I still occasionally use my Big Chief for smoking fish in the summer, but it has pretty much been relegated to be more of an ornament of the past.
I use my A-MAZE-N AMNPS and AMNTS smokers in my #3 all the time for cold smoking bacon and cheese. For the bacon, the temps with the A-MAZE-N smokers would not be as big of an issue, but you could use some frozen 2-Liter bottles if need be. I prefer the frozen water bottles versus ice because they do not release moisture into the smoker which you do not want for cold smoking.
If you use your A-MAZE-N smoker, remove the smoke box and place the smoker on top of the element brace. I have had better luck keeping my tube smokers lit versus the tray, but looking back on it I think it was more of an issue of me not having it lit well enough. If you have trouble keeping it lit I would add the jerky dryer, but I think I would rest it on top of something like a 1x2 to limit the effectiveness of the dryer. You don't want too much air flow, just enough to keep the A-MAZE-N lit.
If you use the cold-smoke tray, I would definitely use the frozen 2-liter bottles.
When I cold-smoke bacon, I usually smoke for 16 hours (8 hours / rest overnight / 8 hours / rest 2 days before slicing).
For meat placement, I would still place your meat as high in the smoker that you can as the temp will be more stable toward the top and the ice will do its job to cool the entire box.