Murph27

Glad I could help. Fwiw, I also thought about getting the pro for that reason and do not regret my decision to stick with the FB2 Drive.

I might be too late if Cheesehead has already made a decision, but I have a relevant setup and thought I'd give my $0.02. I went with the Fireboard 2 drive (up to 6 thermistor and/or RTD probes; no type-k thermocouples) and the pit viper fan (slightly cheaper version of the pit bull). I am very satisfied with this setup and wouldn't recommend upgrading to the pro or the pit bull unless you expect most of your cooking to be at 450ºF or hotter. While the pit bull is only $20-30 more expensive than the pit viper, I have never found the pit viper to be insufficient. Remember, these grills are extremely efficient--they don't require the same kind of airflow you would need in a kettle (or even other kamado-style cookers, for that matter). 10 CFM has always been plenty for my needs (I believe the pit bull does up to 25 CFM). If you expect most of your cooks to be high-temp cooks, I suppose the extra oomph from the pit bull could be worth the peace of mind. That said, as others mentioned above with the pit bull, I close the damper on my pit viper to avoid too much unintended airflow. I typically close it down to ~40%. I also prefer the plastic housing on the viper to the metal housing on the pit bull--I can pull my fan off right after the cook without burning my hand. To be fair, I don't know if this is an issue for the pit bull or not. With respect to the probe types, I will admit that I rarely use more than three probes anyway--the three-port pro isn't likely to hamper you too much there. Even if you have, say, five butts smoking at once, you don't need to probe all five constantly--maybe one per grate level. The only time I will use more than three probes is when I want to keep ambient temperatures for multiple parts of the grill. For example, I might do a brisket with a point probe, a flat probe, one ambient on the main grate's right side (over the fire using grate splitter), and one ambient probe on the main grate's left side. Honestly, this arguably gives me too much data and I end up spending more effort than necessary trying to perfect my cook. Having said all of this, I have never been in a situation where I wanted to monitor a temp beyond the max temp for the probe ratings. If you're cooking at those temperatures (over 700ºF for the RTD probes), you might want to consider a different type of grill. Also, the hottest temp I cook at is for making pizza, and you don't really need more than the dome probe for that. As such, I wouldn't spend the extra $50 to get the pro, even if you never expect to use more than three probes.

Great video--thanks for sharing! Is it safe to assume that you'll be making a video on homemade bacon next??? I've been thinking about trying to cure and smoke pork belly with the KK. I have a few questions about the jerky: First, what did you use to make it before the KK arrived? Do you plan to use the KK going forward, do you prefer your previous method, or will you mix it up from time to time? Also, how much temperature fluctuation did you see over the course of this "cook"? The lowest temp I've tried to maintain is 225º F, which the KK does with no problem, but I assume there is a lower limit to what these cookers can reliably do. On that last point, has anyone used Dennis's hot/cold smoker without a charcoal fire below it? If so, what dome temps do you usually see, and does it vary depending on what size/type of wood you've got in the smoker tube?

My experience is spot-on with your description of Cowboy & Royal Oak. I've had some pretty good low & slow cooks using Cowboy...there is a fair bit of uncertainty as to what wood (& therefore what smoke flavor) you're going to get out of it, but if you want a cheap option that adds a bit of flavor without adding any hardwood into the mix, Cowboy can work out just fine. JD is on the other end of the spectrum--it tends to burn very clean, with less flavor imparted from the charcoal itslef, the chunks are fairly consistent, it burns consistently, and it produces less ash than most charcoals I've used. It isn't going to be as neutral-flavored as a coconut/extruded charcoal, and it will produce more ash than those, but it also (in my experience) burns much hotter. That said, I feel that it's a bit too expensive for high-temp pizza cooks and the like...and I wonder how much of the price goes into marketing and the appearance of quality. For example, they use a ziplock-style zipper at the top of the bag to re-seal it, and I've found that this is prone to fail well before you get to the bottom of the bag. A great option for 300-400 degree cooks, in my book.

Bring two 5g weights, to ensure the scale is calibrated.

I imagine the exact dimensions are subject to change over time, and perhaps subject to some % deviation. With that caveat, the KK Grills Homepage FAQ section lists a crate size of 46" x 46" x 59" (117 x 117 x 150 centimeters) for the 32" BB. I would be very interested to know what your actual crate size is, as I expect to face the same Plan A / Plan B scenario later this year.