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This is a propane gas preheater I made from an old turkey fryer that hadn't been used in years.

The only major thing I had to do beyond removing the burner from the fryer stand was insert a piece of pipe between the burner and the hose. This is to keep the hose outside the firebox during use to prevent it from overheating and melting. The second thing was to make a base for the burner to prevent it from tipping over. The base is a piece of 3/8" x 1-1/2" flat steel bar 8" long with a 1/4-20 threaded hole in the center. The old bolt in the burner head that held the burner head to the venturi body was replaced with a slightly longer one. The burner was reassembled and the base was screwed on. Voila! Total cost (not counting the original fryer) was under $5.00.

The preheater works great! Just sit it on the fire grate with the firebox door closed against the extension pipe and fire it up! It can very easily heat the smoker to 300 degrees, and that's with the burner only at about half flame. This should save a lot of time and money. Propane is cheaper than lump charcoal! Another potential use is as a very controllable heat source for cold smoking sausage.

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