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Smoking hot: 5 of America's most extreme BBQ rigs, from battle tanks to jet airlines

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Smoking hot: 5 of America's most extreme BBQ rigs, from battle tanks to jet airlines

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David Klose is America’s bell cow of extreme barbecue rigs. 

The founder of BBQ Pits by Klose in Houston, Texas has custom-built many of the world’s biggest, most beautiful and most ambitious smokers. 

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Among them are a motorcycle sidecar that could barbecue ribs at 100 miles per hour, a giant beer bottle smoker, and a stunning rig designed to look like a giant model of a commercial passenger jet.

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Yes, there’s ego, showmanship and all-American barbecue bravado behind the orders for the extreme rigs. 

But the No. 1 motive for customers is easy to pinpoint.

“It’s charity,” said Klose. “You can raise millions of dollars a year by showing up at events with one of those barbecue pits to feed thousands of people.”

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A smoker designed like a M1A1 Abrams tank from WarPigs BBQ of Texas, left, and a military surplus tow truck used by C&J Sand Pigs of New Hampshire. (Dennis Butterworth; John Janelli)

John Janelli, a former Marine from Raymond, New Hampshire, also experienced the charitable power of a tricked-out barbecue rig.

He uses a military surplus tow-truck to haul a hog-shaped smoker he fabricated from a giant propane tank. 

Janelli intended to serve barbecue to friends and family. The rig, and the food, proved a popular party guest.

“It’s kind of ingrained in our culture.” 

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He’s recently cooked for Wounded Warriors and the VFW. He also rolled his rig through his hometown Memorial Day parade last year with a hog cooking inside his hog-shaped smoker — trailing a smoky, aromatic tail of deliciousness in its wake.

Barbecue, charity and veteran are a natural all-American trio, said barbecue champ and Army veteran Dennis Butterworth of WarPig BBQ in Crosby, Texas.

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“Anybody who’s been in the military, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines — at some point we had downtime and there was a grill and some charcoal and some cold beers and so that’s how we hung out,” said Butterworth. 

“It’s kind of ingrained in our culture.” 

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5 of America’s most amazing barbecue rigs 

1. A Class Carriers 76-foot trailer smoker

Terry Folsom of Brenham, Texas, is owner of what’s touted as the world’s largest mobile barbecue rig. The trailer is 76 feet long and can cook up to 12,000 pounds of meat at once.  (Terry Folsom/A Class Carriers)

Dubbed the world’s largest mobile barbecue rig, A Class Carriers in Benham, Texas can smoke up to 12,000 pounds of meat at once. 

Terry Folsom has used his full-size, 40-ton trailer to aid charity events and disaster relief. 

He rushed the rig into service to feed victims of Hurricane Harvey when the category 4 storm struck the Texas coast in August 2017.

2. BBQ Pits by Klose passenger jet

David Klose of BBQ Pits by Klose in Houston, Texas took nine months to fabricate this scale-model passenger jet smoker.  (David Klose/BBQ Pits by Klose)

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Klose spent nine months fabricating this smoker into a scale model of a commercial passenger jet, styled like a plane from the former Continental Airlines.

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Klose has fabricated thousands of custom-built barbecue rigs over the decades.

This one in particular, he said, “is breathtaking.”

3. C&J Sand Pigs military tow truck

John Janelli of Raymond, New Hampshire, hauls his giant barbecue smoker to events with a 1991 BMY M92 military surplus truck.  (John Janelli/C&J’s Sand Pigs)

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Janelli, who spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps, took a giant green propane tank and turned it into a work of art: a giant hog-shaped smoker, complete with snout, fiery eyeballs and corkscrew tail. 

It even has details hanging from the back to show that it’s a male pig.

The rig proved too heavy to tow with an ordinary road truck, so he found a military surplus tow truck to handle the chore. 

The combination of patriotic truck and mischievous male pig (the smoker is, um, anatomically correct) is a huge hit at partis, charity events and parades.

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4. Orange County Choppers RUB barbecue sidecar

BBQ Pits by Klose fabricated a motorcycle sidecar smoker for Orange County Choppers of New York and RUB Barbecue. (David Klose/BBQ Pits by Klose)

Klose fabricated a motorcycle-sidecar smoker for an episode of “American Chopper” starring the Teutul family of Orange County Choppers in upstate New York. 

The episode featured what was then the popular barbecue restaurant group RUB Barbecue.

“It costs as much as a Bentley,” Andrew Fischel of RUB Barbecue said at the time.

The stylish barbecue rig can reach speeds of 100 miles per hour and cook 20 racks of rib.

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5. WarPig BBQ M1A1 Abrams tank

Butterworth is a legendary barbecue champion who served on tank crews during his time in the U.S. Army.

A model of the battle tank proved a perfect design for his competitive barbecue team’s smoker. 

WarPig BBQ’s M1A1-model barbecue smoker. Dennis Butterworth of Houston, Texas, who heads the competitive barbecue team, served in tank crews in the U.S. Army. (Dennis Butterworth/WarPig BBQ)

The tracks work, allowing Butterworth to roll the rig onto the barbecue battlefield. The barrel, of course, is a chimney to vent the smoker.

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Uvalde trial halted after key witness changes testimony

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Uvalde trial halted after key witness changes testimony

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The trial of a former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer accused of not doing more to save lives in the 2022 shooting that left 21 dead was halted after a key witness reportedly changed her testimony. 

Adrian Gonzales has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment following the attack at Robb Elementary. He could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if he’s convicted, prosecutors said.   

Former teacher Stephanie Hale testified on Tuesday that she saw the shooter on the south side of the campus, the same area where Gonzales was located, according to Texas Public Radio. 

