Yeah I’ve done both, rake to front, or rake to a side. I’ll rake front when I’m doing my bottom splits E/W, but I can usually fit just a bit more wood loading N/S; so I’ll rake to the side for the N/S loads. I found for me when raking to the front and loading N/S the splits end up angled so I lose a little space. Probably splitting hairs. Lol long story short yes it works for me, stove was still around 350-375 STT active cat when I left the house (about 20 mins ago), so I’m going on 16 or so hours now.Looks like you rake the coals to one side on a reload? I may try this method. Do you find it effective?