+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."...
Certainly a personal choice but I would suggest going with the shelf and pellet offer. You can add the cold smoke box later when more funds are available. The extra shelf can be put to use now and often in the future. It really adds a lot of square inches of cooking space.
Thanks for the warm welcome. Here is the newest addition and BFG Beast is a well deserved moniker. I will try and get some pics of its (smaller) buddies loaded up soon.