First weekend adventure cooking ribs with the Egg. Looking for feedback on improvement.

Hello eggheads. I recently purchased an XL with all the usual accessories, plus a Flameboss 200 wifi. I replaced the daisy wheel with the Smokeware stainless steel vented cap. My goal was 6 hours at 225° for 2 racks of ribs, each split in half to test different sauces. The plate setter was placed legs up, and a drip pan filled with apple juice was place beneath the cooking surface. I filled the firebox with BGE lump charcoal, then tossed a pile of applewood chips soaked for 30min on the coals once they got going. The images here show how everything was positioned:

http://imgur.com/a/SGNfU

The X marks the location of the Flameboss pit temperature probe. Half rack #1 was coated in mayonnaise then given a generous dusting of rib rub. 2-4 were left un-rubbed and cooked as is, then the plan was saucing around 30 minutes before removing from the grill.

I noticed a few things while cooking. First off, anytime the Flameboss fan spooled up, smoke would puff out around the lower vents of the egg but nothing came out of the cap. The Flameboss instructions mentioned keeping the daisy wheel nearly closed, so I tried the same setup with the vented cap. Opening it a bit more reduced the smoke puffing out of the lower vents. I'm thinking it may be worth it to use some thermal tape to seal up the edges of the lower vent.

Speaking of the lower vent, I'm a little un-impressed with the construction of the Flameboss fan. Feels cheap to me. I've heard the Pit Viper sold by BBQguru will work with the Flameboss, can anyone confirm?

With the Flameboss pit temperature sensor attached above the grate at the center, same height as all the ribs, the fan maintained 225° the entire cook. The problem was, my BGE dome temp thermometer hovered around 350-425° the entire duration. I'm worried that maybe directly on the grate in the center was too shielded to properly measure the true temperature around the ribs. I'm considering moving the probe next time around, maybe up near the top of the dome? Any suggestions for the best location would be great.

So here's the real concern, the outcome. I was not using the Flameboss meat temp probe because I assumed that 225° for 5-6 hours would yield me the same results I've had with an offset smoker in the past. At around 3 hours I opened the egg and checked the temps on all 4 racks and the results ranged from 210° to 215°. I immediately sauced half racks 2-4 and cooked only another 10 minutes, then took everything off. Racks 1 and 3 came out nice and tender, with a good outer crust, but somewhat dry. In fact, trying to cut between the bones practically shredded the meat. While they were still enjoyable, I felt I could do much, much better.

Racks 2 and 4, on the other hand, were definitely a little bit burnt. The out crust was not enjoyable, and the meat just tasted overcooked and way dried out. The sauces on these two definitely burned after application. In hindsight, these two half racks were not directly over the drip pan the same way 1 and 3 were.

I bought a BGE vertical rib rack, so hopefully in the future this will keep everything over the drip pan. I'm still concerned about the racks that ended up over cooked as far as where they were located on the grate. I'm guessing the airflow can lead to different temps across the grate?

Also, as a side note, did I make a mistake by not using a rub on the racks that received sauce? #3 with sauce tasted great to me, but maybe it was missing something by not applying a rub.

Secondary sidenote, I can't seem to make new threads on the Egghead forums; is there some secret or trick I'm not seeing?

There were some very helpful replies on Reddit, but I wanted to continue the conversation here. I won't be using a water pan anymore, just a drip pan in its place. My main question now is, when I go back to the Flameboss, should I keep the temp prob at grate level, or raise it up higher to better capture the true dome temp? Thanks!