Packing cooler for week long trip?

[usmcveteran]

Anyone has any experience or tips with this? I have a 65 quart pelican cooler that I want to pack for a week long trip.

I was thinking of freezing two liter bottles and milk jugs for block it and it will keep water out of everything plus I will have nice cold drinking water to.

Would that work or would the water surrounding ice in bottle not keep cooler as cold?

I plan to freeze everything I can before putting in cooler and pre cooling cooler as well.

Any other suggestions? Dry ice would just freeze everything to much right?

[LibertyOrDeath]

I think the frozen water bottles would be nice. The dry ice definitely kicks it up a notch.If you put a small quantity of dry ice at one end of the cooler and then some insulation in the center of the cooler. you can set up a freezer/refrigerator.

[24Pink14Stink]

Guessing you won't be able to replenish the ice? If not, the 2L bottle works.

[usmcveteran]

If I absolutely had to get more ice then I could but it would just take around 2 hours probably and be a pain.

I like that dry ice on one side idea, not sure if I have anything to insulate other side but I might try that!

Thoughts on if dryice should be on top of stuff or under it? Still will bring some frozen two liters as well

[Tony]

how about putting the dry ice in a cheap styrofoam cooler and put that in the big cooler. maybe cut some holes in the styrofoam so the cold can " leak " into the bigger cooler. just a thought. use the frozen water bottles as well.

[usmcveteran]

Any thoughts on how much dry ice I might need?

[masterswimmer]

Any thoughts on how much dry ice I might need?

Enough for a one week camping trip

[usmcveteran]

Thinking of either finding perfect sized cardboard box or making one to put on one side for dry ice and put frozen stuff in box with dry ice, on other side frozen two liters and stuff that doesn't have to be frozen. That way when I do open cooler the frozen area is still pretty insulated from hot outside air

[Cgrutt]

Freeze large items that you Will have towards end of week will help keep things cold. I double bag everything in zip lock bags. Get as much air out as possible and tape seams with packaging tape. Can bag ice in zip locks too to min water.

[LibertyOrDeath]

Not sure on the amount of dry ice but you wouldn't need much to supplement. When I went on our outing to Moose Creek I brought what was $26 in dry ice and that was too much. I had freezing issues. It WILL freeze whatever is next to it. Also beware with your cooler being airtight. Dry ice give off gas constantly so you need to be careful not to fill the cooler and the wonder why it blew the lid like tannerite!!!! lol

[usmcveteran]

Cooler isn't actually air tight contray to what you might think. I had to put cardboard in gasket slot for it to see properly however gas / water can flow out of gasket just not in that easily.

I have been reading and reading on this subject and think I'm going to skip dry ice lol.

I used it before myself and like you said everything froze!

I am putting water in plastic jugs now and freezing in my chest freezer on max cold, I also took ice from my ice maker and put it in bag in freezer to save up my own crushed ice. That way it will also be much colder then store bought ice.

Any meats I bring I am going to put in food savers bags and freeze as well. Everything I can freeze I will . I am also going to used crushed ice to pre chill cooler day before.

I'm not looking forward to cooler weighing a ton. Plan is to pack cooler while in car, then lift cooler out of car and out on game cart down trail to lake, from there I will be floating it in water accross lake to site and moving it to its final resting place for week under a tarp.

Thinking of putting beer in laundry bag and keeping in lake?

[LibertyOrDeath]

Beer bag works great at lake spots. Tie a line on that bag so you can get it it deeper colder water.

[usmcveteran]

Beer bag works great at lake spots. Tie a line on that bag so you can get it it deeper colder water.

Deepest part of lake is 50 feet and that's maybe 200 feet or so from my site I want..... Should I put it there lol?

[usmcveteran]

So this is what I did and how it worked out for me.

65 quart pelican cooler with a bunch of crushed ice put in day before to pre chill cooler. All food that could be frozen was frozen in chest freezer at coldest setting. All else was in fridge first to be cooled.

When I went to pack cooler I drained all water and took out most of ice to fit my stuff in. Freezer stuff was at right side of cooler with large apple juice jug that was frozen for days in chest to left of it. To the left of that all my refrigerated stuff along with another smaller juice jug with frozen water.

After all that I was able to fit 1 shopping bag of ice cubes from my fridge that I out in chest freezer to get colder.

That was Sunday morning say 9 am ish. By 3 pm ish I went to grab a beer and it was partially frozen! I haven't checked since last night but last night (Wednesday) I still had most of my ice cubes and i had to leave out chicken breasts to thaw for 2 hours before I could cook them!

Day time highs were 80's I think with lows in upper 60's. Cooler was in partially shaded area and I opened cooler maybe 4 to 6 times a day .

I think key was cold ice and little air space with everything pre chilled or frozen ahead of time

[dsdmmat]

I always freeze 20 ounce water bottles and pack my stuff around them. Having everything that can be frozen froze works well and then packing all the rest around the frozen stuff with ice chips filling the gaps and covering the top has always worked well for me.

I have also had the blue ice stuff with ice chips and frozen water bottles work well too.