Temp & smoke management help

[snowfella]

Alrighty, brand new at this game having just added the sidefire/tabletop grill bit to my CharGriller less than a week ago. With family coming over for a dinner the day after my purchase it was a somewhat nervous pit-noob that fired the thing up last Saturday for some ribs and chicken bits. Took me lots longer to get the heat up in the barrel than what I'm used to, used just the barrel as an offset cooker a few times in the past with no real issues. All in all though there was no real complaints from the family but more questions from my side.

First of all, how the devil do you keep the temp up in the cooking chamber? With everything closed up and up to temp it was pretty stable but as soon as I opened the barrel to mop or baste the ribs I lost 100F in the chamber in mere seconds and took ages to get back up into temp. Had to keep on adding coal to the firebox that it got hot enough to burn some of the enamel of but still only barely got up to 225F in the cooking chamber. Firebox skin was maxing out my 500C IR tempgun.

Secondly, smoke. Got no real good source of smoking wood other than the Weber hickory chunks I found at Masters. Sure they add smoke but whenever I added a chunk or 2 I got an almost apocalyptical outpouring of thick white smoke for a few minutes, having me wonder how long it would be before the neighbours called the firebrigade on me.
Got to be something I'm missing here!

My little corner of the yard with the new addition flanking the other low budget implements.

[Smokey]

Sounds like your fire was all dressed up but nowhere to go?
Where was the chimney damper set at?
Sounds like it was not drawing efficiently as the white clouds of smoke from a few hickory chunks seem to give away.
The basics of any smoker is little air into the fire and more air out the top = draw. Once you have a rising temp then start to tap down the top vent to equal your target. When you open to mop, Open the top to increase draw then tap it back down again as it settles.
Easier said than done

[12x7]

I see you have turned your gasser into a plant holder.

[snowfella]

There's likely my issue then as I had the bottom vent wide open and the top around half way closed. Figured it would create more draw through the setup than the other way around. Tested it a few times using a lighter at the bottom vent and seemed like I had a decent amount of air going in.
Next time around I'll try the other way around!

And yeah, the gasser only sees use once in a blue moon so it's been turned into a plant bench. Had to adopt the mother inlaws zygo's when she went into a nursing home earlier on in the year and just don't have the space for them anywhere else.

[KBBQ]

If you are in Melbourne we really only get red gum firewood use that, same smoke as hickory chunks at fraction of the cost, get a good bed of charcoal down and then add small bits of wood so they burn quick you do not want the wood to smoulder, it will need you attention to keep it humming but that should get you smoke issues sorted, try putting your wood near the fire to super heat it so it catches quicker when you add it even rest it on top off the firbox

[snowfella]

"Unfortunately" I'm a Sydneysider with all that brings
Next cook I'll try the suggestions here and also thinking about adding some thermal mass to the cooking chamber. Got an old stack of lava rocks that I'm thinking of placing on the in-barrel charcoal grate, theory in my head would be that they would heat up and store some heat for when I open the lid.

[Smokey]

I like your thinking Snowfella, If it works, Then great
Just watch what the smoke does and where it goes. If its backing up due to placing hot rocks in there then be prepared to change tactics.

Kev (Comander Cody) done taught me about the the "Fire" in his 84" Lang offset. A big mother F,,,, BBQ
Its all in the fire box and flow from it. They are hands on and stoking is par for the course.
Then air flow. If its backing out the lids the rocket aint tuned.

[snowfella]

Think I'm starting to get to the bottom, or atleast to some form of an idea, of the temp issue.
Been running the smoker stupidly using the temp dial it shipped with and only last week caved in and got a digital probe for a lamb roast. Slow cooked deboned lamb roast that came up to internal temp lots faster than what I was expecting going by the temp dial had me curious and left the probe in after the cook was finished.
Built in dial was only pushing ~80C as the smoker was cooling down but the probe indicated near double that temperature! Doh!