Stoker Owners

bigguy136 · August 2019

Hi,

Sorry I haven't been too active on the forum over the last few years. I still have 3 BGEs and are used regularly. I bought a 2nd used Stoker pit controller after finding out they discontinued them. This spring, I was getting everything moved around and more permanent. All was working good 1 minute and the next, all went out on my Stoker controller. I plugged in my 2nd controller and same issue. I emailed them 3 times and never got a reply.

The issue I was having was I could only have 1 fan and 1 probe plugged in. They were re-named to null by the controller. If I changed the name of fan or probe, turned controller off and back on, everything was again renamed back to null. If I plugged in a 2nd temp probe, stoker web page would not show any probes. Start-up went from 20 seconds to over 1 minute.

I took off on a motorcycle ride to the Arctic (Canada and Alaska) on June 6th and got back July 31. It gave me some time to think about what to try on my stoker being I own 2 of them, 3 fans and 15+ temp probes. Stokers is set to auto update the time and date. I went in thru the stoker display, went to time and date settings. Entering the date, it was set for 1969. Hmmm. I changed to Feb 02, 2015. Everything works perfect and start-up is quick again.

I'm not sure how many stoker controllers are out there but hopefully this will help someone in the future??

I had the latest update and my controllers are the 2nd gen (1st wi-fi version)black with white writing.

WeberWho · August 2019

Good to see you back on the forum! Trip sounds awesome!

BeerMike · August 2019

I bet that motorcycle ride was fabulous! I’m glad your stoker is working now, and that’s a great tip. I’m curious why you set the date to Feb 02, 2015? Curious minds want to know. 😀

sancho65 · August 2019

Same here curious why Feb. 2, 2015??

bigguy136 · August 2019

It was a long math calculation. The date displayed in my Stoker was Jan 01, 1969. With that, I knew this spring (2019) is when my stoker stopped working. I didn't want to use the current date as a just in case so I backed it up a few years and just picked 2015. I also bumped the month and day up by 1 just to change all fields on the stoker.
I did a pork shoulder on Saturday and currently have a brisket on. This evening I will change the date to the correct date and I'm sure there won't be any issues.
Bike ride was every dirt road I could find in Canada and Alaska. 18,000 miles and 8 weeks. I remote camped anywhere and everywhere. Cooked most of my own meals and only had 1 night that a bear cut my tent trying to get in.
Here is my bike at the Arctic ocean in Tuktoyaktuk, North West Territory, Canada.

Eggdicted_Dawgfan · August 2019

Wow that’s a hell of a “ride”. Anymore pics from the trip to share?

bigguy136 · August 2019

Here is a link to adv rider forum. I have everyday listed (currently up to July 3) and will continue to get the remaining days done soon. Each day has a map, miles ridden, and several photos.
https://advrider.com/f/threads/north-south-canol-dempser-dalton-and-many-more.1394651/

bigguy136 · August 2019

My original plan and original post was a 5 week trip to the Arctic but I got home, changed tires, spark plugs ect and took off again bringing the trip to 8 weeks.

WeberWho · August 2019

bigguy136 said:

Here is a link to adv rider forum. I have everyday listed (currently up to July 3) and will continue to get the remaining days done soon. Each day has a map, miles ridden, and several photos.
https://advrider.com/f/threads/north-south-canol-dempser-dalton-and-many-more.1394651/

Thanks for the link. Crazy story about the bear. Someone was looking over you that night. I'm glad the horn scared the bear off.

How fun to meet up with your mom for lunch in Alaska!

What a fun and thrilling vacation. Sounds way more fun than sitting on a beach somewhere.

bigguy136 · August 2019

It was crazy good for the most part. Not sure if it will happen but I'm looking at a rough outline of going to Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan ect.
Not much time for grilling over the last few years....

lkapigian · August 2019

Very Cool

Toxarch · August 2019

There is a show on Netflix (or maybe Amazon) called Trebont Trek. A group gets 3 cheap Trebont cars and 1 Mercedes wagon and drive from Germany to China. Cool trip. Might give you some ideas for your trip. Looked like most of the trouble during the trip was waiting for visas to go to the next country. They do another where they tried to go from Germany to South Africa in cheap salvage cars.

Another show (forget the name) is a motorcycle group that went from Europe to China. It's a much shorter show. They had like 25 riders, many were very green, and had a mechanic following in a van. Felt bad for the mechanic because all he did was drive and fix broken bikes the whole time.

bigguy136 · August 2019

Thanks, I never heard of the shows and will look at them.
If you like those kind of shows, there is Long Way Round and long way down. Two actors and a camera man with two support trucks go around the world and across Africa. I think they are recording long way up now. I read they are going from southern tip of south America and going north. I read of different end locations but California sounds like the northern end location.
Long way round is close to what the ride would be doing it on your own. There are times that show they are putting up camp using a brand new hammer or when they got a flat, they had a new tire and rim to put on. They never show a support truck there but no way you can carry everything with on a motorcycle. The river crossings were very real.

bigguy136 · August 2019

Here was my high water mark (front fender). When crossing fast flowing rivers, it's challenging holding a bike up with a rock bottom. Not the smartest thing to do solo.

BeerMike · August 2019

bigguy136 said:

Here is a link to adv rider forum. I have everyday listed (currently up to July 3) and will continue to get the remaining days done soon. Each day has a map, miles ridden, and several photos.
https://advrider.com/f/threads/north-south-canol-dempser-dalton-and-many-more.1394651/

What an amazing adventure! I’m not sure how you could sleep on June 25th after the evening of June 24th. June 30th, “Best day ever.” I love it!!

Cheers to you!

bigguy136 · August 2019

Thanks!!
I would love to say that bear attacks happen, no big deal but I was and still am a bit shaken. I look for more open camp areas and higher elevations where not much food is growing for them.
I've been remote camping a lot for 3 years in that area without any other issues but it's still hard to ignore it.
I would like to carry a hand gun but Canada is very strict about guns. Riffles are a bit big on the bike and if a bear is coming in my tent, not sure I could get a shot off with a long rifle.

Toxarch · August 2019

A friend of a friend rides from Texas to Alaska and back every summer. He said when he gets to the Canadian border, he gets asked 10 times if he is carrying a gun and then they search his bike for a gun. It's because he has Texas plates and Canadians seem to think everyone from Texas is packing a gun.

bigguy136 · August 2019

A few Stoker updates. I did a 'Clear DB' on the stoker panel but must not have set the command. I then did another reset and updated the calendar and it worked so I assumed it was the calendar update. Over the last week, I got my mini-max back from my brother and wanted to get everything more permanent. After moving fans and probes around and my stokers going back to several minutes to start, I did more resets. I found the calendar doesn't change anything. You need to tab up 1 more in 'system info' to 'clear DB'. You will need to rename all your probes but my stoker is working like the day I bought it.
My stoker webpage. They did make a nice setup for controlling multiple pits. I leave my stoker on 24/7. I assign/ unassign fans as I need. My current with my mini-max running and some chicken on.

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