Picked up 3 racks of baby backs from Costco yesterday. Planning to smoke them this weekend, and I must admit that I'm pretty much a n00b. I've watched the Franklin videos and some others. Seems easy enough, but I have some pretty basic questions.
1. When do you place/fill the water pan? I plan to start the fire, place the heat deflector, place and fill the water pan, place the grills, and then close and work on getting to correct temp. Any issues with that plan?
2. Is it important to keep the racks full size, or can I cut in half in order to fit them easier? I don't think this will be an issue after the small amount of trimming discussed in the Franklin video, but just in case.
3. Franklin does his spare ribs at 275, which seems higher than the 225 - 250 consensus. He also seems to do more of a 2-2 and doesn't put them back on "naked" after being in foil. Guess this isn't much of a question. My plan is to do the 3-2-1.
4. Nobody seems to care about the temperature of the ribs themselves as far as knowing when they're done. Just make sure they're progressing and feel nice when you think they're done?
Any other first time pointers welcomed. I do plan to protect the ends with foil as suggested by solamonte73.