Pellet Grills.....again.

[martinslanding]

Only problem is the cooking space on the GMG. The Jim Bowie is 658sqin vs Timerline 1300sqin. Almost double the grill space

that's more space to heat and regulate and more pellets you go through trying to accomplish that...

 

[nxtgeneration]

Only problem is the cooking space on the GMG. The Jim Bowie is 658sqin vs Timerline 1300sqin. Almost double the grill space

[MENTION=1292]MarbleEyez[/MENTION] Just add the shelf in the Jim Bowie if you need more area. The actually grills are similar in size but I believe the Timberline comes with a shelf in it so they can claim a greater cooker area. I have a Daniel Boone, no shelf, and have never needed extra space. With a rib rack I can do 8 racks in mine. Full packer briskets with no extra space needed either.

 

[ItemB]

That cooking space is with the 2 or 3 racks on the traeger. I bet the main cooking grate on both is similiar in size and for smoking you can make or buy another grate and double the space of the green mountain pretty easily.

 

[MarbleEyez]

That cooking space is with the 2 or 3 racks on the traeger. I bet the main cooking grate on both is similiar in size and for smoking you can make or buy another grate and double the space of the green mountain pretty easily.

I thought the same thing, but after looking and amking a few phone calls, the main grate for the Timerline is 34x40, the GMG around 24x27.5.

That's quite a bit more grill space. As for the "Extra Pellets Needed", I'll just have to buy a few more bags of pellets

We usually are cooking for 6-12 people.

Where did you guys get your GMG's from? I'd like to maybe take a look at one in person

 

[DirtyMike]

I thought the same thing, but after looking and amking a few phone calls, the main grate for the Timerline is 34x40, the GMG around 24x27.5.

That's quite a bit more grill space. As for the "Extra Pellets Needed", I'll just have to buy a few more bags of pellets

We usually are cooking for 6-12 people.

Where did you guys get your GMG's from? I'd like to maybe take a look at one in person

Grate Outdoors on interstate ave in Bismarck just to the east of the comfort inn.

 

[johnr]

Traeger in my arsenal. I have a Bradley for jerky, and homemade bacon. Weber for seared ribeyes, and Traeger for roasts, ribs, chicken, etc.
The Traeger was a gift 3 years ago, works excellent. Heavy duty, easy to clean, and on sturdy wheels to run in and out of the garage.

 

[Migrator Man]

Anyone seen any deals on a pellet grill? Not looking for anything fancy so maybe a pit boss. Have seen the mid size one for $350 once. They get any cheaper than that?

 

[Petras]

Marble i have the copperhead 5 from walmart and fricken love it. I had a traeger grill style smoker. I will never go back to a grill style smoker again. Walmart has great prices on the coppperhead 5 because it is a walmart exclusive. Its worth every penny.

 

[SerchforPerch]

Grate Outdoors on interstate ave in Bismarck just to the east of the comfort inn.

Great spot, although it would be nice if they were more consistent with their store hours.. Been a handful of times when I drove down, and the place is locked up tight when supposed to be open.

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I have the GMG Jim Bowie - Do any you guys/gals take the baffles out of your grill? Curious as ive been experiencing some weird air flow issues that i've been trying to troubleshoot. For instance, In the past spares or babybacks would take me about 4-5 hours @ 250F, lately its been pushing 5.5-6 hours. I called GMG and they said i have an airflow issue and to try cooking without the baffles. Hasn't seemed to make any difference. Ive even tried lowering the chimney cap to retain more heat wihtout luck. Anyone else experiencing anything like this?..

 

[nxtgeneration]

Great spot, although it would be nice if they were more consistent with their store hours.. Been a handful of times when I drove down, and the place is locked up tight when supposed to be open.

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I have the GMG Jim Bowie - Do any you guys/gals take the baffles out of your grill? Curious as ive been experiencing some weird air flow issues that i've been trying to troubleshoot. For instance, In the past spares or babybacks would take me about 4-5 hours @ 250F, lately its been pushing 5.5-6 hours. I called GMG and they said i have an airflow issue and to try cooking without the baffles. Hasn't seemed to make any difference. Ive even tried lowering the chimney cap to retain more heat wihtout luck. Anyone else experiencing anything like this?..

Don't lower the chimney cap, if anything raise it way up or just take it off. Lowering it will make the problem worse as it suffocates the fire.

As far as the baffle I've never cooked without it.

 

[Bfishn]

Traeger in my arsenal. I have a Bradley for jerky, and homemade bacon. Weber for seared ribeyes, and Traeger for roasts, ribs, chicken, etc.
The Traeger was a gift 3 years ago, works excellent. Heavy duty, easy to clean, and on sturdy wheels to run in and out of the garage.

Smoke those ribeyes on the pellet for an hour and then sear them on the Weber....aka reverse sear. Better yet do it with one of those giant tomahawk ribeyes from sams club.

 

[guywhofishes]

I'm in the "let's not get carried away with the smoke flavor" camp. Some foods benefit from a nice sear - but not smoke. My steaks included.

