My Little Pit Boss Has Earned Its Spot in the RV

By: Caly J. Behymer

There are certain things we bring along in the RV because we might use them, and then there are the things we use so often that if they disappeared, there might be a small household crisis. My Pit Boss portable pellet smoker definitely falls into that second category.

I have the Pit Boss 150 portable smoker and I absolutely love this little thing. It runs on wood pellets, it’s compact enough for RV life and somehow manages to turn an ordinary campground dinner into something that smells like I’ve been cooking all day. Spoiler alert: I usually haven’t, and that’s probably one of the reasons I use it so much.

RV cooking is always a little bit of a balancing act. I love making good food on the road, but I don’t necessarily want to spend half the day standing over a grill when there are places to explore, people to visit or a camp chair sitting nearby calling my name. With the Pit Boss, I can get something smoking and let it do its thing while I move on with my day.

Then there’s the flavor. There is just something about cooking with wood pellets that gives food that smoky, slow-cooked taste you simply don’t get from a regular grill. Meat, chicken, pork, vegetables — whatever I throw on there seems to come off tasting like I put far more effort into dinner than I actually did, and I’m perfectly fine letting everyone believe that.

One of the things I appreciate most about it is the size. When you live and travel in an RV, every piece of gear has to earn the space it takes up. We don’t have unlimited storage, so something can be wonderful at home and still be completely impractical on the road. This smoker has earned its spot because it’s small enough to travel with us, easy enough that I actually use it regularly and versatile enough that it doesn’t feel like one of those one-purpose gadgets that eventually gets buried somewhere in the back of a storage bay.

Mine gets used a lot, and honestly, that is probably the best recommendation I can give any piece of RV gear. It’s not about whether it has a million features or looks impressive sitting outside the coach. It’s whether you actually reach for it, and I reach for this one all the time.

There’s also something about having a smoker going at the campsite that just feels right. You start smelling that wood smoke, dinner is slowly cooking and before long somebody walking past your site is wondering what in the world you’re making. That, my friends, is when you know dinner is headed in the right direction.

For me, the Pit Boss has become one of those simple pleasures of RV life. Good food, very little fuss and the kind of cooking that gives me more time to enjoy wherever we happen to be parked. And if dinner happens to make the neighbors jealous? Well, I consider that a bonus.