Rotomolded Ozark Trail Cooler

[booyah]

I'm only concerned about Michigan black bears, and every day I don't have to go back to town to get ice, is one more day I get to fish all day!

[lrrowe]

These are the thoughts thatbran through my mind while watching this.
- Yes the food may have been protected, but what a mess it might have been afterwards.
- The paddle locks may have kept the lid on, but the latches which were ripped off which leaves a way for contaniments to seep in.....would you eat the food afterwards? So who really won?

Seems to me the best avoidance practice is not to leave the cooler out, no matter what brand it is. And I do worry about the bear trying to claw his way into a camper or vehicle once he smells the food stored.

[GPW]

Hey Boo, why not Fish in winter ... Free Ice !!!

[booyah]

Oh, I do, just not much this year. Only got out on the ice twice, it just wasnt thick enough most of the winter.

LAST winter we were cutting through 20" inches of ice in february just to get to the fish.

--edited to add--
Forgot to mention, in the winter we DO actually bring a cooler with us on the ice. We use it to keep the beer from freezing :-D

-20F sitting on ice, and you need to throw a hot pack in with your beer to prevent the bottles breaking, or getting beer slushies

[booyah]

These are the thoughts thatbran through my mind while watching this.
- Yes the food may have been protected, but what a mess it might have been afterwards.
- The paddle locks may have kept the lid on, but the latches which were ripped off which leaves a way for contaniments to seep in.....would you eat the food afterwards? So who really won?

Seems to me the best avoidance practice is not to leave the cooler out, no matter what brand it is. And I do worry about the bear trying to claw his way into a camper or vehicle once he smells the food stored.

So its really not about keeping your food safe from the bears, its about keeping the bears safe from your food. Bears who get a reward, associate humans with food. This leads to problem bears, which leads to dead bears.

Protect the bears, store your food safely!

[Pixie Susan]

Yeah, I've backpacked enough that I don't 100% believe in bear proof, however my Ozark makes the same claim.

Btw, went out a couple weeks ago in 90 degree weather and I ended up dumping A LOT of ice at day 4 when I got home. I mean A LOT. I never drained the cooler nor did I add ice. The Ozark Trails Rotomolded cooler has been worth every penny I spent, which left me a lot of pennies for travel costs.


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[beakman]

These are the thoughts thatbran through my mind while watching this.
- Yes the food may have been protected, but what a mess it might have been afterwards.
- The paddle locks may have kept the lid on, but the latches which were ripped off which leaves a way for contaniments to seep in.....would you eat the food afterwards? So who really won?

Seems to me the best avoidance practice is not to leave the cooler out, no matter what brand it is. And I do worry about the bear trying to claw his way into a camper or vehicle once he smells the food stored.

So its really not about keeping your food safe from the bears, its about keeping the bears safe from your food. Bears who get a reward, associate humans with food. This leads to problem bears, which leads to dead bears.

Protect the bears, store your food safely!

Agreed on protecting the bears. When they get too comfortable around people, that's when problems happen, then the bear gets put down even though it isn't his fault.

Bears absolutely can and will break into cars or campers -- even planes and houses! Check out the pics on this page:

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fusea ... 726063.cfm

It's a pain, but the best thing to do is get it up off the ground where they can't reach it. Pulling up on a rope is best, but not very practical for coolers (unless you're a muscle man). They might smell it, but it won't take them long to figure out they can't get to it and move on.

[rainjer]

I bought one of the Ozark Trail Coolers from Walmart for my trip to Yellowstone. I kept in the back of my truck inside the canopy for the entire trip. It was 75-90 degrees outside. My truck is dark grey so I am sure it was hotter inside the canopy. I packed it with frozen food, a 20# bag of ice and 10# of dry ice. The dry Ice lasted 48 hours, the bag of ice stayed frozen for 4 days with 0 melt. When I restocked the cooler after 6 days the bag of ice had melted less than 50% and the frozen meat was still partially frozen. I transferred the meat to a anther cooler and repacked the this cooler with fresh meat, ice cream, 2 10# blocks of ice and 10# of dry Ice. I was able to keep the ice cream froze (very hard) for 3 days. I pulled the blocks out after the 3rd day and put them in my trailer icebox. and put 2 7# bags of crappy ice in the cooler. It lasted 3 more day. 2 resupply we just used 20# of ice and it lasted another 5 days..

I have 5 other coolers. 2 older Coleman Steel Belted Coolers, 1 modern Coleman Steel Belted Cooler, 1 plastic Coleman Extreme Cooler and an igloo cooler. The $147 price tag for the Ozark Trail Cooler was a good buy based on the performance I had. I had my modern Coleman Steel Belted Cooler in the back seat (in air conditioning) and covered by a quilted cooler cover and I was replacing the ice every 3 days. My Icebox in my trailer went thru 20# of ice every 4 days... We we n the road for 15 day.... We bought a lot of ice.

Jeremy

[RockinRobin2]

Here's another option a friend told me about: https://www.rticcoolers.com/shop/coolers/roto-molded/RTIC-45-White. The Rtic coolers appear to be as well made as Yeti, but half the cost.

Thanks Aggie79,

I will check this one out. Do you own one?

Robin

[Pixie Susan]

I was originally looking at the rtic coolers hit their lead time was too long for me.


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[aggie79]

Here's another option a friend told me about: https://www.rticcoolers.com/shop/coolers/roto-molded/RTIC-45-White. The Rtic coolers appear to be as well made as Yeti, but half the cost.

Thanks Aggie79,

I will check this one out. Do you own one?

Robin

I don't own one but am thinking very seriously about making the purchase. Unfortunately they don't seem to be available.


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[GPW]

rotomolded ... What’s the big deal ? A lot of plastic things are rotomolded ... Certainly just a Buzz word to increase the price to the unknowing .. Don’t be fooled by marketing hype ... it’s still plastic ...