Yeah Dave, I've tried a few different methods in my low n slow journey, starting with brick pavers that i tried to put end on end to make a straight wall between the fire and the food. I had to make a bit of a zig zap with the pavers because they were a bit too long for about 3rd of the way across the Kettle but that's ok, it did the job it was supposed to do and the pavers didn't throw out much radiant heat so that was ok but I did read that Pavers can sometimes explode, I couldn't see how as it was a low n slow fire that wouldn't get that hot but just for a matter of safety, wrapped the pavers with foil incase they do start falling apart, but it never happened.
The 2nd experiment was placing the 2 Weber Baskets in a V formation, both full of briquettes with the 2 baskets touching each other in the middle of the V formation so that the lit briquettes can run a fuse to the other basket by overlapping the briquettes on both baskets....hope you follow me so far
It worked but lost some even momentum between the 2 baskets. THe good thing about using a charcoal basket is that when your doing hot n fast cooks, i'm not dumping super hot coals against the inside of the kettle and I believe that it is why I was getting paint pitting on the outside of a coloured kettle where bit of the coloured enamel flakes off where you can see the black paint underneath.
Then i discovered a Slow n sear from the USA, I wanted one for a long time but it wasn't till a trip to Sydney last year that i bought one from BBQ SpitRotisseries. They used to be here on this forum years ago but as far as I'm aware, they are still going.
https://bbqspitrotisseries.com.au/colle ... al-baskets
Yep...still where i found them.....got some good specials on for fathers day now too. They also have a Melbourne store.
Anyway, I got a Slow and Sear and it hasn't disappointed me at all, can handle a raging hot fire to a long low n slow fire and keeping those coals off the side of the kettle.
They are $169 and imho worth every cent, the pictures on the Website never does then justice.
Cheers
Davo