Smoker Question

My parents gave me a pretty big propane smoker for Christmas this year. This thing is way more then what I currently need but I use it anyway. It has 4 or 5 racks and resembles this smoker. That might actually be just like mine. Mine has two adjustable air vents near the bottom though. Anyway, I am big fan of Charcoal. Would it be acceptable and/or practical if I made a metal tray of some sort to put in the bottom of this beast and use charcoal (of course, removing the propane burner)? I was also thinking about possibly tightly covering the burner with tin foil and putting a pan over it, so it could be a duel fuel smoker? Input? Thanks!

Covering the burner and using a tray for the charcoal is probably a better idea, because there are times when you don't want charcoal flavoring your food. A good example is jerky. Six hours of charcoal smoke would be excessive. Two hours of smoke and four of dry heat is about right.

Yea, I think it would work pretty well as long as I found/constructed a good charcoal pan. The burner is even kind of recessed so covering it and putting a pan over the hole would work out pretty good.