Cooler organization

[Modstock]

Lets see your cooler organization . Share your tips and tricks.

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[Woodbutcher]

I carry 2 coolers that are both 45 qt. I freeze ice in old square tupperware containers that just fit under the lid. The night before leaving I put a 20LB bag of ice in my food cooler that rides in the trailer. In the morning when loading to leave, I take the 20LB bag and dump it in my drink cooler that stays in my Jeep. Then the frozen tupperwares go in the pre chilled food cooler. The solid ice blocks keep the cooler cold and also contain the water as the ice melts. No water mess in the cooler. That is as much of a tip as I have.

[working on it]

* I usually camp for three-four days, requiring lots of hydration (it's always warm/hot in late April-Sept., when I camp), so I've been using three coolers of different types. My oldest, largest, cooler is a 20 year-old 54? quart Coleman Extreme, which struggles to keep ice for three days, even when covered. Next is my Frankencooler, an Igloo 14 qt Cube inside a 48 qt Cube (Great Stuff & pink foam insulation between them, foil tape and rubber gaskets added for sealing, with frozen "ice substitute bags" inside) good for four days, and my newest Igloo IMX 24 qt cooler, good for five days.

* I previously used gallon jugs full of my peach ice tea mix that I always drink (like Uncle Si on "Duck Dynasty" TV show), with loose plain 16.9 oz water bottles stuffed in beside them, in the big cooler, and had a smaller extreme cooler (now used for temporary excess ice storage) with 12 frozen bottles inside my truck; I packed a 48 qt. Igloo cube with ice, and put frozen meat/egg items in freezer bags inside. This worked for two-day excursions, but not for three-four day trips.

* After much trial and error experimentation, I devised the Cube in a Cube for frozen meats (no ice needed), changed to using individual 16.9 oz water bottles exclusively (wife didn't want to share freezer space anyway, so pre-freezing my stuff became a limited exercise), and replaced my truck cooler with the rotomolded Igloo IMX 24 qt. This set-up, with only the meat items needing pre-trip freezing, worked great on my last few trips, and I had cold drinks aplenty for the drive home.

my 3-4 day cooler usage plan.jpg (203.63 KiB) Viewed 521 times

[dbhosttexas]

No pics because, well I didn't think to take pics of my cooler setup, but here goes...

Food cooler. 55qt Lifetime high perf cooler. I take about 8 1qt Fuji water bottles, the square ones, fill them about 7/8 full squeeze the air out cap them and freeze them, they are reasonably square when frozen. Another probably dozen 16oz regular water bottles get frozen, and about a dozen flexible gel filled ice packs. Everything that can be, gets stowed in the square rubbermaid containers, as much pre cooked as possible, and frozen if possible. If not, for things like whole chickens, they get put in giant zipper bags, inside giant zipper bags, and placed as high up as possible. Veggies get divided up in meal portions and packed in zipper bags inside plastic containers. Anything that can be gets frozen.

The entire idea here is give nothing an opportunity to leak.

Milk jugs, being tall tend to be put on one end, standing up,Ice pack bottles standing on end. Stacked bottom to top, meat, dairy such as cheese and eggs, then veggies, then at the top, fresh fruit, Frozen water bottles packed amongst / around the food. Top layer is the flexible ice packs, packed in gallon freezer bags. Takes about 3 of them across the cooler.

Of course the cooler is taken inside the house at least 24 hours prior to packing, and packed with a 10lb bag of ice, or 4 gallon bags of ice from my icemaker when it finally works again thank you very much Whirlpool and your lousy warranty service...

My beverage / soda / beer cooler is FOR NOW, a 50qt Coleman Extreme roller that is advertised as a 4 day ice retention cooler that is an absolute LIE. I did the expanding foam mod to it and it is better. Considering lining the lid with Reflectix but might just trash it and get a 27qt Lifetime for drinks. But I digress...

4 gallon zipper bags of ice cubes. NO LOOSE ICE! Pre cooled beer, soda, canned iced tea, whatever we decide to go for. PLUS cut fresh fruit and well packaged dry meat snacks (Jerky, Jack LInks etc...).

We want to keep the ice clean as we use it in our drinks. Honestly we are lucky to get through a 3 day weekend this way, but we have good drinks!

[twisted lines]

Still looking for my favorite but here is one of two that have been with me for a very long time, and in a desired location, but need two sets of draw slides

[twisted lines]

Found it 100 Qt cooler, 2 people, 2 days;
little smoked salmon

[MickinOz]

After our first overnight camp, I banished my heritage listed antique Engel fridge/freezer to the tow vehicle.
I could hear it kicking in and out from the cabin when I had it in the galley. It was interfering with my Serenity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8WLuQOLq5Q

I still wanted to have something in the trailer, so I settled on this:
I keep some three litre orange juice containers filled with water in the chest freezer.
When I want a night away, they go in the old steel Esky I managed to find to fit in the space where I had the fridge.

If I want to stay out a few days (that is the plan now I've retired), I'll rotate the ice jugs through the fridge in the ute.
The old Esky will be as inefficient as they come; I'll find out soon - first day of spring tomorrow.
However, I figure I should never run out of ice while travelling.

The Esky is even older than the fridge. It sure took some finding, but I figured if I was reverting to a cooler, I might as well go in style.
They used to get thrown out when their owners upgraded to modern, light and efficient fridges and coolers.
Now, they are cool collectables.

I had to extend the slide out to get it out far enough to open the lid without fouling the counter top.
An unintended but welcome consequence of having a steel lidded Esky that slides right out is that I now have a slide out worktop.
I find myself slicing the spuds and onions, making the coffee and plating up the meals on it.

[S. Heisley]

Get two plastic cereal holders with lids. Fill them 3/4 full of water and freeze. After frozen, put one at each narrow end of your cooler with the lids on and put your food in between. This will keep your food from floating in water. After about 4-5 days, empty out the water from the plastic holders and refill with store-bought ice cubes. Repeat as needed. Covering your cooler with a towel, blanket, or quilted cover will help, too.