Modified camping grill with side burner

 When i met my now wife Melissa , She had this portable camping gas grill in her shed . I remember i kept complimenting on how well built this grill was. Heavy duty steel was used for the base and a stainless steel top. We took in on a camping trip with us . I remember how disappointed i was by how long it took to cook a hamburger . All i could do was stare at it in disbelief.So that got me thinking ! My wife goes now what  i can  see your  head spinning !!!  Well  This is what i came up with and I'm very pleased with the outcome...

Step 1 Original camping grill

 This is the way the grill originally looked  as i found it . Just your standard camping grill with  your side bottle propane mount .  I still cant believe how heavy duty the grill grate was compared to normal grills . The only bad part of this whole grill was that  the burner was terrible . It took  30 minutes  just to cook a hamburger!!!

Comments

[Lorddrake]

have you had a chance to use the side burner at all for cooking yet?

I am wondering if there is any issue with stability if you put something heavy .. like a pot of water .. onto the side burner.

If so it could be easily fixed with a fold down leg on the outer edge of the burner support that you built.

[coolbeansbaby68]

Yes i have used the side burner. I also had that in mind when i was building it. Once i made the frame i took a pot of water and set it on the burner and it didnt tip over . Dont get me wrong though , Theres no leaning on it at the same time!!! .
And the pot was a good size one also . It covered the whole burner and frame.
If you would like i could take a video of the side burner working with the pot of water ?

[Lorddrake]

you don't have to .. i believe you :)

[coolbeansbaby68]

ok thank you for enjoying my project and commenting !!

[jamilks]

coolbeanbaby68, aloha from the Big Island~ Too cool! I love the fact that you were able to recycle so many parts! Nice fabricating of brackets for the front valve panel and for the side burner. I'd thought about making my grill a dual fuel one (charcoal and propane) and may do it yet. Do you need to put some lava rocks on top of the burner to even out the heat? THanks for documenting this project and sharing it!

[D_Weezy]

Very nice! Good use of old parts.

[coolbeansbaby68]

Thank you i enjoyed building it .

[Robot Lover]

Wow! this is a great use of leftover parts. You said it took 30 minutes to cook a hamburger before, how long does it take to cook now? Great instructable! 5 stars.

[coolbeansbaby68]

well behind the scenes things didn't go very well at first .. I was trying to get the igniter to work on the main burner and ended up burning the hair off my arm and eye brows he he he . We cooked on it twice the first night i finished it . The first time i burned 6 hot dogs in under 4 minutes........... I realized that i need to keep the valves on low the whole time for cooking . I'm going to make a second tier grate which will help .. Its doing exactly what i wanted it to do. COOK FASTER!.
You just have to watch the food more often while cooking . The wife likes it Also .

[coolbeansbaby68]

Thank you for the compliment ..Now for the funny part of it hahaha. I managed to singe the hair on my left arm the first time i lit it . Then we cooked on it for the first time. I managed to burn 7 hot dogs and 4 hamburgers in under 6 minutes lol.

[idlymr74]

I spent some time working as a propane tech so I have a little know how.
looking at old burner I believe it was sized correctly. problem could have been several different things. Jets could have been clogged, venturi may have been to open or too closed, it needs to be adjusted till flames are blue. Or you may have had multiple holes in the burner clogged. there is also a valve that shuts off flow of propane inside the coupler to the mini propane bottle. if that gets tripped propane flow will be insuficient. any way I like your build but you cannot cook on low anymore cause the burner you are now using is for a much larger bbq

[coolbeansbaby68]

Those are some good things you pointed out . The trouble with this burner is when its on low the burner is to close to the grill that the food is on so you have to learn to flip the food faster because the food cooks faster .

[Buzzinski]

I am looking to do something similar with an old BBQ frame I have but I haven't seen the H shaped burners anywhere in Australia. We also don't have Walmart which may or may not be a blessing seeing some of the People of Walmart photos i have seen on the Internet. Lol.

Once again I like to see people who can identify a problem and then come up with a working solution without spending a heap of money. Well done mate. Another quality Instructible.

[coolbeansbaby68]

thank you Buzz.
Yeah walmart sure can bring out some real whackos at times . Walmart is just a super store where you can buy just about anything.

[porcupinemamma]

Holy Moly! Tool Time Tim has nothing on you!!

[coolbeansbaby68]

he he he he he!! thanks for the comment ... I try my best..

[fozzy13]

Nice simple grill upgrade. I didn't know you could buy H burners like that easily.