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I'm new here.  I've been cooking for a few years now on a cabinet type smoker.  A buddy and I decided to make something a little bigger.  We have a 500 gal. propane tank (Got the doors cut out and hinged already) and a trailer to put it on.  We are kind of stuck on the firebox design though.  We are planning on a square/rectangle box on the end of the tank.  We read something that said it needed to be about 1/3 the size of the cooking chamber but I could not find the reason why.  Does anyone have other opinions?  That seems big to me because I don't think it will take that much of a fire to bring the tank to 250 degrees or so. Tell me if I'm wrong.  Also, we found an old steel wood stove that is 3/16″.  Is that too thin to keep consistent temperatures  in the firebox or do we need to go with 1/4″?  We will be using it in the midwest and probably some in the winter.  Any help or ideas would be appreciated.  I will try to get some pics on here when we make some more progress.  Thanks.

Another question is what type/brand of thermometer do you guys recommend to be mounted on the tank?  Thanks again.

jb

Thanks for the reply.  Still working on it.  Ended up going a little bigger than you suggested.  I will try to post some pics when it gets close.