap cap for the truck though he'll be in the back so that'd be legal. Not sure if a police officer would ask if there was whiskey in it but I know if I saw a St Benard with a barrel around it's neck the question would be on my mind.

keg barrel ordered It holds a liter. Might be a touch big for him at the moment but it won't take him long to grow into it. He's already at 50+lbs at 11.5 weeks. He's doing great overall. I put a bell around the door knob and he's ringing it to go outside so that's a major hurdle crossed. Had a bunch of people over earlier in the week and he did great with them and their kids. After about 10 minutes he acted like they were part of the family.

what?? A ford website pimping a ford motor??? Absurd.

those are some bad ass looking dogs. I wanted one for a bit but didn't know anyone that's ever owned one to give me the low down on if they make a good family dog or not. My last dog was pretty aggressive and I'm trying not to have that hassle this time around. St Benards are protective and territorial but not overly aggressive. My last dog started nipping at and getting shitty with my daughter so he had to go.

yep....already been discussed with the wife can kids. Not only do they take ownership but they will ruin furniture. I've never been one to let my dogs up on the couches though. I had a rott years ago that would sleep on the couch every now and then but other than that my dogs sleep in the floor.

yep...slobber, hair, and large piles of shit are part of the package. His mom and dad weren't heavy droolers but there's always going to be some. I've had dogs with hair before....owned 2 chow mixes before this guy. As for the piles of poo I'm installing shoe scrapers by every door. Na, I'll just go out with the shovel and dig a hole next to it and bury it. Hopefully he'll be like my last dogs and take dumps all the way out back.