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Well it is a real nice day for Manitoba. Very light snow, no wind, -9C or 16F outside. The FEC100 is chugging along at "smoke" with 12 racks of BB ribs and 4 racks of St.L cut ribs. At 11:30 I will step up the temp to 250F and put on a couple of pork loin roasts, 1 butt end ham and 1 tri-tip for supper. Trying out some of the "stuff" we learned at the FE cooking class in Ponca. Can't wait.
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Well all the ribs, both sides and backs, turned out great. What with the different rubs and methods we learned, these could be some of the best ribs I have turned out. There are a few people that I am sharing these with, lucky them. Here is a photo of some of the ribs, bb on top and sides on the bottom. And S.O. I did learn a ton of stuff. Now to test it all out. I figure if I can cook it in the winter, then the good weather of spring, summer and fall should be no problem.

quote:
Originally posted by New2Smoking:
Looks Great, Im thinking to going to Fast Eddys school to, im sure i will learn alot.. Thanks for sharing your photos

New2Smoking


It is worth every penny. And those guys really know what they are talking about. Only thing I would suggest is to book in early, cause it sells out fast.
I'll second that.
quote:
Originally posted by papa jim:
quote:
Originally posted by New2Smoking:
Looks Great, Im thinking to going to Fast Eddys school to, im sure i will learn alot.. Thanks for sharing your photos

New2Smoking


It is worth every penny. And those guys really know what they are talking about. Only thing I would suggest is to book in early, cause it sells out fast.
quote:
Originally posted by papa jim:
It is 6'x 12' with a V-nose. I wish I had bought a 7'x 16'. I will have to see if I have any pictures of the inside.


Yes I tiled the floor and then to keep the HD happy I painted it with an epoxy type paint to make it a "seamless" floor covering. I should have gone to a new floor covering that is seamless. And yes I put aluminum checker plate on the ramp gate.
I used Liner Xtreeme on mine. Floor and up about 12" on walls in black, and walls in white. I can pressure wash the entire thing now. This truck bed liner is like Rhino Liner except you can self apply if you have an air compressor. Total cost for my 8x17 was about $600, vs the $2000+ I was quoted by Rhino rep. Took about 6 hours to apply.

Liner Xtreeme
I'm moving so my trailer is packed full right now with house stuff, but there's not much to see, just a big ole cargo trailer converted to a minimal cooking setup. For what I do prep area is more important than refer space or cooking equipment, and when you've got to move it's nice to be able to pack the trailer full of stuff and multi task.

Wood top utility table across front:
Table


I added a commercial can opener to the table(~$60),


and another metal prep table down the solid side of the trailer(also from Sam's):


I wired the trailer with 3 interior outlets and 1 exterior outlet, all in waterproof conduit. Two 12' light strips provide light inside, and I may add outside flood lights next spring. I also added a 10K Btu LP wall heater (Northern Tool, on sale $89):


The only thing I plan to add for sure is an RV style exterior gas fitting so I can carry 2-100# LP tanks and connect them via quick connect to my fryer and pig cooker, and I plan to get a small gas convection oven.

I don't want or need (nor could I afford) a mobile kitchen, but this setup is easy to clean(car wash), will hold my pig cooker/fryer rig easily, and has enough room to hold a second pig cooker, plus my pop-up canopies, 4 8' serving tables, and a bunch of coolers for meat and stuff. Small cooking tools, mixing bowls, tea dispensers fit under tables in stackable cambros.

I just pull up to an event, roll off the cooker, and I've got a large prep space that's waterproof and out of the sun. I can offload cooker, coolers, and set up/tear down 2 canopies and 4 serving tables in less than 15 minutes, with little heavy lifting involved. Speed is nice after a long day, and limited lifting is becoming a necessity at my age. I don't have my 2 CS smokers in the trailer because I use them for smaller office parties and such. The trailer is used for church events or larger corporate cooks. I can do ~300# of butts or ~125 chicken halves at a time.

As it stands with one cooker, with some planning I can easily cook pork and either chicken or ribs for about 700 people at a time. The second cooker I plan to add will be used mostly for chicken, because when you need chicken, you need a lot of it at the same time.

I'm not sure what your interest in trailers is related to. I don't remember if you're looking to compete or cater, so my answer is likely off target. What you'll need is going to be dependent on the answer to that question, and also the manner that you work. Some people like to do one thing at a time, clean up, then go on the the next thing on their list. I tend to get everything out at once (hence my love of prep space) and clean and dispose of waste as I cook. Things move from storage to prep area to cooking area to serving area. When the food is ready there is little clean up to do, but during the process it looks like mayhem to most people. I prefer to think of the process as "magic".
Last edited by Former Member
Got a question about my statement: "As it stands with one cooker, with some planning I can easily cook pork and either chicken or ribs for about 700 people at a time. The second cooker I plan to add will be used mostly for chicken, because when you need chicken, you need a lot of it at the same time." and "I can do ~300# of butts or ~125 chicken halves at a time."

Here's how it breaks down, assuming serving time of 5pm Saturday. All this assumes you have the meat ready to go on the cooker, or in the smoker, when it needs to go in. And that you leave the door/lid closed.

11:00pm Friday- Load cooker with 300# meat at 250*
07:00am Saturday- offload butts from cooker, cooler
08:00am Saturday-load 75 racks of loin back ribs in rib racks at ~300-325*
11:00am Saturday- load 75 racks of loin back ribs in rib racks at ~300-325*
2:00pm Saturday-load 75 racks of loin back ribs in rib racks at ~300-325*
5:00pm Saturday-you now have ~180# of chopped pork, or about 700 ~4oz servings. You also have 225 whole racks of ribs, or 675 1/3rd rack servings. Ta Dah!

For chicken, you would do 4 loads of 125 halves in the 9 hours it took to cook the ribs. Cook at ~375* That will give you 500 halves to portion as you see fit. You could actually do 6 loads in 9hrs at ~425* for 750 chicken halves. Here is the chicken cooked for 70min @ 425*, never turned and the skin tastes great(smaller version of my cooker BTW).

Last edited by Former Member
Guys,

I love the great information....but.

It will get lost under the original topic.

Let's start a new thread if you want to talk trailers; no thread jacking allowed.

We've got a number of trailer posts and I think most of them are like this one, list without a good title.

Just your friendly neighborhood moderator.

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