Mike, I have many weber's including the Ranch. I like the size, although I added a 10" collar for it. What I don't like is the inferior thickness of the lid. The lid wants to twist because of its thickness and the finish has never been right since day one. Any thoughts? I expressed my concerns w/weber but I am still waiting for replacements. Thanks.

i am not sure what the 10" collar is. can you elaborate?

i am sure weber will come through. how long have you been waiting on the answer? you've shelled out a lot of money for that and it should be right.

Mike

Forget the Collar, The thickness of the lid is...Cheap, especially compared to the WSM. When addressing this with them it is always an issue. The new one sent out awhile ago was worse than the one that was replacing it with. I love Weber products, I am dissappointed with this one from a going the cheap route on the lid perspective.

The question about the lid thickness raises an interesting (to me anyway) question: Those of you who have vintage Weber products - old kettles, early production WSM's and the like - can you tell any difference in the materials between the older products and the newer Weber products that you own?

I just wonder if, over the year, Weber - like other manufacturers - has recognized that products can still be reasonably well-built without being over-built and made subtle changes to make the manufacturing process more efficient and affordable?

Anybody have an opinion?

Pat

I do...at least from my experience and knowledge of stamping.

As we've seen on TV, those large presses have been stamping out webers for a long time. i think to change the material thickness would require big tooling costs.

For those science types, i suppose you can use a micrometer to measure the thicknesses of various products. Be advised that the stamping process essentially smears the metal around a shape. it's not always consisently uniform in thickness just due to the nature of the process.

Mike

I'm guessing that if they had used the thicker gauge steel on the cover it would be real heavy.

Al