Ran out of lump

Firetruck

For Christmas I smoked 3 butts. I filled up the Large above the firebox and about half of the fire ring. I did the placing of the lump as usual with the big stuff at the bottom, then smaller stuff, then poured in the rest. I lit the lump in 3 different places, allowed the egg to come up to temp. with the platesetter in, and added the meat. I let it smoke for about 2 hrs. by it self, the I put on the Digi Q2 for the rest of the cook. It was set at 250 grate temp. and the dome was running at about 275. I put everything on at about 5:30 pm and by 11:30 pm it was up to 167 internal. I turned it down to 235 grate, made sure it was there and went to bed.
The next morning @ 6:00am the pit was down to 205 and the meat was @ 172. I looked and was almost out of lump.
I freaked.
I turned on the oven to 300, wrapped the butts and put them in, and within 2 hrs they were up to 195. Crisis averted.

I never ran out of lump that fast before. It ran 23 hrs straight on a cook I did before. I'm not sure what went wrong but It makes me a little nervous about setting everything up and just going to bed now.
Any wisdom shared would be gleened and appreciated.

Little Steven

Firetruck,

Could be that you didn't pack the bigger pieces in enough. I always use Elder Ward's method under pulled pork in recipes. You place the larger hunks in a close pattern and then cover with medium and then the fine. If you think about it the highest density of fuel should be in the big pieces.

Steve

Canugghead

It makes me a little nervous about setting everything up and just going to bed now

You can still do that, just invest in a Maverick ET-73, it'll wake you up if the grid temp goes out of range.

Canugghead

Good morning Steve, hope your Christmas was good. Quick question for you, I'm trying to get some SS carriage bolts to build raised grid, do you think Brafasco will have better selection and price? HD has limited selection and the price is ridiculous - about $10 a bolt and it has hex head that's not suitable.

Gary

Mr. & Mrs Potatohead

Gary:
Do they have to be SS?
I was looking for un-plated, but couldn't find any...So I just went with plated carriage bolts.

faithie999

if you used lots of big pieces of lump and few small pieces, you probably had less total lump than you had loaded when you had cooked for longer in past cooks. The big pieces don't pack together as compactly as small chunks do. When I'm prepping for a long cook I normally use a few large pieces in the bottom then fill the rest of the egg with medium and small pieces.

Canugghead

I asked the same question last night:
http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=565932&catid=1

Little Steven

Gary,

I replied a little below. You can get them at Brafasco or Bolts Plus. The Brampton store is the biggest. It is on Heart Lake road, south of Clark. I don't know if there is one closer to you but you would probably have to order from a smaller store.

Little Steven

Gary,

Sorry,
I didn't read yor whole post. Yes Brafasco should have them at a much better price. I take it that you are looking for a dome head bolt so the carriage square can sit in between the rails on the main grate?

Steve

Canugghead

That's right Steve. I found a few Brafasco locations (Concord, Markham, North York) close to home.

Gary

emilluca

Was it Royal Oak. The last I bought was like painted Balsa wood.

Firetruck

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas. Some things to ponder.

BTW emilluca, it was RO. I did not see anything out of the norm with the lump. The only thing different about this cook was the ammount of meat and the fact that I was raining. My egg was under the porch but near where the water was splashing on the deck.