Pellet Fan
Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits => Traeger => Topic started by: ScottWood on January 22, 2018, 01:25:02 PM
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I seem to remember a post over on PH about someone who fit one of the GMG pizza ovens into their Traeger. By any chance was that someone who has made the move over? If not, has anyone done this?
I am very interested. :-)
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I know people have done it in their RecTec's. I bought one planning to use in my 680, but it did not fit as a "drop in" and needed more tweaking than I had time or energy to deal with at the time. So I sold it to a local GMG owner who loves it. :rotf:
On ym 680, the back wall of the lower section of it was covering 1/3 of the firepot, it would have taken cutting that sheetmetal a bit and folting it back so the firepot was fully inside the unit and it received full btu to reach temp. The RT dome light also restricted placement forcing it forward which did not help and may have been the biggest issue causing it to sit forward. I heard someone say they removed the light as they never use it, another mentioned notching the top of the pizza oven unit.
Lets face it, most of the pellet "drum style" grills out there are all similar shape/size, so it should fit a traeger. Probably a little better given no light to deal with. I have a feeling a texas it should for sure, not sure about the smaller units. Just be prepared that you may need to fab up some sort of bracket/base so that it sits on the ledge where the grates do and is supported and stable.
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Good to know. I am half tempted to pick one up and experiment. If worse came to worse I know a few people that have GMG grills and could unload it to one of them if it didn't work out. :-)
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ScottWood,
I use a ‘lightly modified’ GMG pizza insert in an old Traeger lil’ Tex with digital controller on high and it makes fantastic pizzas. We had 9 for dinner tonight and with my wife making and me baking, we served 12 pizzas at about one every 4-5 minutes.
I’ve found that with the lid closed, the tops cook faster than the bottoms. For me, the optimum for a crispy base seems to be lid closed between pizzas (1-2 minutes), then cook with lid open with a 1/4 rotation every 30 seconds for 2 to 3 minutes depending on the amount/type of toppings. We use the bread maker for the dough.
The GMG pizza insert, minus the top and stone, makes an excellent griddle for eggs, onions, searing roasts, etc... but I’m still trying to work out a method for maintaining predictable griddle temperature. With the lid open, the probe temp drops so the controller keeps sending pellets. Maybe if I divert some of the hot air or heat past the probe (Copper pipe?), it can regulate the griddle temperature with the lid open?
I can post some photos if you’re interested.
Cheers, David
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The GMG pizza insert, minus the top and stone, makes an excellent griddle for eggs, onions, searing roasts, etc... but I’m still trying to work out a method for maintaining predictable griddle temperature. With the lid open, the probe temp drops so the controller keeps sending pellets. Maybe if I divert some of the hot air or heat past the probe (Copper pipe?), it can regulate the griddle temperature with the lid open?
The Savannah Stoker, which is a replacement for the stock Traeger controller, has a manual mode where you can pick a certain percentage (in increments of 1%) of the cycle time to drop pellets. Getting a consistent amount of heat from the fire pot using the Savannah Stoker is really simple.
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ScottWood,
I use a ‘lightly modified’ GMG pizza insert in an old Traeger lil’ Tex with digital controller on high and it makes fantastic pizzas. We had 9 for dinner tonight and with my wife making and me baking, we served 12 pizzas at about one every 4-5 minutes.
I’ve found that with the lid closed, the tops cook faster than the bottoms. For me, the optimum for a crispy base seems to be lid closed between pizzas (1-2 minutes), then cook with lid open with a 1/4 rotation every 30 seconds for 2 to 3 minutes depending on the amount/type of toppings. We use the bread maker for the dough.
The GMG pizza insert, minus the top and stone, makes an excellent griddle for eggs, onions, searing roasts, etc... but I’m still trying to work out a method for maintaining predictable griddle temperature. With the lid open, the probe temp drops so the controller keeps sending pellets. Maybe if I divert some of the hot air or heat past the probe (Copper pipe?), it can regulate the griddle temperature with the lid open?
I can post some photos if you’re interested.
Cheers, David
Yes, I would very much like to see some pictures and a description of what you needed to modify.
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ScottWood,
I use a ‘lightly modified’ GMG pizza insert in an old Traeger lil’ Tex with digital controller on high and it makes fantastic pizzas. We had 9 for dinner tonight and with my wife making and me baking, we served 12 pizzas at about one every 4-5 minutes.
