Been at this for a long time but could never justify a Ranch Kettle. My wife said "It's your hobby, why don't you just go for it" What a woman.
Ordered it yesterday and should have delivery by next Thursday. Have been using the WSM for ribs all along but tomorrow I plan on a test run
on the One Touch Gold. By the following Saturday - Watch Out, the Big Boy will be in action.
Thanks to all on here for their ideas and help, it has made life even better that it was.

Thats great. My friend just picked up a hardly used one for $400, im going over to see it this weekend...heard its quite the beast

Congrats George!

I just picked up a used Ranch through CL, and I'm not sure what the heck to do with it!
The previous owner said he could do a whole case of ribs on it, all at one time.

Wonder if anyone here has cooked a whole small headless hog on one.

Whole hog - Check.

Congratulations on the Ranch. Ranches are fun, because everyone's eyes pop when they see it - "that is the biggest grill I have ever seen."

I used my 26.75 recently at a church event, and no one commented about the size of the grill. But when I use the RK, nearly everyone comments about how big it is.

Yes, you can do a whole case (20+ slabs) of ribs. 3-5 packer briskets. I use a Hovergrill for more capacity.

Great looking hog Doug!

Do you recall the weight?
Just so I have an idea of the size to order, in case I decide to do one.
Thanks!

I've done a couple of hogs, get 'em in the 50-60 lb range.

They only take about 5-6 hours, because as hogs, they are pretty small/young. For instance, the rib bones not much bigger than pencils on a hog this size...

But, it sure is fun to be able to say (Barney Fife voice) "Yeeaahh, I do whole hogs...!"

Well,I did a test run on a rack of spares last weekend just to try doing them on a kettle. If I do say so, they were as good or better that the ones that come off the WSM. This gives me great hope for the Ranch Kettle.
Yesterday (Thursday) the truck pulled up in front of the house and there it was. Wheeled it up the driveway to the garage and unpacked it. The box arrived in perfect condition, thank you Yellow Freight. Weber has done a super job with the packing. With the help of my wife,we assembled this monster, now named "Big Boy".
One of the local markets has spares on sale so I picked up several racks and will give it a go Saturday. Plan on doing the ribs and maybe throw on a chicken and some corn a little later in the cook.
To be continued:

Sweet post some pics of that cook...would love to see. With as much as you spent, Weber should throw in a cheap camera for Food Pron purposes

George,
Glad to hear the "Mothership" landed safely!
They are a bit UFO'ish looking aren't they?

Looking forward to your cook results, and pics.

Well Gary was right, I guess I'll have to change the name from "Big Boy" to "The Beast". I know I told everyone The first cook was going to be last weekend,but I got some kind of bug for a day or two. Got back on the project Tuesday. Did three racks of spares, two chicken halves and some corn.
The ribs may look a little dry because I didn"t use any sauce on them just some "Texas BBQ Rub". They sure turned ont good and juicy as did the chicken.
The corn I just used olive oil and sea salt.
That amount of food sure did look lost on that big old thing.
I'm hopeful that I have attached a picture or two to this post. Not real good with the computer and have never tried pictures.

[URL= ]First cook on Ranch[/URL]

Goerge,

I'm jelous !!

What liquid was in the foil pan ?

That was just a pan of water to try and regulate the temperature in the kettle. It worked great. I put an oven thermometer on the grate to see where I was at. It ran right at 270/280 the whole cook which lasted 5 hours including roasting the corn at the end. Left the top vent open along with one of the bottom ones.
I started with one weber starter can full of unlit briquets and about 1/2 can of lit. Put a few chunks of hickory in with the unlit. These were all on one side of the bowl. Made a drip pan out of some Heavy Duty tin foil. Never had to add any more briquets, but the 5 hours was all I was going to get out of them.
People have said the Rancher really does not use that much charcoal and I see they are right.
Forgot to give credit for the beans "Barbie's Down South Smoked BBQ Beans". Made them a few weeks ago on the WSM and had some left over in the freezer. Very good.

I love mine! But,I added a 10" collar to do 16 8-10 lb Boston Butts.

A 10' collar ? You must need a stepladder to get the lid on that thing.
Did you have it made locally?

Lookin' good, George.

Bill has a 10 inch (not feet) collar, and has added 1 or 2 cooking grates within that to get some more cooking capacity.

It is so true about how they don't use much more charcoal. Somewhere on the board I have read someone's comment about selling a Klose pit to get a RK for this reason.

I am really amazed myself with how easy it is to handle the lid as big as it is. It just slides right into the Tuck-A-Way lidholder, and stays where you set it.

The grates are a different story though, man those are heavy!

I think if more people saw how effecient and easy to use more people would purchase. The Collar was made by a buddy of mine out of stainless. I would have one made to be able to hold more meat and drip pans under grate. There were pic's of this avail.

Sorry about the typo on the collar size.

Doug, you are right about the weight on the grates, the cook grate is a bear to move around for cleaning.