My grilling experience started with a Happy Cooker. It was a charcoal grill very much like a Weber, and was sold by Montgomery Wards. It had a higher dome lid then the Weber which made it perfect for Turkeys. I used to turn about perfect golden brown turkeys, chickens, etc. Loved it. After 20 years is had to be put to rest.

I moved up to a Gas Grill and I love it but it was not very good for high grease items such as turkeys and chickens.
So I purchased this Brinkman Deluxe smoker.

With the kettle I previously had I would use indirect heating, and place a drip pan under the turkey. Once the grill was hot, close the vents about 3/4 of the way, put the turkey inside and just wait about 3.5 hours. I did not need to turn it, or check on it, and it would turn out perfect every time.

Well to date everything I have tried to cook on this smoker has turned out bad! I probably just have not figured out the process yet but here are my findings.

I found it very hard to control the temperature. The manual states a certain range that the temperature is supposed to be maintained at. I could not even get the thing up to that temperature, even with a pan full of charcoal and a few Mesquite chunks on top, (maybe a faulty temperature gauge)??

After about 30 minutes the turkey was blackened on the outside. I continued to smoke it (figured I could scrape off the outside when it was done). After over 8 hours that turkey still was not done on the inside 1/2 inch from the bone. Had to cut it up and cook it some more in the microwave to finish it. The turkey also tasted like liquid smoke. I like a smoke flavor but BOY was that strong.

Next tried some ribs both beef and pork. They turned out much better, moist and browned just right but again tasted way to strong of smoke.

This grill has now set in my shed ever since.
Went out and bought a Uniflame F2204A kettle grill.
Going to try that out tomorrow.