FireDiver

Any of you ever make a large cooler for in the back of a truck, on a trailer, etc....for a long drive after a successful hunting trip?

I have a good idea on how to build one but would like to see what other people have done. No sense reinventing the wheel.

Heading north for a moose hunt for 2 this fall and would like to help ensure that everything survives the long drive if we are successful.

My plan is a big box lined with plastic and insulation board.....maybe it is gonna' be easier than I think.

bushanic

A cooler that could hold a whole deer would be sweet but I would think it would have to be a big box(rectangle). I got a place that would be nice to hunt on my way into work but I don't have the time to quarter it out. Just field dressing one is 20 mins for me. A deer sitting in the back of my van with 50 or higher temps wouldn't be pretty. May some one would know how much ice it would take to cool a deer down to 45 degrees.
In my case I would not want to but the ice on the deer but around it like a box in a box.

salukipv1

I have 2-150qt marine style coolers, borrowed another 3 big coolers for my bison, but had thought about building one in the bed of the truck.

Thought about buying plywood, and that 2" sheet insulation.

If you had a table saw with a dado cutter/blade you could have the pieces of insulation interlock with one another.

Some guys just buy/use one of those deep chest freezers, that may work even better. Just get a ac/dc converter, and/or maybe some dry ice.

timbercruiser

The most simple thing is to just take a chest type freezer and put it in the back of your truck. Just plug it in, freeze everything solid and go home. You could use one of those converters to plug it into the pickup if you wanted to.

wingchaser_labs

We either take a deep freezer and generator with us and keep all the frozen food in the freezer and wrap it in a big blanket and such for the drive out west and the while we are gone hunting all day we leave the generator run on the freezer. The other method we use is a homemade box freezer that takes up a 1/3 of the trailer. Ply wood box insulated with sheet insulation (the pink stuff) then when we get meat lay dry ice or sometime even regular ice block but then you have to make a hole in the bottom so it drains the lay a thin sheet of hard plastic or plywood down then meat then another sheet of wood/plastic then ice again on top and replace when it runs low. This won't freeze meat but it will keep it cold so it depends on what or plan is with which we take. If we plan to go to town to have the meat frozen there then we take the box but if we don't then we take the freezer. We'll be takin the frezer to colorado the end of august for elk. Good luck. WCL

TailTines

Thats a good idea.