Louisiana Grills Retrofit – Marketplace Makeover

This project’s goal was simple: find a used pellet smoker online, retrofit it with the FireBoard Pellet Drive, and see if we could turn it into a modern, high-performance cooking machine—all in a single day.

To start, we headed to Facebook Marketplace to hunt for a grill that would be a perfect candidate for the upgrade.

We found a Louisiana SL700 pellet smoker listed for just $150. The smoker had been kept under a cover and appeared to have been used only a handful of times. Structurally it was in great shape, and the cooking chamber looked clean and well maintained.

Once we brought the smoker back to FireBoard HQ, we began the retrofit process. Internally, the wiring setup required a small adjustment. The existing components used spade connectors, while the FireBoard wiring harness uses Molex connectors. This meant the install wasn’t completely plug-and-play right out of the box. However, the solution was simple: we replaced the Molex connectors with spade connectors to match the smoker’s wiring. The process was straightforward and only took a few minutes with basic tools.

We opted to use our magnetic mounting system, which meant no drilling, screws, or permanent modifications were required. Once attached to the side of the smoker, we powered up the unit and selected the Standard Default profile. From there, it was time for the moment of truth—ignition.

The smoker came up to temperature quickly and held steady, matching generally our expectations for most pellet grills this size and format. (In some cases, minor PID tuning may be required but not in most). We placed a Tri Tip on the grates and inserted a FireBoard Pulse wireless probe to monitor the internal temperature until the Tri Tip reached 130°F internally.

After pulling the Tri Tip from the smoker, we let it rest to allow the juices to redistribute before slicing. To finish things off, we topped the slices with a garlic mushroom sauce that complemented the smoky flavor perfectly.

For $150 on Marketplace, we’ll call that a win.