Truck bed cooler?
 

Ok let me explain what I am trying to do. The temps arent the coolest in the early start of the season. I remember getting a deer on Halloween and the temps got up to 65 by the time I got home. This year I will be camping for a few days and need to keep the deer cool. Not sure if I want to try and quarter the deer out so i am try to make a cooler for the truck bed that i can run a AC unit into and keep the deer cool for a day or two. I have no problem making enough room if I quarter it out but If I could not at the time I will like to be able to but the whole body in a big box. A doe should be easy but a buck with a big rack is my problem. The bed is 5ft 4in wide and 6ft long my generator is 19in wide and 26in long that takes up just about haft the bed. this leaves a 20in wide by 6ft long area to make a box. 20 inches wide is kind of small for a nice size racked buck and not sure if I will still be able to been the deers legs to lay it on its side Not sure how long it takes a deers legs to lock up. the other thought is to make a box in the front part of the bed and but the generator in the back haft of the bed then getting the deer in the box would be the only challenge Has anyone made one or ideas would be great.

I had similar thoughts about trying to keep deer in hot weather. sounds kind of bulky what you want to do with a generater. I had thought one time about building a box that is foam lined. then i would put the der in the box and pack with ice. I have frozen 2 liter bottles before and stuffed them into the cavity to try and lower the temp quicker. by putting frozen water in containers it doesn't get the meat all wet as it mellts

hmmm....... how about making the box big enough to slide in the bed(the width and length),and mounting the gen. on top of the box. of course you will also need to insulate it and make the box sturdy. but the down side is the total weight of the entire box cooler. just a thought you might be able to go/work with.

Just buy a small freezer and put it in the truck, or set it in a small utility trailer. Wouldn't one of those power converters be enough to run a small freezer?

I looked into a power inverter and dam they ant cheep run about 250. for a 3000watts that would run a small air conditioner. (see wife's point)

I have thought about ice and freezing water bottles but I not sure if that would last 2 days.

The generator I have already just setting around waiting for the lights to go out again, so I thought I would save the money from the inverter and just use it but it is a little big. My wife also pointed out that I would need it for camping/hunting with the kids

I will have to think about mounting it on top of a box dont want to come out of the woods to find it gone. Let keep the brain working I open to all ideas. Thanks

I'd scrap the A/C idea. A/C generally only gets into the 50's on modern cars unless you have something with R12 which will dip into the 40's occasionally.

I know if feels real cold but like I said it really isn't lol. Just pop a meat thermometer in an air vent for about 15 mins, see what your lowest temp is.

Unless that is a suitable temp for you.

Isn't the ideal temperature, give or take, about 40° to keep venison for extended periods of time? I bring that up because one must have a target for ideal temps for such a cooler, correct?

In a pinch you could also consider using dry ice.

iSnipe

Ok I am sorry I guess i should have said a window A/C unit. Not the cars A/C. I feel one of those will get a small box down to 40-48.

Well I just got off the phone with cool-bot and it looks like the new model A/C window units will not get below 60* There unit cost 299. This is get a little costly.:bash::bash:

Just buy a large, refrigerator at a yard sale.
You can get one for around $20.00 or so.
Then take out all the shelves.
My father had one in his back yard, under a big oak tree for over 10 years.
Run it with your generator, then just plug it up when you get home.
Just an idea.

Good Luck.

We had a guy come to where I work(appliance store) and ask if he could have one of our old chest freezers that didn't work anymore and we were going to throw away. He said he was going elk hunting and wanted something to store the meat in. He said he buys a bunch of ice and puts the meat in the freezer and fills it with ice. Seems like an idea that would work fairly well.

don't worry about making it so complicated.

get a 100 quart cooler. quarter your game immediately, without gutting it (there are directions on here, or search gutless field dressing).

Get a couple blocks of ice, place in bottom of cooler.

place a small piece of plywood on top of ice.

place a piece of plastic (visquine) on plywood.

Place the quarters and loose meat of a deer (or all the boned out meat) on top of the plastic. for the first night, place a stick between the lid and edge to allow heat to escape.

no need for dry ice, freezers, etc. as long as you can get block ice every couple days, and you rotate the meat, you are gtg for quite a while.

did this with my elk last year, with 60 lbs of boneless meat, no problem. I shot the elk at 430 in the afternoon, when it was pushing 60 degrees. boned out the loose meat and put it in a cooler. hung the quarters in camp, got up the next morning, hunted for the morning with another person, took the quarters to town. by the time I got the quarters to a locker, it was over 80 degrees. went back to camp, stayed the night (meat still in cooler), and came home the next day.

that was in September in NV, and it was plenty hot, and it never froze at night. Halloween, its going to freeze at night. leave the cooler open at night, close it during the day, and put it in the darkest spot possible, drain excess water, move the meat around, and change the ice and you will be fine.

later,

Marcial

The big cooler and ice sound like it is the easiest way to go for the camping trips,but i still have a problem with a place in NoVa that I really need a way to keep a full body deer cool for 10 hrs. The spot is on my way to work and if I were to get a deer I don't have the time to quarter it out let alone a place to do that. The most I could is field dress it. That's all the land owner will let me do.

you could build one with plywood and that 2" foam sheets probably...

thought about this dilemma a lot for a buffalo hunt...ended up borrowing a few big coolers, had about 5 100-150qt coolers.

a chest freezer may work better...lots of guys do that, hook them up to their car...then take it out and plug it in at home...