The Country Smokers Traveler is a portable pellet grill designed for on the go. Today, we take an in-depth look under the hood.
Price
Inexpensive Pellet Grill Option
Versatility
Can both smoke
& grill
Ease of Use
Just needs a power outlet and pellets
Durability
Store it inside & it will last
Barbecue Lab Overall Rating:
Summary:
The Country Smokers Traveler is a great grill for on the go pellet grill cooking.
It’s light enough to throw in the trunk to head to the campsite or the big game, yet has enough cooking space to cook for multiple families at once.
We created this review so you can understand how the grill works, it’s benefits and short comings.
Country Smokers is a newer brand to the pellet smoker scene, and it is debuting a portable pellet grill for its first offering. The Traveler is a compact pellet grill unit similar to the Asmoke AS300 that is made with camping and tailgates in mind. Could you use this as your primary pellet grill? Sure, but why would you when this unit is clearly made to chuck into the car trunk and head to the parking lot of the big game?

Let’s start with the specifics. The Traveler offers 256 sq. inches of cooking surface in a compact unit. There’s 191 sq. inches on the lower cooking grate, and 65 sq. inches on the upper grate. So, how much room does it really work out to be? I mean, what could you realistically cook with 256 sq. inches of space?
Unit Dimensions
Width | 24.4" | |
Depth |
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Height |
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Weight | 43 lbs |

We got out some meat and sized things up, and here’s what we came up with based on what we had available at the time.
Chicken Nuggets? Are you mad? Well, potentially.. but here’s the thing. You can use this pellet grill just like you would an oven, so if you have the rug rats at the game with you and they’re just not going to even consider a burger for the 19th time, you can cook a batch of nuggs up for the kids in no time.
When it comes to pork butts and whole packer briskets, you’re asking for a monumental task for such a portable grill. There’s enough grate space for 2 full Boston Butts, but where you might run into trouble is the height of the lid. There’s 5 inches of vertical clearance above the grate, so in order to make sure there’s enough room for airflow around your pork butts, you might only want to try 1 at a time first.
We mentioned foods above that are known for direct grilling rather than indirect grilling, and this compact unit does both. The Country Smokers Traveler comes with a slidable cover that allows direct grilling functionality on the unit. Simply slide the cover over and you have direct flame reaching your cooking grates.

The searing ability of this pellet grill doesn’t cover the entire cooking surface. It allows for an area that would cook 1-2 burgers at a time using the direct flame. What we’ve been known to do is cook an entire rack of burgers indirect over low heat to get some smoke into the burgers and then finish them off 2 at a time over the direct flame to get some char on the outside. It’s a good marriage of portability and functionality in such a small unit.
A couple of notes about this particular grill that you’ll want to know before you start cooking on it. First, there are two latches on the front of the unit that tend to get a bit hot over a longer cook. They’re metal, and metal gets hot over time when you’re cooking, so make sure you have some hand protection on if you’re cooking anything longer term.

Another point before you take this grill out into the wilderness and prepare to cook is that you’ll need a source of power to use the unit. The pellet auger, fan and digital display need power in order to function, so make sure you have a portable power station handy.

A really cool feature on the Country Smokers Traveler is the pellet hopper itself. In just about any other pellet grill, the pellet reservoir won’t lock or latch, but this one does. This way, pellets don’t end up everywhere when driving from place to place. With this design, your pellets will stay in one place as you travel the grill from one place to another.

With most traditional pellet grills, you’ll find an output vent in the form of a smokestack. There’s no smokestack on this unit as the exhaust vent is small slits in the metal on the back of the grill to let smoke and exhaust heat out.

There are 10 presets on the digital controller for operating the unit.

The smoke setting is designed to smoke at a low temperature on the bottom end of the options. On the top end there is a “high” setting, which will take the unit as hot as it can possibly go. We used this setting for a recipe and found that the grill held over 450 degrees consistently. The grill will get hot enough to sear without needing using the sear feature.
The temperature settings range in 25 degree increments between 225 and 350, and then in 50 degree increments from 350 to 450.

The Country Smokers Traveler comes with a removable drip tray that comes off by simply lifting when traveling. Before you start up your grill, make sure that your drip tray is back on the unit or you could potentially find a puddle of grease somewhere you don’t want it.

