First time using my BGE XL

Fire tends to burn to the back of the egg first, so for heavier smoke I put at at least one chunk in the center and one chunk in the back.  The rest I interleave like you have done, although I tend to keep my front chunks closer to the center.  On a 6 hour slow cook, the fire in mine won't reach the front and side ceramics most of the time.

Mud Pig said:

The only suggestion I can make is switch to hickory.  I just did a 6 hour smoke at 235 on some spareribs and they had a nice smoke ring.

Personally-  I have had bad luck as a blanket statement with Hickory-  Just buyer beware, nothing against others tastes.  

Aside from the smoke ring, was the flavor to your liking? An egg operates with very little airflow so there is a tendency to have have less of a smoke ring than you might expect on another cooker. I never particularly worry about it. The set up also errs to lighter smoke profiles, but rest assured I have totally oversmoked ribs with 7 large chunks. I typically use 3.