Portable Charcoal Grills
- Thread starter ricoisme26
- Start date
I'm so juvenile, I know. Every time I see a big pot of beans over a fire, I think of the fellas farting around the campfire in "Blazing Saddles".
"How bout some more beans, Mr. Taggart?"
WeLikeCamping
Explorer
As usual, I'm late to the party. Two comments - 1 - those throwaway easy light grills you buy at the grocery? Don't. They aren't worth the effort. 2. Check out the Volcano - https://volcanogrills.com/product/volcano-3-collapsible-grill-stove/
I have the Volcano 3 and it works great as a grill, or as a portable firepit, and is legal to use under some Fire restrictions. (always check first!). It has a propane burner, but can easily use charcoal. It's best for no more than two or three people, and it's kinda lame for a firepit, but some fire is better than no fire.
(okay, three things)
Whenever I have a fire in the ground, it always gets drowned before I leave. I'm talking swimming-hole drowning. If I've built a firepit, I dismantle it and bury the COLD coals. Rake stuff around and you can barely tell a firepit was there.
Edit - in the desert, one should ALWAYS have plenty of water.
I have the Volcano 3 and it works great as a grill, or as a portable firepit, and is legal to use under some Fire restrictions. (always check first!). It has a propane burner, but can easily use charcoal. It's best for no more than two or three people, and it's kinda lame for a firepit, but some fire is better than no fire.
(okay, three things)
Whenever I have a fire in the ground, it always gets drowned before I leave. I'm talking swimming-hole drowning. If I've built a firepit, I dismantle it and bury the COLD coals. Rake stuff around and you can barely tell a firepit was there.
Edit - in the desert, one should ALWAYS have plenty of water.
DortchRules
New member
That is what the Hibachi was designed to cook. Don't try it with a 3″ Porterhouse or such. A 1″ steak will be great. Get a full bed of charcoal burned down to glowing red embers and you will have a great steak.
ricoisme26
Active member
But what do you do with the hot charcoal when you are ready to pack up? that was my initial question, I wasn't as worried about the grill itself, think steel cools of quick enough that it'll be cool enough to put in the bed of my truck before i'm done eating. its the charcoal that would still be burning I was concerned with. anyone consider something double walled to contain the hot charcoals? I had read on a BBQ site/forum/cookbook/interwebs that if you snuff out the charcoal when you're down cooking it can be used again, eliminate need to carry loads of charcoal, once you did it a few time could begin to estimate the "right" amount to take.
ricoisme26
Active member
seriously envious of the packing efficiency here. Makes me want to step my game up big timeThe UCO grill arrived.I like it, just what we need. Here are some info mercial pics.
Right from amazon:
The BBQ bag it needs to fit in:
The old grill (which needed rocks stacked to make use of):
Old next to new:
Out and assembled, even comes with a hot grill lifter:
The bag it fits in is OK,I have better canvas bags:
All zipped up, a little room left buy not much. I widdled this down from a Pelican 1550 that was full. All total I shaved 30lbs off my rear rack the last go around.
And it fits, even with the bag. The folks at ATC are either lucky or put a lot of thought into their product:
The cutting board still fits, I was able to fit my extra baking paper and aluminum foil in there too.
Here is where the BBQ kit rides now:
Even has picnic blanket in there:
Blanket removed to show off grill kit:
;
Captramrod01
New member
If you fully load that Weber mini chimney starter its about enough charcoal to put a single layer down on the grill. That gives about 20 minutes to do your grilling and another 20-30 to completely burn out. Trying to snuff out the charcoal is going to take much longer for everything to cool down.
If you don't have an 1hr+ for lunch, you probably shouldn't be using the charcoal grill.
I decided to follow Expedition Portal's advice and bought the
KAMOTO OPENFIRE PIT .
Burning Rings of Fire - Expedition Portal
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Summer 2018. One of my earliest camping memories is of my dad instructing me to police the grounds as we packed up, collecting any trash left by us or anyone that came before. “We need to leave it better than we found it,”...
expeditionportal.com
I've eaten some pretty darn good steaks cooked over the charcoal chimney starter. Yep, not much cooking area. But, they obviously draw in air pretty well, and get the charcoal glowing pretty fast. And easy to dump. Just come up with a little grate to sit on top.
