All night cookers - can you describe your setups?

i just set it up for a 250 degree cook, get the temp stable for 45 minutes or so and in goes the meat. dont worry too much if the temp seems to drop with the addition of cold meat, if temps were stable before it will come back up in an hour or two. make a wiggle rod to shake the lower vent in the morning and if dome temps aredown in the morning open the vents a little. a wireless temp device with high and low pit alarms is nice til you get thru the first few cooks and/or get up after 5 hours of cooking and you will know if things are on tract and wont need to be asking if the butt is still safe to eat if the fire was going out

For my all night cooks, this is what *I* do, YMMV -

I have the same set up as you (no table, stock nest on wheels, etc) and a wood deck. I have the Egg on top of one of those non-flammable mats on the deck. I cook my all nighters between 250*-275*, so I get the Egg lit, stabilized and dialed in. Then I toss what ever I'm cooking on it and make sure that it re-stabilizes temp wise after. I also use my Maverick to monitor the grid temp and food temp. I set it up so the alarms go off if the temps go above a certain temp, then I hit the rack.

Now mind you, there are usually a few (or 6) adult beverages consumed during this process, so I do end up making a couple of unscheduled checks during the night when my bladder wakes me up.

I don't think that I could do this the way I do with out the help the the Maverick set to go off if the grid goes above 275*. In fact, I don't think that I would be comfortable letting an all nighter go unsupervised WITHOUT the Maverick. I'm not overly concerned about embers popping out the bottom because I have the door only open a fraction of an inch and the screen is on.

Finally, I should also note that any other cook I do when the temp is above 300*, my Egg is pretty much under constant supervision (ie - I'm always in and out between my kitchen and the Egg and I don't leave the house to go to the grocery store, for example). Hope this helps.

no to liquid in a low and slow, dont even soak the wood chunks or chips. all you need is an inderect setup like the platesetter or a pizza stone, or a simple pan to be placed between the fire and the food

All good info above and WRT the drip pan, no liquid is needed but you should elevate the pan off the platesetter (or whatever heat deflector you use) to keep the drippings from burning.  You can use washers, balled up foil or some hardware nuts to create the gap.  FWIW-

I clean out the egg with my shop vac and save the lump that's in the egg. Wrap the PS in foil for easy cleanup. Place old lump back in the egg w/ larger pieces at the bottom (if I remember). Add in wood chunks for smoke and I put them in throughout the mix of lump. Top off the lump w/ fresh lump to fill it up to the limit with two wood chunks toward the top. Start the fire with MAPP torch usually in 3 spots and after getting fire established I'll set up the Stoker for a 235℉-250℉ L&S with the Smokeware having about a 1/16"-1/8" slit opening. After I smell the good smoke (no creosote) I put the protein in the egg and place the food probe in the thickest part of the product. If it's a brisky the probe goes into the thickest part of the flat, Butt or Picnic gets it in the thickest part, etc. Sit back enjoy some tunes with a beverage before going to bed. I'll start checking IT with my Thermapen when I'm real close to completion.

NPHuskerFL said:

Side note. I think it's important to be able to control and stabilize egg temps w/out a pit controller first. Once you can do this go ahead and look at pit controllers. It's important to be able to do it w/out just in case. Just my .02

Just curious, why use a pit controller then? I don't even use my Maverick anymore for overnight cooks.

LBGE in a wooden table. Roll it out onto a cement driveway away from a nothing flammable. Use an Auber PID,set it and forget it. It will hold any temp I want for as long as I want.

One thing about the Stokers during an overnight cook - there ain't no way a hot ember is getting through the flow path of the stoker fan. 

@TexanOfTheNorth‌ after I learned how to control temp etc it became a matter of having other things to do besides babysitting the egg (although I'll still do it). For me it was piece of mind on a long L&S overnight and not having to worry about temp drop or spike ($#it happens and it's simply a piece of mind thing). That and it's bad ass to be able to control & monitor pit temp and food temp via a PC, tablet or smart phone. I find it quite useful and I sleep like a baby.

@Eggcelsior‌ OMG! I remember having a garage party and this playing B-). Yep the 80s for sure.