My name is Tom and I decided on a Traeger 075 and am thinking about a couple of mods

T

Tom710

New member
Hi everyone. Long time smoker, first time pellet smoker here. I've decided to go with the Traeger 075 Lil' Tex for my first pellet smoker (mostly for the cost). I was wondering about a couple of mods and what you guys thought. The first one I was looking at doing once I got my smoker was to put a rheostat in for the auger. This would allow a finer control of the auger speed and smoker temp. I'm pretty sure this is all the digital unit does, other than the readout of course. I have a maverick wireless thermometer so reading the temp is no problem.

The other mod I was thinking about, and this is kind of a wacky thought, was possibly placing some kind of insulation around the smoker. Like a water heater jacket for example. Has anyone tried this? Do you guys think it would help, or would the gasket mod be fine?

Thanks in advance and I'm looking forward to all the information I'll get :)
 
C

cowgirl

New member
Welcome to the forum Tom! I can't help you with the Traeger mods but I'm sure someone will be along soon. Lots of great people and good advice here. :)
 
squirtthecat

squirtthecat

New member
Welcome Tom!
In the Winter, I cover mine with a thick welding blanket. It does help keep the heat in and reduce the pellet usage a bit.

The digital unit uses a timer to control turning the auger on/off. It doesn't change the auger speed.

Make sure you get a controller that will actually control the auger motor speed, not just a dimmer switch. Otherwise just reducing power to the motor will probably burn it out. There is a name for these and it escapes me at the moment..
 
squirtthecat

squirtthecat

New member
Grainger carries 'A/C motor speed controls'. That's what you are after. I've heard of people using them to control the fan speed on the Traeger as well.
 
CarterQ

CarterQ

Moderator
Welcome aboard Tom, as you can see a lot of folks eager to help around here! Great group here and glad to have you.
 
scooter

scooter

Moderator
Welcome to PelletSmoking.

Someone from SoCal shouldn't need to put a blanket on their cooker unless you plan to take it on the road with you to comps back east. I'm up here in colder NorCal and have never needed a blanket on mine even in the dead of winter.
 
scooter

scooter

Moderator
Ahh, you must be one of them types that loves to tinker around with their toys...like me ;)
I started out with an 075. It'll run just fine in the warm sunny Southern CA weather.
 
H

HoDeDo

New member
The Rheostat on the Country smokers... just adjusts the length of time the pellets feed, and the distance between times when it feeds. That is the standard controller on them. Going to the digital adds a thermostat. That is the same thing the Traeger does. It uses the probe to tell the pellets to feed or not based on temp instead of time.

If you are thinking of going to the trouble of adding a rheostat to the Traeger, you might just snag a country smoker instead... or go all the way and install an oven thermostat on it, like the original temp controlled traegers had. We did that with our old smokehouse, and my first whole hog.... It is analog - works just like the knob on your oven... and the speed it feeds when it turns on is what speed you have it set for on the rheostat.
 
T

Tom710

New member
How would you add the oven thermostat? I haven't been able to fully examine a Traeger yet as far as how it's put together and such.
 
G

geerock

New member
Welcome Tom,
I'm about as new as it gets here, but the first thing I did when I got my Texas Elite was to use the rope gasket and it caused the high temp to shoot about 15 to 20 degrees over the setting. I had to adjust the pot on the back of the controller to shorten the auger time "on". Got it to where it went to 5 or 10 over and then 5 to 10 under before re-firing. I figure thats about as close as I'm gonna get. All I know is cooks are going great! All the best.
 
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