Overall, we’re quite happy with the performance of the Traveler. The grill heats up quickly and maintains a consistent heat throughout the cooks that we’ve done. The smokey goodness we’ve come to expect from pellet grill cooking was present in each of our cooks, and we couldn’t tell a difference in the quality of the food that we cooked between the Traveler and our $1,000 pellet grill.
That’s what we really liked about this unit. Although this grill is available at a price point of around $250, the food that we made on this grill rivals the food that we cook on any other pellet grill that we own. It’s a much smaller size than the Pit Boss Austin XL that we’ve also reviewed from Pit Boss, but the smokey flavor and the exterior bark that we were used to on competition style meats was still there.
This unit is a steal at only $250, and I can’t believe there’s a pellet grill in this price range. Whether you’re looking to win your next tailgate or delight the family out at the camper, the Country Smokers Traveler has got it where it counts.

To find out the current price of the Country Smokers Traveler, click the button below.
Is there a cover for the Country Smokers Traveler?
There is not an official Country Smokers cover for this portable pellet grill, however one of our readers has informed us that they purchased this cover on Amazon and it fit their unit just fine! (And from the looks of other reviews, it appears as several others have agreed.)
If you'd like to see what it takes to get a brand new Country Smokers Traveler from the box to ready to cook, check out our unboxing video below.
Also, be sure to check out our recipe for Smoked Jalapeno Poppers that we recently cooked on our Country Smokers Traveler.
Note: Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links. This doesn’t cost you any more than normal. Read our disclaimer for more info.
Frederick M Huppert
May 31, 2020 3:21 pmOrdered and received our new Traveler model smoker-grill from Danson’s. All temp settings give 800 degrees. Called Support and was told a new control panel would be sent overnight. A week later, no control pannel. Next week we head out on our annual 2 month fishing trip. If it doesn’t get here, I’ll go buy a Traeger.
David Gafford
June 1, 2020 8:31 pmSorry to hear that Frederick. I’m sure that must be frustrating. Our experience with customer support has been positive with Pit Boss so far, so I’m hoping they’ll come through for you.
Abner
July 1, 2020 8:19 pmMy wife directly ordered from Country Smokers on the 14th of June. She ordered me the Frontier Series Traveler and they had no problem charging our credit card. No communication from them at all since then. It has been 16 days and we have not even heard a peep on the status of our order. No responses at all. She called on the 19th was on hold for over an hour and added in her contact number to get a call back. Never came! Then she put in a “case” on the 19th as well. Still have not heard back and it is the 1st of July. I decided to call myself on the 30th of June and opened up a case. Was on hold for 2 hours the first time nobody picked up and then the phone hung up. THIS IS THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!! RUN AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! Good luck getting your pellet grill and I hope you never haft to have it serviced! I am betting that this will not even make it to the post… SO SAD!!!
David Gafford
July 6, 2020 5:30 pmI’m really sorry to hear that, Abner. I think a trend we’ve been seeing is that many of the grill companies have been slammed and out of a lot of their stock since COVID and perhaps understaffed in the customer service departments. Fingers crossed that you get a response or at least a refund soon!
Bob maciel
October 4, 2022 10:43 pmI think my control board went down. no matter what setting I select it goes above 450° . it is my fault but is there a replacement for the control board? I have the Traveler model. bought a couple years ago. I still love it and want it to work right. let me know please.
David Gafford
October 5, 2022 1:11 amI’m sorry to hear that, Bob. I would recommend reaching out to the manufacturer and see what they have as far as replacement parts.
kelly
August 20, 2023 10:13 pmi had the same problem first couple of times i used it. After i finally did some reading and found out i had to start on smoke with lid open (very important)for ten minutes or so until it settled down.
Works perfectly for me now, small temp fluctuations but that’s to be expected.
David Kraft
June 6, 2020 3:29 pmI am seriously looking at the country smoker traveler smoker to carry on RV camping trips. The largest compact I have has a width of 23 3/8 inches. The traveler has an overall width of 24.4 inches. What is the width of the “traveler” with the handle removed. Hoping to carry it in the compartment if I remove the handle.
Enjoyed your video on removing and setting up the Traveler.
Thank You, David R. Kraft
David Gafford
June 7, 2020 11:57 pmHi David, I’d love to answer your question, but our traveler is on the road with a friend now that the travel restrictions are lifted so I can’t get the measurement that you need for you. I’m sure if you put a call in to Pit Boss customer service that they can measure one that’s there in the office. Best of luck!