 

[snow]

Down this road last year.pellet grills are the shit,shopped them all,buddy has a trager,all kinds of maintence issies over the 10yrs he's had it,newtwo new fire boxes one new hopper/auger but its still ticking,his old trager is very heavy duty,the new tragers seem to lack quality,very thin steel wall construction compared to the old ones plus trager max temp is 420degrees according to trager rep at a cook out,not the best for searing steaks,wally world has the exclusive pit boss model,smaller drum but perfect for a couple racks of ribs and chicken,they sold for $195 last winter. camp chef and green mtn caught my attention but I wanted electric and the capability of searing meat,green mtn has the side sear option but is propane that reaches temps up to 900 degrees,passed on it as the $250 propane sear box was something I didn't want to deal with,after alot of research landed on the pitboss 720sl,works great,has easy hopper clean out feature everthing that the up version 820 has only doesn't have a smoke stack(no big deal) grease bucket instead of grease tray that sits below grid,nice storage below barrel oven with steel doors,30" barrel oven,gets a little to hot for smoking fish,low temp setting with smoke is 200degrees so I found that using a square of 2x4 to keep the hood open works well for smoking at lower temps,its really to big for just myself but great for family gatherings,I keep mine out on my 3 season porch which works great for grilling in cold or inclimate weather,

for summertime steaks and burgers i still use my weber charcoal smokey joe(hard to beat) all the time,suggest looking at the pitboss bult by Louisana grills

gotta keep these grills clean good idea to take the shop vac to em after 3 or 4 grills,fire box on these grills will load up with ash.

 

[DirtyMike]

Great spot, although it would be nice if they were more consistent with their store hours.. Been a handful of times when I drove down, and the place is locked up tight when supposed to be open.

No joke there. They're availability is kind of frustrating. As far as I know, that's the only place in town that carries them.

 

[snow]

buddy has the copperhead 5,loves it ,he does alot of sausage links. likes to hang sausages so the verticle works best for him,said he found it at a gander mtn "scratch n dent sale,looks brand new to me couple dings near the rear hopper but works great,paid $175 for it,I see the new copperhead 7 is over $600 today.no need for a verticle smoker here,my bradley is the best for fish n jerky (4 rack) pit boss for the meat... chicken wings are the shit on pellet grills done right. well next to the green egg.

 

[SerchforPerch]

Don't lower the chimney cap, if anything raise it way up or just take it off. Lowering it will make the problem worse as it suffocates the fire.

As far as the baffle I've never cooked without it.

Sounds good. I re-positioned the cap back to the recommended height and replaced the baffles using pics that GMG sent me.. Weird thing is that Ive done over 100 cooks on this grill in the last 4 years and never had an issue. GMG told me if replacing the baffles doesn't work, try cleaning up the Temp Probe with some steel wool. But I'm beginning to wonder if its a software issue contributing to the problem also?

The last response from GMG said "And if all of the above doesn't repair the issue Consider increasing your cooking temps" - this last reply rubbed me the wrong way, as I shouldn't have to increase cook temps to compensate for the grill not doing what it used to do!

 

[luvcatchingbass]

As much as I want a pellet grill at times some of the comments and discussions make me rethink only use this particular pellet, clean this correctly, fancy gizmos are awesome BUT when they don't work it is a pain makes me think again. Guess I will stick to the caveman art of air flow and fire for a little while longer.
Question about pellets - Is it true that most flavors such as Apple, Cherry, etc are still mostly compressed with oak? Thought I heard that before but been a while since I looked into it. When I want oak and cherry I use those hardwoods, when I want pecan and cherry I don't really use oak.

 

[Holmsvc]

I bought a new Trager Pro 780 this year, I hated it. I was used to ribs, tri tip, and pork butts made on the smoker. I tried a couple different kinds of pellets to see if it was the pellets, but was still unhappy with the lack of smoke.

It was ok for chicken, but if I made a beer can chicken at 350 there was no flavor from cooking on pellets.

 

[nxtgeneration]

Sounds good. I re-positioned the cap back to the recommended height and replaced the baffles using pics that GMG sent me.. Weird thing is that Ive done over 100 cooks on this grill in the last 4 years and never had an issue. GMG told me if replacing the baffles doesn't work, try cleaning up the Temp Probe with some steel wool. But I'm beginning to wonder if its a software issue contributing to the problem also?

The last response from GMG said "And if all of the above doesn't repair the issue Consider increasing your cooking temps" - this last reply rubbed me the wrong way, as I shouldn't have to increase cook temps to compensate for the grill not doing what it used to do!

Seems like a software or possibly a temp probe problem. I clean the probe everytime I clean the grill. In the past, I have noticed temps dropping when it gets real dirty.
From what I've heard on the GMG facebook groups if they try to push the problem to the side just push back and they'll take care of it. I would be pretty annoyed with that response as well.

- - - Updated - - -

As much as I want a pellet grill at times some of the comments and discussions make me rethink only use this particular pellet, clean this correctly, fancy gizmos are awesome BUT when they don't work it is a pain makes me think again. Guess I will stick to the caveman art of air flow and fire for a little while longer.
Question about pellets - Is it true that most flavors such as Apple, Cherry, etc are still mostly compressed with oak? Thought I heard that before but been a while since I looked into it. When I want oak and cherry I use those hardwoods, when I want pecan and cherry I don't really use oak.

Depends...I use Lumberjack and they have some that are "blends" and some that are 100% apple, cherry, pecan, ect. It seems like not many of the retailers carry the 100% varieties though and they are a little more expensive. I cant speak to other brands on what they do.

 

[dgully]

I have the Traeger Signature series which I’ve had for 5 years and the new Timberline, never had a problem till this weekend, the heat probe/ thermometer went out. Other then that no problems. I love cooking on the Timberline, hardly any temp swing and holds heat and smoke well