getting ready for alot of smoke action this coming weekend so went out and bought a steven raichlen signature series rib rack so I can cram alot of ribs in my 18" wsm. This thing is heavy duty(almost overkill) so i placed it on the lower rack to see if it would fit, it does but with little room between it and the upper rack. Will non st.louis cut spares fit in a vertical position on the lower grate? This rack looks as though the ribs will be almost straight up and down.....

It depends on the size of the spares. Probably not. The ribs nearest the center might fit but I doubt if the ones in the slots on the outside edge of the rack will fit. But it will depend on your ribs.

You could cut the ones that don't fit in two but then you may lose capacity.

hmm, yeah im kinda thinking im going to have to cut em st louis style to get em to fit on the bottom.

What is the space between the lower and top rack on the 18"WSM? 7 inches?
full racks of spares won't stand a chance on the lower rack.

.... and that's why we cook them in our new 22 inch WSM.

well i got a couple more rib racks that are angled and i think they will work out better then the first one i bought on the lower grate

I have done 5 racks of BBR without a problem on my 18" WSM. . . could have easily fit another rack... but smokin' multiple spares is another story... I do not cut my spares to the St. Louie size, I keep them whole. Using this rib rack I made http://good-times.webshots.com...89960105566169sZLouS I have fit two whole spares on this using the top rack of the smoker and one rack of spares on the bottom rack over the water bucket.