No I haven't used my PBC since the last chicken cook but plan to make some changes as you recommend.
I'm going to raise the basket, remove one rebar, try to figure out my temp control better. I think I trim my chickens pretty good of excess fat and skin but will pay more attention to that next time as well.
I'm not too worried about ribs at this point, I can crank out some sweet ribs on my other smoker for now, but I've got to get chicken cooks hotter and faster to figure the PBC out better.
Thanks.