Stumps , Vault , Assassin ( so)

lkapigian

Looking to get a gravity feed vertical smoker....Large capacity ..any input is greatly appreciated. 

DoubleEgger

In my opinion, Deep South Smokers makes the nicest vertical GF on the market. 

http://www.deepsouthsmokers.com/gc-series.html

lkapigian

Thanks @DoubleEgger , I will check that out....

WeberWho

The guy I bought my Shirley from sold it so he could get an Assassin 28

lkapigian

@WeberWho thanks for the input , just looked at the deep south smokers, they are nice!! Its going to be a tough choice ..and being. On the west coast makes it tough 

lkapigian

DoubleEgger said:

In my opinion, Deep South Smokers makes the nicest vertical GF on the market. 

http://www.deepsouthsmokers.com/gc-series.html

I am liking these

The Cen-Tex Smoker

lkapigian said:

@WeberWho thanks for the input , just looked at the deep south smokers, they are nice!! Its going to be a tough choice ..and being. On the west coast makes it tough 

get the pink one!

lkapigian

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

lkapigian said:

@WeberWho thanks for the input , just looked at the deep south smokers, they are nice!! Its going to be a tough choice ..and being. On the west coast makes it tough 

get the pink one!

Ha!.......

DoubleEgger

lkapigian said:

DoubleEgger said:

In my opinion, Deep South Smokers makes the nicest vertical GF on the market. 

http://www.deepsouthsmokers.com/gc-series.html

I am liking these

The Deep South GF's are super nice. Great people too.  Like them on Facebook if you're into that. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

All these are super cool. I don't need the volume so I just use my BGE when I want to cook with charcoal and I have a Karubeque for burning sticks. All the room I'll ever need and I can do easy (eggs) or supervised with real wood (KBQ).  I like the KBQ a lot but a whole other animal to a GF cabinet. The food I had of SGH's vault was spectacular and it cranked out hundreds of pounds of food all day and night. They are badass.

lkapigian

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

All these are super cool. I don't need the volume so I just use my BGE when I want to cook with charcoal and I have a Karubeque for burning sticks. All the room I'll ever need and I can do easy (eggs) or supervised with real wood (KBQ).  I like the KBQ a lot but a whole other animal to a GF cabinet. The food I had of SGH's vault was spectacular and it cranked out hundreds of pounds of food all day and night. They are badass.

I like those Karubeque. Seems that more and more my cooks are ranging from 50 to 200 people. I have a Klose Pit, but looking for something I can put a a lot of protein in and still allow me to sleep @ night. Right now If I want sleep, I put as many hours of smoke as possible, then set the warming oven to 225 and go to bed. And I'd like not to have this big trailer in my driveway while doing an overnighter, its more geared for "day of" cooks

DoubleEgger

lkapigian said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

All these are super cool. I don't need the volume so I just use my BGE when I want to cook with charcoal and I have a Karubeque for burning sticks. All the room I'll ever need and I can do easy (eggs) or supervised with real wood (KBQ).  I like the KBQ a lot but a whole other animal to a GF cabinet. The food I had of SGH's vault was spectacular and it cranked out hundreds of pounds of food all day and night. They are badass.

I like those Karubeque. Seems that more and more my cooks are ranging from 50 to 200 people. I have a Klose Pit, but looking for something I can put a a lot of protein in and still allow me to sleep @ night. Right now If I want sleep, I put as many hours of smoke as possible, then set the warming oven to 225 and go to bed. And I'd like not to have this big trailer in my driveway while doing an overnighter, its more geared for "day of" cooks

Sounds like a GC48 is right up your alley. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

lkapigian said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

All these are super cool. I don't need the volume so I just use my BGE when I want to cook with charcoal and I have a Karubeque for burning sticks. All the room I'll ever need and I can do easy (eggs) or supervised with real wood (KBQ).  I like the KBQ a lot but a whole other animal to a GF cabinet. The food I had of SGH's vault was spectacular and it cranked out hundreds of pounds of food all day and night. They are badass.

I like those Karubeque. Seems that more and more my cooks are ranging from 50 to 200 people. I have a Klose Pit, but looking for something I can put a a lot of protein in and still allow me to sleep @ night. Right now If I want sleep, I put as many hours of smoke as possible, then set the warming oven to 225 and go to bed. And I'd like not to have this big trailer in my driveway while doing an overnighter, its more geared for "day of" cooks

These are perfect for what you are after. Great food + low supervision. I had the horrible idea of opening another restaurant a few years ago and had a trailer all spec'd out with 2 Pitmaker Vaults for the same reason. I finally came to my senses and scrapped it. I love my life too much to do that again.

My wife starts getting twitchy if I have anything that can fit more than 2-3 briskets at a time. She knows it will all just spiral out of control and we will end up in a 140 degree trailer working all our weekends and holidays

nissan97240

I love my Stumps.  I have the baby wish I would have gone with the baby xl but you can't go wrong with a Stumps smoker.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

oh- and I would do gravity fed over any of the others for sure. superior fire and smoke profile (and the others are already really good).

billt01

@lkapigian

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1197918/ot-it-aint-an-egg-but#latest

Stumps...Stumps...Stumps...

I've owned three, sold two....wish i would have kept the Stretch

Still have the Baby XL

stlcharcoal

I had a Rebel 23......which is now the Assassin.  You could put a lot of meat in there.  Took a long time to change temps, and you had to keep an eye on the chute with big chunks, but it was pretty easy to let the temp controller run it .

lkapigian

@billt01 Stumps was the first one I looked at, watched a few videos and they are nice. Think I have only seen 1 on the West Coast

lkapigian

Looking @ the XL Stretch or the Stretch...my mind tells me get the XL Stretch  and be done

Photo Egg

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

All these are super cool. I don't need the volume so I just use my BGE when I want to cook with charcoal and I have a Karubeque for burning sticks. All the room I'll ever need and I can do easy (eggs) or supervised with real wood (KBQ).  I like the KBQ a lot but a whole other animal to a GF cabinet. The food I had of SGH's vault was spectacular and it cranked out hundreds of pounds of food all day and night. They are badass.

