Keith - Another idea.

When I shot my deer and elk last season, I used a very large standard ice chest and put 15# of newspaper wrapped dry ice in the bottom and another 10# on top. The meat stayed frozen solid for the 12 hour journey home.

Jim

Thanks Jim Good suggestion. When I hand my frig issue I looked for dry Ice and its hard to find most places. Never found it in Canada. Also my new ice chest says not to use dry Ice as it is not vented for it. However I had had good luck freezing stuff and then just packing Ice over it. My current ice chest should stay frozen for a few days (up to 4) based on the trip depending on how often we opened it. However its not big enough for my plans.

Thanks
Keith

We have used a small chest freezer in the back of a truck on fishing trips back before inverters were widely available. Plug it in when you can and fill it with as many partially filled water bottles and zip-lock bags of water as you can cram in there with the fish.

But you may find your 400W outlet will run a small electric freezer. If not, it won’t take a much bigger inverter to do it. You are looking at an amp to an amp and a half running power. Don’t know starting surge.

Yoda

Hi Keith. Been a while ( I’m still out here).
I have an Engle Portable Refrig/Freezer Mine is the MT35. (34qt). Had it 15 or so years.
Runs on 12v or 110v. Low amp draw. I use it for mainly my beverages and have it set at 33 degree’s. (Can’t have warm beer).
I built a roller for it while camping. At night, I push it under the slide in case of rain. I would not be without it.
These are pricey. Pull it up on the internet. They have larger/smaller sizes. Also, Dometic has their units, along with a couple others.

if I remember, in 2007 I paid around $650.00 for mine. Today it is up in the $1200/1300.00 range.

steve

Keith, local (ish) RV dealer was pushing these a while back. https://www.dometic.com/en-nz/outdoo...rs-and-coolers

Another maker of these is ARB.
I have a insulated bag on mine. Help keeps her cooler

ARB, Engle, Dometic, Norcold. These are the brands that I looked at when I bought my unit 5 years ago. (I've since sold it since I changed trailers). I limited my search to the "Overlanding" type. The people that mount them on jeeps and run the Rubicon for weeks.

Make sure you are getting a compressor based unit, not a thermoelectric. Major difference in the ability to cool. Thermoelectics just can't handle it.

Engle pretty much invented the market, ARB not far behind them. Dometic bought someone, and makes a solid unit. No experience with Norcold.

I bought a Dometic CFX55. Thing worked amazing. I ran it off a 100watt solar panel and a group 24 battery pretty much indefinitely. It drew an amazingly low amount of power, like 1Ah per hour. I used it for 3 seasons, banging it around in a truck bed too and from campsites, every weekend during the summer. The only issue I had was an undocumented "feature". It has a voltage protection feature, IE if your battery is too low, it'll cut the cooler off to protect your car battery so you can still start the car. I had it set to "High". Unbeknownst to me, it also cut off HIGH voltage (My solar was pumping 13.3volts out). Quick email to the company, and they explianed the proper use of the feature (I wanted it on "Low" due to the solar setup)


I would suggest the following,
The CFX3 55 liter. It's a single zone. Cools down to -8 degrees.
https://amzn.to/3CIDVAa

The CFX3 75DZ It's a dual zone, means it has two smaller compartments, that you can set the temperature independent of each other. (Both Freeze, both cool, or one of each)
https://amzn.to/3AXVafv

The CFX 100. It's massive
https://amzn.to/3e7VmQ6

Spend the extra money to get the protective cover if it'll be sitting outside at all. It will wrap it in insulating foil so it works better.

Keep in mind the weight of the unit. The CFX3 55 is 45lbs (empty). The CFX100 is 65lbs. They do have threaded nuts mounted on the bottom, so you can mount it to something if you wish.

Good Luck! Any questions on how they work, don't hesitate.

Here's a picture from one of my last trips in the Popup. You can see the panel, and the gray cooler next to the door. I had installed a 12volt power plug on the camper to plug the cooler into.

Wow
Thanks for the information and taking the time to post it. This really helps. The CFX3 75DZ was on my top 5 list, I can use in in the center of the back seat area one side for keeping water and tee cold, other side for extra ice for my evening beverages, and then convert to a freezer if needed.
Keith

That's one expensive adult BEvERage cooler.

For those that boondocks and hunt or fish in the extremes I can see where it would have benefits. Especially if you could run it off solar.

I am considering the following I thought the cover would help protect things and add a bit of insulation value, but can find no information on the R rating

Most places are showing $1399 and have higher tax and shipping cost My other choice is this https://icecofreezer.com/products/co...oss-compressor A little taller with less space in the compartments for $843.04 Customer service (non existent) and shipping damaged a common issue. No Bluetooth and China made. Dometic is Canada or Europe I believe - or am I wrong?

Keith

Hi Keith,
The covers do help protect the cooler, and keeping the coolers “colder,” where they don’t run as much. Especially on humid days.
I sure enjoy mine. Beverages at 33 degree’s. Sitting outside, I roll it over to my chair so I don’t have to get up much.

If your unit does not have a build in thermometer, get a wireless one.

Enjoy, Steve

I recently bought an IceCo 65 dual zone 12v cooler, I've had it plugged in and running for about one month now. Both zones maintaining about 33 degrees, for the fist few weeks, then switched them both to 0, so far so good. They are a cheaper option over some of the others, they also have the danfoss/secop compressor and a decent warranty.

To close this out. I found an excellent deal 20% off, free shipping and low sales tax, and then found an additional 5% coupon for the site that worked on top of the sale. I got the Dometic CFX3 75DZ with a cover. It has a longer warranty ( 2 years everything, 5 year parts) and better reviews than most of the others. It also a little more compact and will fit the back of the truck under the cover better or in the back seat of the cab. Also in the reviews it holds its temperature better and can get below zero. I think down to -7 or 8. Hopefully I made the correct choice. Dometic also has great customer service in my book. I think that's important nowadays.

Keith

Keith, I see you already purchased, but I just saw this thread and thought I'd throw in our experience for anyone else looking. Hubby bought the 45 qt. size of this last Nov. after his hunting trip. https://www.euhomy.com/products/port...r-refrigerator We used it as a freezer for many months until the deer and pheasant were gone, now we use it as a beverage cooler. It's been running continuously for 10 months with no issues. Nice to have the extra capacity as we are full timers.