No, I didn’t tell you a fib. We moved up our launch date a few days.

We’ll be at FDR SP two extra days and on the way there we’ll overnight at Little Tallapoosa CG (Carroll County park) to break up that long first leg of the trip.

Aunt Lisa sent us a pic of Tigger doing his workout. I get tired just looking at him.

In installment two of the Traeger cooker series, we install a digi-controller and use GrillGrates for the first time.

Installation of the controller panel was easy and straightforward although the installation illustrations could be about 500% bigger. If you buy locally and your dealer will install the digital controller for a minimal fee, go for it. Contrary to my reputation, I’m actually fairly handy with mechanics and electrics; I just _couldn’t see_ the hole in the upper left corner.

So…testing. The stock controller has three speeds: smoke, medium and high. This thing has selectable settings every 25F. Smoke turned out to be 215F, then it can be turned _down_ to 180F and then upwards.

One thing I’ve learned is to light up and let it get settled in at the Smoke setting, then set it where I want it. I tested 250F and 350F and accuracy and consistency was within reason.

Mr. FedEx smile upon me and delivered GrillGrates. GrillGrates are a modular anodized-aluminum set of grate that will fit most any grill and promise great grill marks, less flareups etc.

Wow, GrillGrates deliver! First of all, the digi-controller allows around 25F to 50F higher temperature but that isn’t enough to make any difference, but since aluminum is such a great heat conductor the GrillGrates produced a sear close to an ordinary grill; this test has shown that there’s no point to carrying along an ordinary grill.