Wedding Cook - Estimating time

I have smoked 140 lbs of butts on my FEC 100 and did not take that long. I would put them on at 6 PM and start taking them off at 6 am the next morning with the last ones coming off in the 10-11 AM timeframe. You will find the FEC100 actually becomes more efficient with a full load of butts than for smaller loads. As you can tell, I would not start Fri. morning. I would do exactly my same time schedule as above. And I would give the first four hours at 180 for a little extra smoke and then bump it up to 230 for the remainder of the time. Wrap in foil when done and put in a Cambro or a pre-heated cooler. And you will be good to go. Also, make sure you put your biggest butts in the hottest spots in your smoker. And once you take a finished butt from those spots, move another one into that spot.

Thanks RibDog,
That helps!!!

so how did it go Briggsy? I agree, being done earlier is better. I've kept heavy meats hot (over 140) for over 8 hours before in preheated coleman coolers. Rotating is good, but remember, the cooler places in the fec are good for the smaller butts if you want them all to get done closer together; however, dun temp is still the final authority as to when to pull.

The cook isn't until next month, October 12-13. So RibDog gave me some good tips.
I knew 1 -1/2 hrs per lb. on regular butts. But with a full FEC 100. I figured somewhere around 18 hrs give or take. We'll see how it goes.
I'll let you all know. Thanks Briggsy

You are most welcome. And I think you will be surprised at how quickly the butts get done with a full load. Like I said, make sure you start checking the hotter spot butts around 12 hours in.

I've loaded my FEC100 with 16 -8lb butts, 4 to a shelf and it took about 12 to 14 hours. If you open the door too much you will add considerable time to that. I did one rotation. Good luck, the FEC cook great fully loaded.

I've done 16 butts load maybe 20 times. Never had to rotate. 14 hours with or without foiling. Foiling generaly just keeps more moisture in and less bark which is what I would shot for when doing a wedding.