So if I leave my house at 9 a.m and this takes about 10 hours to smoke, I should start it at 11 pm and stay up all night to tend to the coals?

A REAL pitmaster would :D

Depending on your smoker, it should hold temp overnight. Pork is pretty forgiving and can handle some temp fluctuations.

Worst case, you could also pull it, put it in an aluminum pan, add some moisture and reheat in the oven.

Well yeah. It is going to be a Saturday night. Smoke meat and drink beer all night. Hell, even better idea: take your smoker over to your friend's place and do it over there. That'd be a great time.

:Pimp:

I'm too ****ing old for that staying up late shit.

And I sure as hell ain't putting that nasty smoker anywhere near my car.

:shake:

Pussy. :p

Ideal way is smoke overnight then faux cambre until the party.

I'm thinking maybe just getting an electric smoker next time for simple ease of use. I could let that baby run over night and not have to **** with it like I do with the charcoal smoker I use now. Would this be a sacrilege of the smoking community?

I'm not sure what brand of smoker you currently have, but you should be able to get at least 8-12 hours of consistent temps with a charcoal smoker. I overnight smoke all the time and sleep like a baby demon angel through the night.

I use electric for exactly this reason.

Although you should be able to get stable temps, as was already said. Make that your next goal while smoking: stable temp control.

Just a cheap Brinkmann vertical smoker. It spikes super ****ing high and then the coals seems to die out around 6 hours. There are really no vents on this thing to regulate and holding a consistent temp that is low enough (225) here in Phoenix has been tough to do.

I also just feel weird leaving the smoker/coals burning in my back yard all night. Should I not be paranoid about that?

Yea it's been tough, although the last time I did it, I had some increased success but had to check everything a few times an hour.

I think an electric smoker with a self monitoring temperature gauge would be pretty ****ing easy to maintain that slow/low temperature I need! Not to mention just adding some coals and wood to the box near the element to get the best of all worlds when smoking.

Picked me up a pellet grill today. Should make for some great food.

Yeah, no air vents can be a problem for regulating temps, I can see why you need to monitor it. I suppose you could invest in a thermometer that has range settings so if your temps spike it alerts you, however I would just upgrade to a better smoker. As far as coals burning overnight, as long as you aren't smoking on a flammable surface, it's no worry. Charcoal reacts the same whether you're sitting in your recliner watching the game or lying in your bed getting some sleep.

Good luck.

There might be some websites out there with mods for that smoker to improve temp control.