Hitzer 50-93 Hooking up Back Grates

Have been running my 50-93 since startup this season with the back grate disconnected. Its getting colder now and I am thinking about reconnecting the back grate. Has anyone sucessfully hooked the back grate up with stove still burning and been able to shake the ash out in back to fire the fresh coal in the back? Was hoping not to let the stove go out. Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer this.

Good luck with that one my friend--how skinny are your arms,how good are your welders gloves & how long of a pair of needle-nose do you have--keep us posted---PS--don't shoot your eye out if you do get it--just poke the back grate from under--& top to get that ash moved around & down---I gotta ask--why did you disconnect it???

I disconnected it to only run on half the stove since it has been a warm fall, I just let the back grates 'ash up' and only run half a stove and use less coal. It still is ok but a getting a little cooler upstairs on these colder nights we are starting to get now (just under 70). The stove is down in the cellar and until I had my basement spayed late last winter with foam insulation I needed to run the whole stove as the bare concrete block acted like a huge heatsink. Now I wish I would have insulated the cellar 10 years ago. Will post how I make out reconnecting the back grates.

just let it burn down and shake what hot coals you can into the ash pan and clean the stove out. then hook the grate back up after the stove cools a bit, I did it a few weeks ago when I replaced my hopper door gasket. it wasnt a big deal at all and it only took 2 hrs or so start to finish and that was with waiting an hr to let glue dry. besides for me it was nice to give the hitzer a good cleaning before the real cold months hit. good luck

Well its suppose to be down in the single digits this weekend so I took the ash pan out this morning (before I shook it down) and the stove was cool enough with the bottom ash in place I was able to put the linkage in the grates and put the pins in with my bare hands. Easy enough and just poked the ashdown and shook it good and it caught in the back and is burning fine now.

Outstanding Yep the 50-93 is a real good stove