Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I just got back from a couple of week long trips, almost back to back. On both of these trips there was a lot of gravely rough road driving.

Now the problem: I pack a lot of my canned goods in an older cooler since it helps to keep them from freezing in the spring and fall when my camper is packed but not in use. In it I have regular cans, home canned goods, drinks, and some shelf stable milk. The vibration from travel rubbed the regular cans against the cartons of milk and the aluminum drink cans. Guess which won! Not the milk or drinks. Actually it only holed a quart of milk and one V-8 can, but what a mess! At least the cooler contained the spill. I never even thought about that happening. Learn something new all the time!

Now I have the softer packaged items separate from the cans etc. so that they don't get a hole worn in them.

Cindy,
And the thin aluminum now used in can drinks like Diet Coke cannot stand too much abuse or heat either. I can just see your mess and sympathize with you cleaning task.

It is disappointing that you don't tell use what the combination of milk and V-8 tastes like....

I can't say on the taste, but V-8 seems to curdle milk, so you can get a good visual just by thinking "pink cottage cheese".

UCK! Wow what a mess, sorry I couldn't help with the clean up, but I can commiserate with you. feel for you. I will take what you learned and pick some alternate ways of packing, I did like the cooler Idea. maybe wrap some towels around some of the items and maybe put some foam dividers in the cooler. I I could make some cosies for the items I always take like the paper carton milk, cans of V8, and other things. I guess I will look again at the packing my stuff.

Mary C.

Dividers would work well. For right now I put a water bottle box in the top of the cooler as a divider, and have my "softer" stuff on top of it. I also separated even the aluminum cans from the milk cartons etc.
Live and Learn!

Great tip! Sorry to hear about your mess but appreciate you sharing your story. It never would have occurred to me even though I recently had a similar mishap with water.

I'd been using an empty 1 gallon juice jug as a fresh water container for the past year. Recently the vibration between the bottom of the jug and the trailer's wood floor caused it to shatter while traveling. Thank goodness it was clean water and that I'd put waterproof mattress covers (from above snd below) on my latex mattress. The sheet, cotton mattress pad, and comforter cover absorbed most of the water. Stayed at a motel that night with all of my bedding draped around the room to dry out. It made me realize a water jug should have a padded cozy and a layer of foam to sit on if it's going to ride in the cabin during transit.

I avoid glass of any kind when possible. I have dividers in the cooler to keep water out of the easier contaminated items.





Plastic Jugs , plastic snap lid bowls and freezer bags are your best friends when packing the cooler. I have a dry box for boxed and canned items as well as the other camping necessities. There are enough dish and bath towels to offer protection where needed.

where I travel beer in bottles has about a 30% failure rate. beer in cans less than 1% failure. food in glass(salsa, spaghetti sauce) seems to handle it much better. I don't know what it is about beer bottles but the caps seem to lose their seal. don't know about soda I rarely drink the stuff. highdesertranger

Hahaha, I'm not laughing at you, just the fact that I have come very close to the same problem.

We traveled from Indiana to Mesa Verde and had a Tupperware container with pasta salad and a container of cottage cheese. When you go from sea level to the mountains, Tupperware doesn't always seal so good. The result was pasta salad mixed with ice water and a sprinkling of cottage cheese throughout the cooler....what a mess.

Slow if you want to carry eggs I crack a dozen or so in a coffin creamer bottle and mark it as I add them 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 so on it works great for caring eggs and not having to clean up a mess from broke eggs.

I jus had a "epiphany"... corplas ( corrugated plastic, like cardboard ) I could section off my canned goods shelf to keep the cans from rattlin round...I jus love these forums fer inspiration !

Good thing no "Beer" was lost in the making of that Mess!

Brian
PS
We no longer put our eggs in the "Beer Cooler" for that very reason.