Well, this batch went a lot better than my last attempt. The Jerky Dryer really made a huge difference in removing the moisture that ended up steaming instead of smoking the previous batch.
There were definitely some hot spots in the back of the smoker that burnt some of the ends. When I noticed this, I rotated all of the trays from top to bottom and back to front. Next time I will schedule my rotation earlier to try to prevent the burnt ends.
I smoked for an hour at 175, then two hours at 200. With all of that meat in the smoker, it had a hard time getting up to temp so I ran it at 225 for two hours and then backed it down to 200 for the remaining two hours. So, it took a total of seven hours. I ended up going more by sight to tell when they were done because I was having a hard time getting an accurate reading from my Maverick. I think it was bad probe placement.
The batch in my Dad's smoker was done in about half of the time and ran at a straight 200 for the whole time give or take a few temp swings before I could get the temp dialed in.
Cold meat into a cold smoker with 3 ounces of hickory.
I used a store bought original Excalibur seasoning package.
Here are some pics.