Love the mods, even when they don't always work. I'm a little bit McGuyver/redneck and I'm always trying something!
I too, was concerned about the 9 flights of stairs
Not a fan of mesquite smoke either. We have mesquite trees and I don't even save the limbs for the firepit.
SurfAndTurf
P.S. Tri tip Tuesday
At least I gave the downdraft mod a good try and didn't spend ~ $100 on the retail version. I'm going to attempt the trough mod to prevent drips down the front coming off of the overlapping lid. I don't have any fabricating machines, but think I can work with an aluminum strip and make it work. The gasket is great for smoke leaks, but gets saturated and then the fan pressure blows the saturated grease beyond it. I'm tired of having to clean the outer chamber frequently.
I wished I had mesquite wood around here. I can understand why some are not in favor of it over some other woods. It is somewhat of a strong flavor. Lucky for me, my wife seems to like mesquite as she commented well again on the leftovers we had last night. I picked up two whole packers so I still have one to cook later on and may try some different smoke with it for variety. I couldn't pass up brisket at $2.99lb and then $1.99lb on the second one. Probably will never see that price again. Gotta love tariff war prices at least in the short term.
I'm not sure I understand the stairs thing. Sometimes I wished I didn't have them, but it is what it is. One set has nine steps and the other set has eight steps due to a sloping yard.
I bought a tri-tip to try, but I don't think it was a true tri-tip. It didn't look like what others have posted pics of. It was in three strips in the package. I didn't care for it.