Michael, you're singing to the choir here. We use our Jumbo Joe with the vortex a lot, it's our go to grill.
I even went so far as to build its own workstation.
Those are two great cooks you did on it and bone in skin on thighs are made to work with the vortex, with some occasional wings.
Okay you win, I say that because Chris has told us to behave and no personnel digs, so I don't want to upset him again.
With That It's
Hasty Bananas, got a couple of chickens to cook on my trusty rusty Camp Chef which is much more important than this.
Guess what I have one of those so called cheap pellet grills $350 Camp Chef. And over 200 + cooks with zero failures.
Maybe not as sophisticated as a Smokefire and I won't argue there may be some differences in the smoke flavor, but I'll take reliability over constant failure anytime.
As far as...
Welcome to the forum and congrates on your new gasser.
We have or I should say my wife Barb has an E320 NG sidewinder which is our grill for quick cooks and sides mostly, but also is our outside oven in the summer to keep the heat down in the house. Anytime that one is fired up Barb is cooking...
If I hadn't just upgraded my controller on the Camp Chef, I might have jumped on an EX4. But I'm very content with the upgraded results from the new controller.
This way I won't know what I've missed on both sides of the Smokefire, the good and the bad.
That's why I went ahead and up graded my controller for $50 to a PID on my cheap $350 Camp Chef. With 200+ faultless cooks for $50 vs $900 for a Searwood. Three cooks later I'm very happy with my decision much better heat control and smoke control. When the CC goes belly up well maybe then a...
Exact reason I'm doing a slow restore on my gen2 and bringing it back to life. I might as well be the one who enjoys it as much as someone that's just looking for a cheap grill and couldn't care less about the history.
Clean it up, shine it up, paint it up then fire it up and enjoy a nice steak...
With three gassers and a performer along with two 22 kettles, two jumbo joes and a smokey joe and a pellet grill I sometimes have a hard time choosing what to cook on.
Barb has staked out the E320 and gen 2000 as hers. Me I prefer the Jumbo Joe for quick cooks along with vortex cooks, perfect...
Gotta find something for my better half above to do as she is now always one ahead of me on posts.
Anyway, nice cook and a wise thing to do by taking an extra grate along.
Great find and welcome to the forum.
I still have my 1989 gen 1000, now a 2000 I bought new in 89.
Also have a gen 2 that I will be doing a low and slow restore as time and old age allow. With the serial number it appears to be one of the first 200 built.
Nice cook it all looks great.
Barb and I use our vortex a lot with our Jumbo Joe. Although at the time no one made a small enough Vortex to fit it, so I bought a small SS dog bowl from Walmart for $2.00 and made my own, many years later and a lot of KFC with that vortex it's still in great...
Point well taken. My experience was with a gas GA which was almost impossible to do indirect. Forgot all about the charcoal version, which isn't seen very often here.