I’ve found that with the lid closed, the tops cook faster than the bottoms. For me, the optimum for a crispy base seems to be lid closed between pizzas (1-2 minutes), then cook with lid open with a 1/4 rotation every 30 seconds for 2 to 3 minutes depending on the amount/type of toppings. We use the bread maker for the dough.
The GMG pizza insert, minus the top and stone, makes an excellent griddle for eggs, onions, searing roasts, etc... but I’m still trying to work out a method for maintaining predictable griddle temperature. With the lid open, the probe temp drops so the controller keeps sending pellets. Maybe if I divert some of the hot air or heat past the probe (Copper pipe?), it can regulate the griddle temperature with the lid open?
I can post some photos if you’re interested.
Cheers, David
Yes, I would very much like to see some pictures and a description of what you needed to modify.
I would like to see what modifications are required to get this to fit in a Traeger Lil Tex too.
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I'll take some photos of the mods tonight but these are pics I already took. Sorry about google photo links but google only gives a link to the page, not the photo...
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YPLBvRuCi9qPLArj2 (https://photos.app.goo.gl/YPLBvRuCi9qPLArj2)
Anyway, the two main problems to solve are a stable base for the adapter to fit on and lowering the height so the pizza oven "lid" fits in the Traeger's barrel shape with enough room to close the lid. The GMG smokers must have cooking areas that are taller and shallower (front to back) than the Traeger.
I solved the stable base with two 30mm steel straps that go in front and behind the GMG attachment and these straps rest on both sides of the Traeger tray support. I bent them so the front strap is level with the original Traeger tray support and the back one is about 10mm below the original support.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cZtl2pO570qnBzGo1 (https://photos.app.goo.gl/cZtl2pO570qnBzGo1)
The reason it is lower in the back is not only to lower the height so the pizza oven "lid" fits, but also to make sure any liquids don't drain out the front and down (into the ash) when I use it as a griddle (no lid).
Tonight I'll take some photos of the two mods I made to the pizza attachment itself. The first was to the bottom of the attachment to accomodate the air shaft of the Traeger (the GMG's fan is underneath the firebox so there is only an auger tube instead of Traeger's square air shaft). The second was putting an outward bend along the back of the pizza oven "lid" so it could slide past the griddle edge. Without it, the tolerance was too small to remove or replace the lid without moving the griddle.
Cheers, David
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Part 2:
So this first photo show how close the GMG attachment is touching the back of the Traeger. In the front, the Traeger lid "just" touches the GMG Pizza lid handle. I wanted the pizza stone to be as high as possible so the lid just touching front and back were fine with me.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bygHXlVGOqit3NLC3 (https://photos.app.goo.gl/bygHXlVGOqit3NLC3)
First Mod - Bend in the back of lid.
There is a lip on the sides and back of the griddle that the pizza lid has to slide over so I had to put a bend in the back of the lid so it could slide over the back lip with the griddle in place. I wouldn't want to do this when it was hot, but it's easy enough to reach in and flex the back to just fit it over the lip.
The lid in place:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tT6wZz8SfRpLJuDA3 (https://photos.app.goo.gl/tT6wZz8SfRpLJuDA3)
The bend I put in the back of the lid:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XABeNP5oHFl6FPpC3 (https://photos.app.goo.gl/XABeNP5oHFl6FPpC3)
Second Mod - Cuts and bends at the bottom to fit on the Traeger firebox.
I made 3 cuts and 2 bends at the very bottom of the attachment. Unmodified, it hits the air vent (that goes from the fan under the hopper to the firebox), and it sits to far forward to close the Traeger lid.
Looking at the attachment right side up and with the front opening facing you (no lip), I made three 20mm hacksaw cuts down (up?) the corners of the bottom, two in the left and right front corners, and one in the left rear corner, making a front flap and a left flap. You then need to bend the left flap up to parallel with the griddle so it can sit flat on the air vent. Then fold the front flap down to vertical so the attachment can sit closer to the rear (and be centered from front to back).
A corner cut:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yTGzGHCTGYXmmXqT2 (https://photos.app.goo.gl/yTGzGHCTGYXmmXqT2)
The bent flaps:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/DSJApMKNQElmlRP73 (https://photos.app.goo.gl/DSJApMKNQElmlRP73)
Finally, another photo of the bent 30mm straps that hold the weight of the attachment and keep it steady.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/TINccz5vPSCleP3y1 (https://photos.app.goo.gl/TINccz5vPSCleP3y1)
Any questions...fire away...
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Thank you so much for the pictures and the write up, they are great. I am now about 99% sure I am going to give this a go. I might be the worlds worst carpenter but I do have some metal working skills. :-)