Butts are Done Early

Obvious questions...you are checking the temp of each butt separately? And in each butt in different locations to verify temp?

When you say butts are done,I assume they have all probed tender and are at the pullable stage?

I've found that if you give them a little squirt of a vinegar baste/sauce like Smokin's,wrap in heavy plastic wrap and then double foil them you have a headstart.
If you have a smaller cooler that you can warm with very hot water,drain and dry,fill any excess space with newspaper around the butts and don't open until about 30 mins before pulling,they should be too warm to handle in eight hrs.

If no cooler,wrap the same way,set on an Al pan and maintain the house oven at 140º.Some folks use their cooker in the same manner-as a holding oven.

Yes,you can pull now and store,but it only takes a very few mins to pull them and they are better fresh.

Hope this helps a little.

I'm with Tom, I would FTC and hold whole until time to eat. I pull, (baste if you want)double wrap with heavy duty foil, and put into a cooler with old towels and/or newspaper and hold. I have held PB FTC for 6 hrs and it was still too hot to handle. Don't pull before hand, fresh is best!

When mike says pull, I'm SURE he means pull them from the smoker.

Double wrap in foil, wrap in a couple of towels and put in the SMALLEST ice chest you can find. They're likely be well above 140 in 8 hours.

It's now later in the day, what did you decide?

I left them in the smoker at 190 for a few hours after hitting them with a little apple juice, pulled them out at 1pm, hit them with another spritz and double foil wrapped and placed in a 170 degree oven for a few hours.

They were in great shape at 5pm when I took them out to rest for a few before pulling.

All my coolers were full of beer and ice so I called an audible and it worked fine. Thanks to all for the tips.

My kind of BBQ! No spare coolers available!