Coleman cooler mod

[beginnerhunter]

I bought this Coleman marine coastal xtreme 70qt for $40 at Walmart. Seems decent. I like that it has steel hinges rather than the plastic ones. Closes pretty tight which is good. Very lightweight compared to my Engel.

Plan is to use it as a meat cooler. Going to use my Engel to fill with frozen ice jugs and then put meat in this cooler with the ice blocks for a day or 2 during transport. Decided to mod it a bit by adding a foam seal. Hoping to get better cold storage this way. I'm sure someone else has done this better but thought I'd share since it was super cheap and took like 5 minutes.

 

[jt13]

Thow some of these on there and you got yourself a faux-Yeti

 

[VAspeedgoat]

I had one that I fixed up and wrote YETY in scribble as a joke.

 

[beginnerhunter]

View attachment 116013

Thow some of these on there and you got yourself a faux-Yeti

I'm considering it! It actually closes pretty tight compared to some. But over time I suspect it will loosen. Have you done this?

 

[jt13]

Nope! Looked into it but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Probably will over the winter when I pick up another cheap cooler or two

 

[ignorethefringes]

Just figured I'd throw this out there . . .

I bought an Igloo MaxCold 150 qt cooler from sam's for my Idaho hunt. I loaded that thing up with four cases of 16.9 oz frozen Dasani water bottles that I had bought when the hurricane might hit us. Two cases were still wrapped and two were loose. I covered those with a thick blanket to take up air space and used ratchet straps to keep it closed tight.

We hit the road on Wednesday, September 18th at 6pm and I never opened it until Monday the 1st of October around 6:30pm. +/- 12 days. From Florida to Idaho and back all in the canopy covered bed of my dad's black truck (had to be sweltering hot the last 36 hours since we pulled back into Florida on the 30th, Sunday afternoon). When we cracked it open all of the bottles were thawed but still refrigerator cold, pushing too cold to drink too quickly. I was certainly impressed since it normally goes for $70 (although I got it on sale for $50 )

 

[rideold]

I have two 120 qt versions of that same Coleman marine. Been good coolers. I have had them for 3 years or so now. They still close tight enough that I need two hands most times to get them open unless they are full enough and I can pull the lid straight up. I've thought of adding a seal to the lid as well just never taken the time to do it. As long as I fill them half full or more with ice they keep things cold for a long time. During the summer my family of 4 can live out of one of them for a week camping. Last week during my bow hunt the burritos I pulled out of my deep freeze were still half frozen at the end of the week (it was in the 30's overnight and in the upper 50's, lower 60's during the day and the cooler stayed in the back of my SUV). I've been using the returnable gallon milk jugs for ice. They are more durable than the regular, single use, recyclable jugs which seem to always get pinholes in them.

 

[Wilderness_56587]

I covered our cooler with a blanket this year as well, just a cheap rubbermaid Xtreme 50$ cooler, held ice great for more then 5 days. I really think the blanket makes a big difference and is simple to do.

 

[kylemcintyre67]

Haven't done it yet but one mod I saw on youtube is to get some spray foam and drill a few holes in the lid to fill it with foam since they don't come insulated.

 

[Gr8bawana]

I replaced the hinges on big Igloo cooler because I got tired of buying overpriced Igloo hinges that just break after a few cooler uses. I bought these at Homdepot for $2.98 and they will outlive the cooler and me as well.
It holds ice for a very long time just out of sheer volume I think.