However, defense attorneys objected, arguing her testimony was different compared to statements Hale made to a Texas Ranger during a 2022 investigation when she placed the shooter closer to Gonzales than previously indicated, the outlet added. 

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TRIAL UNDERWAY FOR FORMER UVALDE SCHOOL POLICE OFFICER ACCUSED OF SLOW RESPONSE TO SHOOTING

Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales leaves the courtroom during a break at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Eric Gay/AP)

The jury in the trial was then dismissed until Thursday as attorneys are preparing arguments on motions related to Hale’s testimony, the report said. The judge in the case is expected to hear those arguments on Wednesday, and the defense has raised the possibility of a mistrial, Texas Public Radio also reported. 

Gonzales, who was among the first to respond to the attack, arrived while the teenage assailant was still outside the building. The officer allegedly did not make a move, even when a teacher pointed out the direction of the shooter, special prosecutor Bill Turner said Tuesday during opening statements in the trial.  

Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, right, and his attorney Nico LaHood, left, arrive in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Eric Gay/AP)

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The officer only went inside Robb Elementary minutes later “after the damage had been done,” Turner said. 

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“When you hear gunshots, you go to the gunfire,” Turner added, noting that Gonzales, a 10-year veteran of the police force, had extensive active shooter training. 

Attorney Nico LaHood makes opening arguments during a trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Eric Gay/AP)

An indictment accused Gonzales of putting children in “imminent danger” of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and by not following his training. The allegations also said he did not go toward the gunfire despite hearing shots and being told the shooter’s location. 

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Gonzales’ attorneys disputed accusations that he did nothing at what they called a chaotic scene, saying that he helped evacuate children as other police arrived.

Adrian Gonzales, a former police officer for schools in Uvalde, Texas. At right is a memorial dedicated to the 19 children and two adults killed on May 24, 2022, during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. (Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office/AP/Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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“The government makes it want to seem like he just sat there,” defense attorney Nico LaHood said on Tuesday. “He did what he could, with what he knew at the time.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Trump endorses Cuellar opponent after pardoning Dem rep

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Trump endorses Cuellar opponent after pardoning Dem rep

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed Tano Tijerina in Texas’ 28th Congressional District race after criticizing Rep. Henry Cuellar for running again as a Democrat following a presidential pardon.

“I don’t know why, but the fact that Henry Cuellar would be running against Donald J. Trump, and the Republican Party, seems to be a great act of disloyalty and, perhaps more importantly, the act of a fool who would immediately go back to a Political Party, the Radical Left Democrats, whose views are different from his, but not nearly good or strong enough to be a true Republican,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in part.

The president said if he had to do it again, he would still pardon Cuellar, arguing the prosecution against him was politically motivated, but criticized his decision to run for re-election.

“Henry should not be allowed to serve in Congress again,” Trump added before endorsing Tijerina, a judge in Webb County, Texas, who switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

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HOUSE DEM PARDONED BY TRUMP REVEALS WHETHER HE WILL SWITCH POLITICAL PARTIES

Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina poses for a portrait in his office on February 20, 2025, in Laredo, Texas. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“Tano’s views are stronger, better, and far less tainted than Henry’s, and he has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Representative from Texas’ 28th Congressional District — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” said Trump.

The commander in chief pardoned Cuellar in December after he was indicted by the Justice Department in May 2024 on charges alleging he accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani state-owned oil and gas company and a Mexican bank in exchange for using his office to influence U.S. foreign policy. 

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Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was accused of taking more than half a million dollars in bribes from an Azerbaijan-owned energy company and a Mexican bank. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, were facing multiple counts, including bribery, money laundering and unlawful foreign influence.

After Trump granted him clemency, the congressman thanked the president for what he called his “tremendous leadership,” and said the decision allowed South Texas to move forward.

President Donald Trump announced his pardon of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas on Truth Social in December. (Nathan Howard/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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“This pardon gives us a clean slate. The noise is gone. The work remains. And I intend to meet it head on,” Cuellar wrote on X.

Cuellar won re-election in November 2024 and has been in Congress since 2005.

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Family of Brianna Aguilera sues over alcohol service ahead of death

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Family of Brianna Aguilera sues over alcohol service ahead of death

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The family of Brianna Aguilera, the Texas A&M student who fell to her death from a high-rise apartment in November, is suing two organizations for allegedly overserving alcohol ahead of the 19-year-old’s death.

Attorney Tony Buzbee on Tuesday announced a $1 million wrongful death lawsuit was filed in Travis County against the Austin Blacks Rugby Club and the UT Economics and Business Association.

“It is illegal to serve minors any amount of alcohol in the State of Texas. It is reckless and irresponsible to grossly over-serve a group of minors at a University of Texas football tailgate to the point where those minors lose their physical faculties and ability to control themselves,” the lawsuit states. 

Aguilera died when she fell from an Austin high-rise apartment following a Texas A&M vs. University of Texas football tailgate at around 1 a.m. Nov. 29, according to police.

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An image provided by the family of the young Texas A&M student, Brianna Aguilera, found dead in Austin over the weekend. (GoFundMe)

A police investigation later determined Aguilera died by suicide despite her family’s claims that she was killed.

Brianna Aguilera was found dead in an apartment hours after attending a tailgate party. (Facebook/Brie Aguilera)

According to the filing, the alleged “egregious over-serving of minors” led to Aguilera’s death. Witnesses described her behavior over several hours as “shifting from upbeat to disoriented and ultimately grossly intoxicated,” the suit says.

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Brianna Aguilera holds a sign congratulating her on her acceptance to Texas A&M. (Instagram/brie.aguilera)

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Buzbee said the lawsuit is also intended to support the ongoing investigation into the events of that night by allowing the firm to seek phone and text records, documents and data and to compel witness testimony.

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The lawsuit requests a jury trial.

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Fox News Digital’s Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.

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