It cant be a bad thing by any means to see what happens drilling the holes. To be honest I dont think that the ash burning on the sides will make much of a difference. I keep the ash level to the tops of the I beams, then just spread the coals around the whole fire box instead of keeping them contained in the center, this give it an even burn thewout the box. Not sure if holes will help or not? Worth a shot. But I always hear people ask how to remove ash between the I beam and the firebox, there is no way to get it all out unless you dont have a fire going and can crawl inside to clean the out. Thats how I did it. If you look in any hardy manual it tells you to keep that ash there to act as an insulator. Does it really help? I really dont know. I would think so... If it does help though I would give it a shot. Once you get a good bed of fine ash along those beams you wont have problems with it getting clumpy. Just stir it once a day to burn everything up until you have a nice ash bed for the wood to lay on.