Yoder Durango Review - What a gem of a smoker!

[Wingman]

Hi all, I have been away mostly the last 4 days. I have been helping Foothills fire place and grills with an event at the Enumclaw WA fair grounds. Doing so, I had the opportunity to season and cook on the Yoder Durango. This is a 785 lbs. stick burner made of 1/4" x 20" steel pipe. It's a heavy pit for pushing around. But its a sweet pit for cooking on. I have the Yoder Wichita coming that is like the Durango but without the vertical section. I have to say, the vertical section is really cool as it has 3 removable shelves and a hanging bar in the top. You can hang hams, linked sausage etc. The pit heated up quickly and retained the heat with ease. It didn't take allot of fuel to operate. I went through 6 sticks in 7 hours and the temp was very consistent. I really liked this cooker.

We were not supposed to be cooking as we had no permit but we cooked out lunch and some folks somehow got into our food. The Kettle Corn venders brought their own bovine to put on the cooker. A local law enforcement officer had his share of rib eye steak and chicken slow cooked. I cooked over peach wood. I seasoned the steaks with Mad Hunky, garlic powder and brown sugar. Also Obie Cues, garlic powder and brown sugar. I was amazed how good those steaks turned out. Here' the video. Thanks for watching.


[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtm2voKVekA[/yt]

[gmotoman]

Nice review, good detail, and I like that you present it as a BBQ enthusiast not a salesman. Can I get Andrea's telephone number?

[Richtee]

That's a bad Bessy there... Not too big, but built like it was. Impressive unit, Yoder!

[Texas-Hunter]

Cool review of the Yoder.. Rob I have a few questions??

I see the thermo is down by the firebox.. And one at the top of the smoke chamber going into the vertical.. Yoder say why they did this?

Does it have a baffle and tuning plates?

Are the main chamber temps even across from firebox to vertical??

[Fishawn]

Great review Rob & you are the video master ....... Excellent job

[Wingman]

Cool review of the Yoder.. Rob I have a few questions??

I see the thermo is down by the firebox.. And one at the top of the smoke chamber going into the vertical.. Yoder say why they did this?

Does it have a baffle and tuning plates?

Are the main chamber temps even across from firebox to vertical??

Ken, it does have a heat management plate that is tuned with smaller holes near the fire box and they get larger the further away from the fire box. I did some quick tests watching for consistency as far as fluctuation with meat on the cooker. The top shelf was about 25 degrees hotter than the lowers shelf. I did however take note of the doneness of the steaks that came off. All seemed to cook evenly across the grate. I also like the cooking grate in the fire box. I put that in 20 minutes before the steaks were done and gave them a quick 30 - 45 second sear on each side. Those steaks were pretty impressive. Loved the peach wood flavor.

As for the thermometer locations... No and I never asked. I would personally preferred two center one at the lower grate and one at the upper grate level. It's not a big deal to me as I tend to lean toward digitals for bet accuracy.

I wasn't planning on doing much of a review if any until I cooked on it. I really liked it. So what I'm going to do is go back out one of these up coming weekends and burn it again and use my Maverick to give it a thorough heat test and maybe chart it. I will be doing the same with my new Yoder Wichita when it arrives, hopefully next week. They are putting a Guru CyberQ II on it so I will post some information on it too.

I'm not sure about the baffle as we were pressed for time and got started late and I had to leave at 2 PM. This whole show thing they put on was completely hosed up by the promoter so nothing went smooth except the cooking. :-) That I enjoyed.

[Squirrel]

Awesome video and review. Great looking smoker. I'd be willing to do a review topless if I could get me hands on one of them babies.

Can I have Richard Jr.'s phone number???

Great job as usual sir Rob. You da man.

[Wingman]

Cheryl, I'll get you his number if you want it. If he will give it out that is.

That young buck was turning some womens heads Sunday and didn't even realize it. He's a pretty cool guy too.