My offset smoker door hinge snapped mid-cook last weekend

I was about 6 hours into a brisket for my sister's graduation party when the top hinge on my Oklahoma Joe just gave out. The door sagged and I lost a ton of heat and smoke before I could prop it shut with a brick. Has anyone else had a hinge fail like that and found a good replacement fix?

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3 Comments

mia_singh243mo ago

That "high temp locknuts" tip is clutch, I didn't even think about vibration loosening things. Did you have to mess with the door alignment at all after drilling the new holes, or did it line up pretty close right away?

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jake1913mo ago

Drilling new holes just adds more spots for rust to start down the road. The factory bolts are fine if you put a proper lock washer on them, saved me the trouble of modifying anything. Plus you can always just check the bolts every spring when you fire it up, takes 30 seconds with a wrench.

4

lee7333mo ago

Yeah that exact same thing happened to me last summer with my Oklahoma Joe. The top hinge just let go right when I had a pork shoulder going for a family thing. I grabbed a heavy cinder block to hold the door shut but it still sucked losing all that heat. I ended up buying a heavy duty hinge kit from a place called BBQ Guru, it's way thicker metal than the factory one. You'll need to drill new holes because the bolt pattern is different, but it took me maybe 30 minutes with a cordless drill. Make sure you get some high temp locknuts too, the vibration from the fire will loosen regular ones over time. Been running that replacement for about eight months now and no issues at all.

2