Cooler Size Question

[wildwoody]

Kind of the same as hanging an an animal after a kill. You don't want the meat to freeze thaw , freeze thaw and so on, meat kept chilled , preferably just above freezing Wil stay fresh for days as long as you don't get it wet. Back in the day the cowboys up here would hang there elk for 2 weeks to age and tenderize there meat, they would cut the green off, and tender as heck, anyway keep frozen the whole time all good if you think it will thaw chill Change ice dayly. And yes normally extention cord or inverter on truck. Small generator running while driving. Or dry ice and plug in when you can. I think your over thinking it. Your gonna be fine.

[InsaneBoost]

9 hours ago, wildwoody said:

Kind of the same as hanging an an animal after a kill. You don't want the meat to freeze thaw , freeze thaw and so on, meat kept chilled , preferably just above freezing Wil stay fresh for days as long as you don't get it wet. Back in the day the cowboys up here would hang there elk for 2 weeks to age and tenderize there meat, they would cut the green off, and tender as heck, anyway keep frozen the whole time all good if you think it will thaw chill Change ice dayly. And yes normally extention cord or inverter on truck. Small generator running while driving. Or dry ice and plug in when you can. I think your over thinking it. Your gonna be fine.

That makes perfect sense, now I understand. Unfortunately the meat will already be frozen so there's not much I can really do about that. So I guess regardless I really want to make sure it stays frozen 100% now.

I am definitely the King of overthinking, as you can probably tell from these questions.

I do have a "fridge" for the vehicle I use when we go on long camping trips, but that by no means will hold even 1/8th of a cow, and that vehicle is more for 4x4 so it gets probably 10mpg if I'm lucky. Vehicle we're taking gets a good 33mpg.

Just been debating the water bottles frozen vs gel packs vs ice in a trash bag. Thinking the frozen bottles is likely the best option, but then IF I do run into an issue, my next move is the question. I believe I was wrong about the packaging of the meat. It's not in vacuum sealed containers, but rather the freezer wrap paper, so I don't want any ice melting and leaking through that.

[wildwoody]

My dad used to freeze 2 litter bottles, they worked awesome and didn't get meat wet. Your going be fine

[InsaneBoost]

1 hour ago, wildwoody said:

My dad used to freeze 2 litter bottles, they worked awesome and didn't get meat wet. Your going be fine

Good to know. Being you've seen this done before and or done it yourself with your father, what's the best way to do this?

Pile all the meat in tight, then cover in the bottles? Or do a layer of bottles on the bottom and top of cooler, and then in any empty spots? I've heard a few people say this method, but didn't say really how to do it.

[wildwoody]

Top and bottom, bring some jumbo zip locks to put your packaged meat in to protect. And leave cooler closed. But get a good cooler or two.

[InsaneBoost]

23 minutes ago, wildwoody said:

Top and bottom, bring some jumbo zip locks to put your packaged meat in to protect. And leave cooler closed. But get a good cooler or two.

What about trash bags? Or would those let liquid in faster if that were to happen? My plan is to layer the ice bottles, pack the meat tight, and layer of ice bottles on top, and not check it until the morning of Day 2. If bottles are solid, leave it until morning of Day 4.

[Savageman2506]

On 4/10/2023 at 9:02 PM, InsaneBoost said:

What about trash bags? Or would those let liquid in faster if that were to happen? My plan is to layer the ice bottles, pack the meat tight, and layer of ice bottles on top, and not check it until the morning of Day 2. If bottles are solid, leave it until morning of Day 4.

that will work just fine. Don't overthink it.

[InsaneBoost]

Just wanted to update everyone.

Everything went well. I did a layer of about 24 frozen water bottles, stacked all the meat in, then topped it off with about 30 ice water bottles. 4 days later (or roughly 3 days and 15 hours) everything was ice cold minus one package of hamburger that was getting a bit soft, and a package of steaks that were getting a bit soft as well. Not sure if I didn't pack the bottles as tight on that side or what, as they both were on the same side, but nothing else around them had that issue. Regardless they were still cold and nothing to worry about, but was interesting.

Thanks again to everyone who replied and gave me advice. Obviously if not inside a car dry ice is the way to go, but the frozen water bottles indeed do the trick if you have the space for them in a cooler and are limited to interior storage in your vehicle.