Kelvin williams
December 20, 2023 9:33 pmOrdered Country smoker traveler on Shopify website received smoker loose screws, missing screws that were all loose in the box box. All beat up, which may not have been the vendors fault worked to put it all together. Got it working worked one night to grill some steaks next night fired up the auger would not turn called for #Warranty service was told they could send parts, but would not replace since it had been used how I was to know it wouldn’t work without trying it I have yet to determine , finally figured out what we needed and they assured us they would ship it out promptly Received the Grill in two days have yet to even get a confirmation on shipping for the parts. Very disappointed in the whole process. Would not recommend based on customer service alone.
Andrew
June 8, 2020 4:34 pmHi there. I just came across your review after looking at a crowdfunding campaign for ASMOKE. Do you know if these are the exact same products?
David Gafford
June 26, 2020 2:19 pmThey look pretty similar but we don’t have any experience with the ASMOKE to be able to compare the two.
Joe
June 8, 2020 4:47 pmI am trying to find a cover for the traveler that I ordered. Do you know if a cover is offered for the traveler either through country smokers or another site? Thanks!
David Gafford
June 26, 2020 2:12 pmWe are not currently aware of a cover for this unit. We’ve reached out to the company as well and will certainly update if we find one available.
Geoff Arkley
June 13, 2020 8:59 pmCan anyone please tell me where to purchase a cover for the Country Smokers Traveler?
I have searched everywhere and opened a support case with no response from Country Smokers.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Geoff Arkley
David Gafford
June 26, 2020 2:11 pmWe are not currently aware of a cover for this unit. We’ve reached out to the company as well and will certainly update if we find one available.
Linda
July 30, 2020 12:03 amWe purchased this cover at Amazon and the fit is fine.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T589SHQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
David Gafford
July 31, 2020 6:59 pmLinda, thanks for the tip! We’ll add that link to the post for future readers.
David Kraft
June 17, 2020 1:41 amI was able to get the measurements I needed. Will fit easily in my RV. Thank you for your assistance. Smoker will be here in a day or two. First thing on is going to be a homemade pizza.
Thank you, Dave Kraft
David Gafford
June 17, 2020 2:48 pmFantastic! Best wishes in your camping adventures.
cleon
August 11, 2020 5:30 pmhi what are the dimensions of the unit?
David Gafford
August 13, 2020 6:19 pmDepth: 13.6″
Width: 24.4″
Height: 17.5″
Christine LaPrade
June 20, 2020 3:50 pmHi David
I was wondering how much this unit weighs? It looked pretty lite when you took it out of the box.
Thanks
Christine
David Gafford
June 26, 2020 2:17 pmIt’s about 42 pounds fully assembled.
Cory
June 21, 2020 2:47 amHow does the digital control work, I do not see in the video a temperature probe for it to read the air temperature?
I am concerned because of a bad experience with adding a digital controller to a tailgater BBQ, the mounting point was in a position that when the traveling with the BBQ the probe was damaged by the grate moving around. From the unboxing video this looks like the heat shield and grate are drop in an can shift and rattle, in your opining could this damage the temperature probe or anything else over time?
Thank You.
Blake
June 29, 2020 4:21 amWhat does er – 1 mean
Thomas Wright
October 7, 2020 10:06 pmI purchased a Danson traveller country smoker and the auger is catching. I would like to find a schematic diagram of the smoker to determine what needs repair/replacing. Where can I get a schematic of this grill? Thank you
David Gafford
October 15, 2020 3:45 pmHi Thomas, sorry to hear your unit is giving you trouble. If I were you, I would try contacting Dansons customer service directly. https://countrysmokers.com/contactus
Melissa Hoffman
June 14, 2022 9:39 pmHi I know this post is older, but hoping comments are still managed. I am new to the pellet grill scene and this may be a no brainer question, but one of the things I noticed was the smaller hopper. I am wondering if it is as easy as simply open the hopper to add more pellets during a cook or if there is more to it that would require an interruption in cooking for longer cooks. Thanks in advance for any answer!
David Gafford
June 14, 2022 10:15 pmGreat question Melissa. With any pellet grill I’ve worked with (this one included) you can simply add pellets during a cook. Just open the pellet hopper lid, pour more in and it will keep on going. There’s not a stop function when the hopper lid is open on wood pellet grills that I’ve ever seen, but on gravity fed charcoal grills that is the case. Great question, and welcome to pellet cooking!
Melissa Hoffman
June 15, 2022 4:53 pmTHANK YOU!!
kelly
August 20, 2023 10:07 pmI purchased ours at cabelas and it came with a cover.