Super-sized barbecue trailers the ultimate toy for Texas pitmasters
There’s an old saying that the only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys, and that applies to barbecue pitmasters, too.
In the past few years, in conjunction with the increasing number of barbecue competitions and festivals held throughout Texas and the U.S., many pitmasters have invested in the ultimate toy of the mobile barbecue purveyor: colossal, trailer-mounted smokers meant to make an impression and feed the masses.
Brek Webber of Tin Roof BBQ in Atascocita was one of the first local pitmasters to recognize the marketing and operations opportunity associated with a supersized barbecue trailer. In addition to running a sprawling restaurant in the middle of this rapidly growing suburb northeast of Houston, Webber and his parents spend time hauling their barbecue to festivals and charity events throughout the U.S.
Originally they made do with a smaller, trailermounted Ole Hickory pit and a motorcade of various trucks and vans as support vehicles. Then several years ago, Webber transitioned to Oyler-brand rotisserie smokers. After outfitting his restaurant’s pit room, he began scouring online ads for a used Oyler to put on a trailer for events.
“It’s pretty rare to find a good, used Oyler at a good price online,” Webber says, “but in this case I found two.”
One was at a restaurant in El Paso, and the other was at the recently closed Bacon Brothers Public House restaurant in Sugar Land. He bought the Oyler from the new lease-holders, he Toasted Yolk restaurant.
“They didn’t need a smoker,” Webber says. So he brought it back to Atascocita.
And it turned out the deal in El Paso was too good to pass up. So he bought the second one, too.
Then Webber had a “eureka”
moment: Why not put both pits on a single trailer? It would help him stand out in a crowd and consolidate cooking in one mobile facility. The result was a 12-ton road warrior, which Webber calls “Thelma and Louise.”
The project started out as a 48-foot, three-axle flatbed trailer. Webber had local pit maker Pits by JJ mount the smokers on each end of the trailer and build a structure between them for food preparation and serving. Webber takes the trailer to festivals and charity events throughout Texas. Recently, he lent it to volunteer pitmasters in Beaumont to help with relief efforts after Tropical Storm Imelda.
Elaborate barbecue trailers are nothing new in Texas. Anyone who has driven from Houston to Austin on U.S. 290 with even a passing interest in barbecue has spotted the giant trailer-mounted smoker parked along the side of the highway in Brenham. Owned by local resident Terry Folsom, it is the largest mobile smoker in the world.
Seventy-six feet long and weighing 40 tons, the trailer has 24 smoking compartments and can cook up to 12,000 pounds of meat at a time. The firebox at its rear is built in the shape of the state of Texas. Folsom uses the pit mainly for charitable purposes, including a recent event to provide free meals to first responders in Brenham.
The barbecue-competition circuit is also famous for featuring behemoth trailers. In what can only be described as a barbecue-trailer arms race, most new competition rigs come with built-in beer taps, big-screen TVs and club-quality sound systems. In Houston, Pitmaker, Pitts & Spitts and BBQ Pits by Klose are well-known for creating elaborate barbecue trailers.
Super-sized trailers are another example of how Texas barbecue has become as much about entertainment and showmanship as it is about smoking meat. And there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as skilled pitmasters such as Webber at Tin Roof BBQ continue to place the priority on the smoked meat rather than the heavy metal.