Food storage for long trips

[punisher1130]

I have plans to go on a week long camp trip ( maybe longer) sometime next year and I don't have one of those camping refrigerator that plugs into the rig, the best I got is a cooler with ice packs but ice packs don't last that long. So I am wondering how someone would pack for such a trip with only coolers and ice packs available?

 

[TwinStick]

I would freeze as much of the food as you reasonably can. It will help keep things as cold as possible without using so much ice. There are a couple ways to go here but only you know what will work best for you.

I like to precook my food as much as possible, then pkg them in proper sized bags for a meal of 2, 4, or what ever.
I like to have a separate cooler just for drinks & common use items, that way, your food cooler stays colder longer & with less ice.
There is also the "dry ice" option. Use gloves with this stuff & don't let kids touch it with bare skin.

Finally, there is the cooler itself. Personally, I could NOT bring myself to spend $500-$600 on the latest, greatest cooler. For not much more $$$, you can have an ARB 50 qt fridge/freezer & never, ever have to worry about ice again. Yes, these things work & work excellent. There is a LOT of truth to the statement: "once you get one, you'll wonder how you ever got along without one."
We bought an 82 qt & a 50 qt. The 82 has been plugged in since the day we got it. Last summer, it was 85* out & before we went to bed, I took all of our freeze bottles for the drink cooler & put them in it at 11:00 pm at night. At 7:30 am, it was reading -1* F & bottles were all refroze solid. (We just use old cool-aid containers filled about 3/4 full w/water & rotate them everyday) for our drink cooler. SO NICE not to deal with getting ice before the stores close or sells out.

Some coolers have no insulation in the lid at all. I feel they lose most of the ice this way. Older coolers are just double walls as well---with no insulation in between. You can make a cheap cooler work a LOT better by insulating the walls & the lid with great-stuff. But be aware---there are like 10 different kinds now. You would want this: http://greatstuff.dow.com/product/window-and-door.htm . The other stuff expands too much & may make your lid & walls move enough so it won't close anymore & you don't want that.

Then there is Capt. Obvious: don't leave it in the sun, fold up a blanket & put it on the lid to help keep cold in & heat out, don't leave in a hot car, etc, etc.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

I have plans to go on a week long camp trip ( maybe longer) sometime next year and I don't have one of those camping refrigerator that plugs into the rig, the best I got is a cooler with ice packs but ice packs don't last that long. So I am wondering how someone would pack for such a trip with only coolers and ice packs available?

Here you go https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=making+cooler+ice+last

 

[Doc Foster]

Finally, there is the cooler itself. Personally, I could NOT bring myself to spend $500-$600 on the latest, greatest cooler. For not much more $$$, you can have an ARB 50 qt fridge/freezer & never, ever have to worry about ice again. Yes, these things work & work excellent. There is a LOT of truth to the statement: "once you get one, you'll wonder how you ever got along without one."
QUOTE]
What he said. we purchased a 50qt. ARB 2 years ago = best $ spent of camping gear over last couple of decades. Nothing like coming back to the vehicle after a long dayhike in the desert during July and having ice cold beverages waiting for you.

 

[ludeykrus]

A bit of a workaround that may not be worthwhile, but it may help if cost is an issue. You can buy a 120v ice maker for ~$150ish and power it through an inverter hooked up to your vehicle. It would allow you to slowly replenish ice, assuming you plan it so that it can't kill your starting battery.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chickenhawk]

I do a lot of extended river float trips. Cooler management is key to having cold beer on day seven with 90 degree heat. As mentioned above, freeze as much food as possible. I've even put a case or two of beer in a trash bag and froze them. You'll loose a couple of beers but.....Block ice is key. The biggest factor for keeping your cooler cool is limiting the amount of times you open it. On trips were is gets Africa hot, I only open my main cooler in the morning. I'll pull out what I need for the day a put it in a second smaller cooler. Keeping your cooler in the shade is also important. Another trick is using burlap, get it wet and lay it over your cooler. It provides evaporative cooling effect. On Grand Canyon trips you would pack coolers for week two, three and four and take them to a butcher and have them deep froze with the lids duct tapped shut.

You could spend hundreds on the best cooler in the world, but if you open it up every hour your ice will never last long.

 

[Herbie]

I see a lot of focus on stretching the time you get with your cooler, but the other thing to look at is foods that don't require refrigeration. There's a whole thread in the Overland Chef section on this. Canned, shelf-stable, etc. are all important to look at. I have a fridge and I still like to focus on shelf-stable foods because it leaves more room for beer!

