The Unavailable Smoker (Taken)

The biggest challenge with an offset smoker is keeping the paint on and around the firebox looking good. The heat in the firebox is intense and it takes regular maintenance to keep the firebox from rusting. And if your firebox metal is thin, the problem will be even worse than if you have a Meadow Creek Smoker or other heavy duty smoker.

Meadow Creek’s insulation upgrade for their smoker fireboxes has been a great success. The insulation keeps more heat inside the smoker, which keeps the paint nicer on the outside and drastically reduces the amount of charcoal and wood it takes to cook.

Turns out, there is something even more—something beyond this fancy-pants double-wall insulated firebox—you can add to a Meadow Creek smoker trailer to make it even more durable and maintenance free. As is often the case, we can blame this idea (a good kind of blame) on Tom from Smoke’n Dudes.

If there’s someone who knows Meadow Creek tank smokers inside and out, helped design them, and cooks on them all the time, it’s Tom. The green smoker you see above is Tom’s baby. This TS250 Barbecue Smoker is decked out with a trim package, insulated firebox, and stainless steel components in all the rust-prone areas—and then some. 🙂 Also has the BBQ42 Chicken Cooker mounted on the front with insulation and a stainless steel shell.

Isn’t it pretty sharp?

(Oh, and I need to mention that green paint is not available. If you want one of these, it will have to be black.)

Charm and appeal aside, stainless steel doesn’t rust and this upgrade virtually eliminates all regular paint maintenance. If you plan to use your smoker all the time, this is certainly an investment to consider. Instead of sanding down paint and spray-painting rust spots, you can hit it with a rag and polish to keep it looking good and ready to meet your next customer.

Now for some more views of the unavailable smoker (AKA “Taken”). I took these at a Meadow Creek Dealer Meeting and the setting and lighting inside the building are not the greatest for photos. And in case you wonder, those cutting boards laying on the work shelves were not cut to shape yet or fastened. (I should have moved them for the pics.)

That aside, here you go…

Our mounted chicken cookers can be insulated for an extra fee, excluding the lid. Here they gave the insulated BBQ42 a stainless steel shell; the inner wall is regular steel.

The firebox is insulated with a stainless steel shell. The warming box on the back and the wood/storage box on the front are also stainless steel.

Inside the warming box.

You can’t see it in these pictures, but inside the tank, the bottom plate is also stainless steel.

The trim package gives you a stainless steel stack and aluminum wheels and fenders.

It remains a fact that Meadow Creek makes a great product. You don’t have to spend for fancy upgrades to get a great smoker. However, the battle between fire and paint does get pretty fierce. If you don’t tend to the rust, it gets worse pretty fast and then you have a job on your hands. That’s where a double-wall insulated firebox comes in. You will drastically reduce your maintenance plus save about 40-50% on charcoal.

And now, stainless steel components make it even easier for you to focus on cooking and having fun instead of doing the dirty work.

If you’re interested, tell us what you’re looking for and Marlin will be happy to give you a quote on these stainless steel upgrades. You can immediately see prices on the smoker pages for common options such as trim package, stainless steel work shelves, and a mounted chicken cooker. For example, the TS250 Smoker Trailer.

Have fun,

Lavern

PS. Like I said above, green paint is not available. This was an experiment. There is only one like it and it’s “taken.” Don’t bug Marlin for green; I don’t want anyone getting ticked off at me for “leaking” these pictures. 🙂

Tags: meadow creek smokers, ts250 bbq smoker

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2012 at 11:20 am and is filed under Great News, Revolutionary Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.