What are you traveling with for grilling?

[RJ Howell]

I'm looking at a Coleman 225 tabletop grill. One appliance we cook with a lot is the grill. If anyone has one, would love to hear your pro's/con's about it. If you carry something different, would love to hear about it.

Pro's on the 225 is mainly size, can use canister or connect to standard tank, Burner looks efficient (oblong) and dual controlled and has low profile legs which would be nice if they fold (which I doubt).

$149 is the best pricing I have found so far.

My old Aussie was just a bit bigger and did really like that grill.. Just at $285 and the Coleman looks pretty nice as well.. Hmm

[booyah]

I picked up the webber Q 1200, its a small grill witih only a single burner, but it works great for the normal grill stuff (IE brats, burgers, chicken etc)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RFXS3ZO

I also have an Akorn JR, that I've kicked around the idea of bringing on a trip to do some charcoal grilling and smoking but havent done it yet
https://www.amazon.com/Char-Griller-E06 ... B00EBWBFQQ

[tony.latham]

We use this Coleman BBQ for our camp grilling.



It's kind of junky BBQ but works great.

Tony

p.s. That's sous vide baby back ribs that were pre-cooked, frozen and fishinesd off at camp. You can't beat them for a simple camp (or home) meal.

[RJ Howell]

We use this Coleman BBQ for our camp grilling.



It's kind of junky BBQ but works great.

Tony

p.s. That's sous vide baby back ribs that were pre-cooked, frozen and fishinesd off at camp. You can't beat them for a simple camp (or home) meal.

That does look pretty small, yet does the trick! Thanks for sharing!

[RJ Howell]

I picked up the webber Q 1200, its a small grill witih only a single burner, but it works great for the normal grill stuff (IE brats, burgers, chicken etc)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RFXS3ZO

I also have an Akorn JR, that I've kicked around the idea of bringing on a trip to do some charcoal grilling and smoking but havent done it yet
https://www.amazon.com/Char-Griller-E06 ... B00EBWBFQQ

My nephew has that one and says he's fairly disappointed in it. Said quite a bit to me since he has run Weber's for years! He was about to give it you me, but he still had 3 more days travel (we met on the road, Arcadia NP). He said it's quite a PITA to clean due to the grill surface and design of the grease trap.. It's 190 sqin surface were the Coleman 225 (ya, small differences). I think I ike the burner better on the Coleman and reviews say the grease trap is bigger.. Hmm..

Thank you for your response!

[booyah]

My nephew has that one and says he's fairly disappointed in it. Said quite a bit to me since he has run Weber's for years! He was about to give it you me, but he still had 3 more days travel (we met on the road, Arcadia NP). He said it's quite a PITA to clean due to the grill surface and design of the grease trap.. It's 190 sqin surface were the Coleman 225 (ya, small differences). I think I ike the burner better on the Coleman and reviews say the grease trap is bigger.. Hmm..

Thank you for your response!

So I guess I havent had much of an issue with the grease trap. The grill itself doesnt seem any harder to clean with a scraper than any other I've had but that could just be me.

I didnt like the coleman personally (borrowed one from a friend) because I couldnt get the temp low enough to cook raw brats all the way through without burning them, or cook chicken without drying it out. Hopefully they've improved it but his at least even as low as it could go I had to run only one side, and rotate everything through that hot burner.
Honestly if you like charcoal and can deal with the size differences and differences in cleaning, I would recommend the akorn jr, its a great little grill. It looks like a ceramic, but its insulated steel, can smoke slow and low all day, or open it up and cook at high temps.

[philpom]

I picked up the webber Q 1200, its a small grill witih only a single burner, but it works great for the normal grill stuff (IE brats, burgers, chicken etc)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RFXS3ZO

I also have an Akorn JR, that I've kicked around the idea of bringing on a trip to do some charcoal grilling and smoking but havent done it yet
https://www.amazon.com/Char-Griller-E06 ... B00EBWBFQQ

While I do not have an Akorn Jr I did have a full size Akorn many years ago. That is a great portable kamado and would be awesome for the camp site. I might pick one up when my build is done. You can do everything from slow and low to pizza on one of those.

I replaced my Akorn with a Primo Oval XL, not exactly portable. More information about using the Akorn Jr correctly can be found at http://kamadoguru.com

These are VERY efficient cookers, lots of people use them for camping. They do have a big learning curve.

[RJ Howell]

My nephew has that one and says he's fairly disappointed in it. Said quite a bit to me since he has run Weber's for years! He was about to give it you me, but he still had 3 more days travel (we met on the road, Arcadia NP). He said it's quite a PITA to clean due to the grill surface and design of the grease trap.. It's 190 sqin surface were the Coleman 225 (ya, small differences). I think I ike the burner better on the Coleman and reviews say the grease trap is bigger.. Hmm..

Thank you for your response!

So I guess I havent had much of an issue with the grease trap. The grill itself doesnt seem any harder to clean with a scraper than any other I've had but that could just be me.

I didnt like the coleman personally (borrowed one from a friend) because I couldnt get the temp low enough to cook raw brats all the way through without burning them, or cook chicken without drying it out. Hopefully they've improved it but his at least even as low as it could go I had to run only one side, and rotate everything through that hot burner.
Honestly if you like charcoal and can deal with the size differences and differences in cleaning, I would recommend the akorn jr, its a great little grill. It looks like a ceramic, but its insulated steel, can smoke slow and low all day, or open it up and cook at high temps.

Interesting and thank you again!
Ya, no.. I'm not hauling charcoal and fussing with it. I love cooking over a wood fire, so I'll do that if so inspired, I do carry a spare grate. We just don't camp in one place that long and when we do, it's rarely time at the campsite. Just us.. and how we play. Hell, I don't even carry the Bio-Lite firepit anymore..Now that was a great wood fire grill!

