+1 on water-tight, air-tight(?), plastic buckets with "O" ring and screw-on lid. Easy to label and much easier loading the hopper than lifting a 40-pound bag.
Two Wagyu Brisket - approx. 20 pound each. Trimmed them at 0130 hours 09May2021, added Boar's Night Out White Lightening followed by a liberal amount of Hefer Dust. Placed in refer until 0545 hours, lit RT-2500 BFG at 0600 @ 225 degrees. Both briskets went into BFG at 0630 hours along with smoke...
Try Youtube. I had to replace the fan on my RT-680 a few years back and a part of that job was removing the auger and found several Youtube vids that walked you through the process. As you can imagine there isn't a lot of room to work but it wasn't a horrible job.
I have a fairly new BFG and ordered the cover and grill grates with the grill. I believe the cover from RecTec is a good purchase. I was very happy to see they made the cover a bit over-size and without doing the custom (and snug) fitted section for the RT-680 smoke stack. It was always a chore...
Looks Good and you are doing an awesome job for being so new to smoking. Patience, and definitely 225 start to finish and don't be a "Lookie-Lou", use a good probe with remote and trust the Rec Tec to do all the heavy lifting.
Congratulations on your new BFG. Sorry to hear of shipping damage.
I have zero regrets adding the BFG to my equipment. Prior to purchase, I did hear the question: "Why do we need another grill?" I heard that as a silly question so replied: "Because I didn't have the BFG and I wanted one."...