Biglee's

EQUIPMENT

Meet Big Bertha. Big Bertha is a 6ft. Southern Yankee Smoker. It has 12 rotating racks with each rack able to hold 4 slabs of spareribs. Options on my model include dual wheels, a warming box, and wood storage box. Total price. $9,500.00. As you can see she is jacked up. Big Bertha is very temperamental. If shes not level the racks while rotating will get caught in the support mechanism, if the weather is cold she can burn up damn near an whole oak tree to keep its temperature. If its hot out it doesn't take much for her to get too hot. Now let me tell you this smoker is a helluva cooker all the praise and awards I've received I credit to Big Bertha.

The racks have given me much grief . First they don't stay on when traveling down the road. If I hit a bump and they fall off. Thats no big deal NOW but the first time I lit the fire before I bothered to look inside the pit, you can stop laughing now. Imagine driving head first into a 250 degree oven digging out 12 racks then having to set them in place. Even with the vents closed the heat and smoke was unbearable. I have since bought a respirator.

I also learned the hard way about the smoker being level. I loaded her up with meat. Each rack was filled to the max. The only problem I was on a slight incline. I had the right temperature, so I started the motor. One of the racks caught the rack support mechanism and the rack was coming off its hinges, which meant the rack was getting ready to fall off. When one fall off it normally takes two or three racks with it all of which could be loaded with meat. The bottom of the pit I call no man's land. Its an area meat has no place to be. I was able to catch it before disaster struck, but once again I had to dive into a hot pit to pull the rack out.

One last draw back about Big Bertha. If you look at the photo above you can see the fire box leading into the pit. Well the lever that open and close the vents tend to work it self open while traveling down the road. If the fire box is empty thats no problem, but if its full of ashes aw man.... The ash dust WILL drift into the pit area and cover the entire pit all the racks and inside chamber will be covered in ash dust. There needs to be a way to lock that lever into the close position.

Also the warming box doesn't get hot enough to be really effective, but its a good addition I do use it. I just rap the meat up tight. It stays warm.

These short comings are easy to over come. You just have to work around them. I would recommend this unit to anyone who is serious about barbequing and doing it in volume. Now Southern Yankee does offer a 4ft smaller unit along with its 8ft and 10ft models. sybbq.com check them out.

The Legend by Ole Hickory Smokers