[philpom]

We use this Coleman BBQ for our camp grilling.



It's kind of junky BBQ but works great.

Tony

p.s. That's sous vide baby back ribs that were pre-cooked, frozen and fishinesd off at camp. You can't beat them for a simple camp (or home) meal.

We cook sous vide often, i have the Anova One. There are a ton of variations to this that could be done.

When we do overnight hikes we usually cook our meals in advance and dehydrate them. It makes cooking easy, just add boiling water and give it a few minutes.

Another trick we use when luxury camping is to fully cook hamburger patties on the grill at home. Pack the patties in vacuum bags and freeze. On our trip we poor boiling water over the patties to warm them and build burgers. Just as good as the day they came off the grill. You could do the same with pulled pork, brisket, chicken etc.

[tony.latham]

We cook sous vide often, i have the Anova...

That's the one I use.

We'll commonly do a sous vide and freeze it right in the vacuum bag and then throw it in the cooler for our trips.

Those ribs, cooked at 140º for 24 hours are the bee's knees.

Tony

[Mr. Lahey]

A very timely topic for me indeed!

I needed to replace my el cheapo Char Broil portable gas grill like the one below.. It was as ornery and inconsistent an item as could be. A classic example of you get what you pay for. . Not to knock the Char Broil brand. They make multiple better grills. This is their bottom of the line I had. I didn't pay much and didn't get much.

grill1.jpg (39.75 KiB) Viewed 2431 times

I just ordered this Cuisinart CGG-180T to replace the el cheapo I had. Should be here soon for me to try out. Seems to be a good step up in quality and performance. According to it's reviews. We shall see.

grill.jpg (59.33 KiB) Viewed 2431 times

One reason I went with the Cuisinart is I have a cubby in the tear galley the grill needs to fit in. This should do the trick.

I personally have never cared for gas grilling. I've always preferred charcoal. I gave up the coals years back because I like to grill at lunch time when I road trip. Stop in a nice spot and have at it. The coal grills were a problem from a time and disposal problem. Not to mention bringing coals with too. When it was time to leave finding a responsible place to dump hot coals was an issue.

No such issue with the gas. Plus the unit cools quickly too and can be stowed shortly after use.

[RJ Howell]

A very timely topic for me indeed!

I needed to replace my el cheapo Char Broil portable gas grill like the one below.. It was as ornery and inconsistent an item as could be. A classic example of you get what you pay for. . Not to knock the Char Broil brand. They make multiple better grills. This is their bottom of the line I had. I didn't pay much and didn't get much.

I just ordered this Cuisinart CGG-180T to replace the el cheapo I had. Should be here soon for me to try out. Seems to be a good step up in quality and performance. According to it's reviews. We shall see.

One reason I went with the Cuisinart is I have a cubby in the tear galley the grill needs to fit in. This should do the trick.

I personally have never cared for gas grilling. I've always preferred charcoal. I gave up the coals years back because I like to grill at lunch time when I road trip. Stop in a nice spot and have at it. The coal grills were a problem from a time and disposal problem. Not to mention bringing coals with too. When it was time to leave finding a responsible place to dump hot coals was an issue.

No such issue with the gas. Plus the unit cools quickly too and can be stowed shortly after use.

Interesting unit. Size is about as we want. I have to assume the '180' is the cooking surface area. I will continue to research this one. Do you know if you can get an attachment to run on a typical propane bottle. I intend to eventually setup a 11lb bottle.

Thank you for posting this!

Update: 145sqin surface. You can run it from a larger tank. I do like the Grill grate. Let us (me!!) know how it works when you get it.

[TimC]

I have been using a weber q grill for years (not sure of the model but is the smallest one they made about five years ago). It isn't hard to clean. Once a year I use oven cleaner on it and wrap in a trash bag for a while to deep clean it. Then saturate with oil and season it on high heat for twenty minutes.

Edit... Important, after using oven cleaner rinse thoroughly and rinse again. Then rinse a couple times with vinegar. Oven cleaner is a base (corrosive). Vinegar is acid. The vinegar will neutralize any residue left on the grate. And make sure you oil season right away. All that base and acid cleaning will strip every bit of oil from the grate and it will rust fast without seasoning.

I really like the q grills (I have two sizes) but it became too much weight-wise so I ordered a Cobb Premier. I haven't used it yet but it seems well made and supposedly uses very little charcoal per meal. It was around 135 bucks shipped +tx direct from company website.

Tim

[bdosborn]

I use a Magma kettle grill, it's the only one I could find that had a mount I could attach to the frame. Swiveled in for travel:


Swiveled out for cooking and running off the main propane tank:


They've gotten really expensive since I bought mine, I doubt I would cough up the cash for one now.
Amazon Link

Bruce
P.S. The Blackstone Griddle is all the rage with the big RV crowd:

Blackstone Griddle

[RJ Howell]

I use a Magma kettle grill, it's the only one I could find that had a mount I could attach to the frame. Swiveled in for travel:


Swiveled out for cooking and running off the main propane tank:


They've gotten really expensive since I bought mine, I doubt I would cough up the cash for one now.
Amazon Link

Bruce
P.S. The Blackstone Griddle is all the rage with the big RV crowd:

Blackstone Griddle

I have a swivel grill I kept off the sailboat. I always felt the cooking space was rather small.. I wanted two! LOL I ran that off 1lb'ers..
And ... Ya... Other groups are all about the Blackstone Griddle.. But that just ain't grillin'.. Besides I have a griddle for my Coleman cooktop..

Thanx for adding what you do. Small, simple, and can do the deed, indeed!