 

[mep1811]

Have you thought of using dry ice? By using dry ice you can keep food frozen and take it out the morning you want to eat it. Use one cooler as a freezer and only open once a day to take out food. The second cooler can be used with block ice .

I use a Yeti 45 as my freezer with dry ice and it will stay frozen for a week. The Coleman 5 day cooler will work just as well.

 

[WeLikeCamping]

quick story on dry ice - I will often use it when I'm desert camping and I know it's gonna be hot. I use the same method of having a storage cooler and a drink cooler. Anyway, I was at the market one day and bought a couple of pounds of dry ice. The young baggage kid went over to the freezer and before anybody could say anything, he reached in bare-handed. He learned a very important physics lesson that day.

 

[IdaSHO]

Everything individually vacuum sealed and frozen will get you a long ways on its own.

 

[robgendreau]

Not only dry ice but hard freezing. You can freeze stuff colder in a grocery walk in than in your home freezer. Like bottled water. Meat. Etc. We have had a grocery store in UT do it for us before raft trips, and then with dry ice and good management tips like the above it lasts a week on the river easy.

 

[punisher1130]

Wow that's a lot of info in one day but most of it I did know, I knew about cooler management just need to get a couple new ones and thinking of getting the yeti ones, the dry ice trick ( I do know to use gloves), keeping it in the shade (obviously) which wont be a problem since where I am looking to go there will be plenty of trees, and I have heard of the block of ice but that one and the dry ice I wasn't too sure on how well they worked or lasted. The research I did on those 2 methods wasn't repetitive on results as I went from one place to another. However using foam insolation is a new one I never heard of that, same for the ice machine but I think for that one I'd try and find one of those fridge freezers that I could afford, which to be honest I would love to get one if I could find one less than $500. The method for vacuum sealing and freezing is a new one too, I only knew of that trick for storing food how well does that last for a long trip?

 

[punisher1130]

I see a lot of focus on stretching the time you get with your cooler, but the other thing to look at is foods that don't require refrigeration. There's a whole thread in the Overland Chef section on this. Canned, shelf-stable, etc. are all important to look at. I have a fridge and I still like to focus on shelf-stable foods because it leaves more room for beer!

I did think of that, I plan on bringing foods in cans and bags, I was aiming this post mainly for meat preservation, since its most likely going to be just me and maybe 1 other person ( not a 100% sure on the passenger joining or not) I wont have that much meat with me but still want to make sure it stays good till the last day.

 

[TwinStick]

I did think of that, I plan on bringing foods in cans and bags, I was aiming this post mainly for meat preservation, since its most likely going to be just me and maybe 1 other person ( not a 100% sure on the passenger joining or not) I wont have that much meat with me but still want to make sure it stays good till the last day.

http://shop.honeyville.com/products/freeze-dried-food-storage/freeze-dried-meats.html


^^^^^^^^^^^Using this^^^^^^^^^^^^^would simplify matters greatly. Just sayin'.

The cost of an ARB fridge/freezer Hurts, but it only hurts once. Depending on coolers & ice will hurt many times more, IMHO. Make the best of what you have but start saving your pennies for one now. Wait until someone has a super deal. I got lucky. I got a free transit bag with each cooler ($125 each) & a free dual remote wireless temp sensor ($79) and free shipping. I'd say over $400 worth of freebee's. That made the price hurt a little less.

 

[Kerensky97]

Dry ice works great for me. Just a few tips. Wrap it up in multiple layers of newspaper for insulation then put all that in a waterproof bag large enough to hold it. But don't seal the bag, just put it in so that any melting water from the ice stays off it. I'm still looking at a tall thin-walled lidless Tupperware to put the Dry ice in just to keep it isolated.
Anything near the Dry ice may freeze, I've burst a few soda cans and water bottles this way. It's important how you pack things near it.
Pouring ice over the Dry ice will extend the reach the Dry ice can freeze things. I put Dry Ice on the bottom of a cooler, about 3-4 inches of ice on top of that, and put my ziplocked bacon on top of the ice. But the next morning the bacon was frozen solid even with the normal ice as a buffer (hence the layers of insulating newspaper I use now).

Dry ice needs to be able to sublimate, don't seal it in anything, it needs to "breathe".
Contact with water causes the ice to evaporate quicker.