How loud/annoying are the 2 fans on your Karubeque?
I only get this impression from the few videos I have watched online. I know poor quality video microphones always seem to make these types of sounds seem even worse.
Do you get much sparking and popping wood as the fire is stoked?
Thanks for any insight.

20stone

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:
My wife starts getting twitchy if I have anything that can fit more than 2-3 briskets at a time. She knows it will all just spiral out of control and we will end up in a 140 degree trailer working all our weekends and holidays

You wouldn't want things spiraling out of control.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Photo Egg said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

All these are super cool. I don't need the volume so I just use my BGE when I want to cook with charcoal and I have a Karubeque for burning sticks. All the room I'll ever need and I can do easy (eggs) or supervised with real wood (KBQ).  I like the KBQ a lot but a whole other animal to a GF cabinet. The food I had of SGH's vault was spectacular and it cranked out hundreds of pounds of food all day and night. They are badass.

How loud/annoying are the 2 fans on your Karubeque?
I only get this impression from the few videos I have watched online. I know poor quality video microphones always seem to make these types of sounds seem even worse.
Do you get much sparking and popping wood as the fire is stoked?
Thanks for any insight.

You wouldn't want it in your house but for many reasons  It's not loud to me. I kind of like having the audible signal that the meat is getting smoke (the draft fan is a little louder than the circulation fan). I have no issues with it whatsoever. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

20stone said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:
My wife starts getting twitchy if I have anything that can fit more than 2-3 briskets at a time. She knows it will all just spiral out of control and we will end up in a 140 degree trailer working all our weekends and holidays

You wouldn't want things spiraling out of control.

He says 6 pigs later...

Grillin_beers

I've been looking into a GF smoker so I can hit the competition circuit.  I've pretty much decided on a Stumps.  It's between that and the Deep South smoker.  I just like the idea that I'm buying the original and the people I know with Stumps are super happy with them. 

nissan97240

Grillin_beers said:

I've been looking into a GF smoker so I can hit the competition circuit.  I've pretty much decided on a Stumps.  It's between that and the Deep South smoker.  I just like the idea that I'm buying the original and the people I know with Stumps are super happy with them. 

Believe me you will not be disappointed in the Stumps.  Besides my egg it was the next best decision I made.  

Foghorn

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

20stone said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:
My wife starts getting twitchy if I have anything that can fit more than 2-3 briskets at a time. She knows it will all just spiral out of control and we will end up in a 140 degree trailer working all our weekends and holidays

You wouldn't want things spiraling out of control.

He says 6 pigs later...

That situation kinda rocketed out of control.

billt01

lkapigian said:

Looking @ the XL Stretch or the Stretch...my mind tells me get the XL Stretch  and be done

Be warned...unless you plan on cooking for a neighborhood every time you fire it up..you will be wasting a lot of real estate..

IMO..this thing is 1,200 lbs of  hashtag WAYTOBIG..

here is what one looks like loaded with a 12 year old, 6 year, and 4 year old...on just one of the racks

from what he told me, this was just a warning shot across the bow...behave or ...well....

billt01

another one of the delivery....

shucker

Most of the GF units on the market are great smokers.  I'm personally a Stumps guy.  I own 2 which I compete and cater with very regularly.  One thing nobody has pointed out that you may not be aware of if you're new to GF smokers is that there are temp variations in the cookers (NO MATTER WHAT ANY SALES REP OR FANBOY TELLS YOU).  My cookers can have as much as 20-30 degrees variance in the cooker from right to left/ top to bottom / front to back, etc.  I've cooked on Deep South, Assassin, Superior, and they all have some form of temp variance in certain locations.  Best I have seen for completely even temps is the Vulcan made by Myron Mixon Smokers but they still arent perfect.   If you're catering, the temperature variance isn't a big deal but for competition purposes you will need to know whatever smoker you choose and know how to use the temperature zones to your advantage.  Also, another manufacturer nobody has mentioned yet is Southern Q.  Give them a look, they are super nice.       

lkapigian

billt01 said:

lkapigian said:

Looking @ the XL Stretch or the Stretch...my mind tells me get the XL Stretch  and be done

Be warned...unless you plan on cooking for a neighborhood every time you fire it up..you will be wasting a lot of real estate..

IMO..this thing is 1,200 lbs of  hashtag WAYTOBIG..

here is what one looks like loaded with a 12 year old, 6 year, and 4 year old...on just one of the racks

from what he told me, this was just a warning shot across the bow...behave or ...well....

I agree, I have a few ceramics and an offset for smaller cooks.....the only reason I am looking @ the stretch is for larger cooks....typically 100 -200 people once a month.........Thanks for posting the great pictures and I value the great input

The Cen-Tex Smoker

billt01 said:

lkapigian said:

Looking @ the XL Stretch or the Stretch...my mind tells me get the XL Stretch  and be done

Be warned...unless you plan on cooking for a neighborhood every time you fire it up..you will be wasting a lot of real estate..

IMO..this thing is 1,200 lbs of  hashtag WAYTOBIG..

here is what one looks like loaded with a 12 year old, 6 year, and 4 year old...on just one of the racks

from what he told me, this was just a warning shot across the bow...behave or ...well....

Mmmmmm...humans