Fridge vs. cooler for basecamp-style travel

[Steve F]

I have two fridges, haven't used a cooler for 17 years now and wouldn't go back. One of the main reasons for me is availability of ice, not always easy to get especially here in Australia where once you get off the beaten path you can easily be several hours drive (or a lot more) from supplies. The other reason is convenience, no wet stuff, set the temp and forget.

The small fridge in my Jeep is for drinks and day packs, longest it has to run without a charge is typically overnight, maybe 24 hrs. I have 66AH of battery in the underfloor cubby in the rear for this. The large fridge in my camper runs off of a 100AH battery and solar, if I'm desperate I can plug the jeep in to and run for a bit to top up the battery or use my small Yamaha generator (only take this if the weather doesn't look good for the time we are away).

In short, a cooler won't cut it here in Australia unless you plan to camp in caravan parks or are prepared to hunt out ice or grab it when you can.

This is my basecamp setup/fridge

Cheers
Steve

 

[CSG]

As my camping is, generally, solo, unless I take my van (which has a 2-way Norelco fridge), I think a cooler works best for my travels (but 1-2 nights is as much as I do in my Lexus Land Cruiser). I picked up the RTIC 25 for $101 on their current sale and it will more than suit my needs vs. the old Igloo I had. Frozen Costco water bottles for ice. Mostly, I wanted to bring things like eggs, cheese, butter, bacon, deli meat and similar vs. just non-fridge foods. Not concerned too much about beer when I can have a nice Cabernet or scotch.

However, if I were a base camper, in one location in a remote area for a few days, I'd have a fridge, second battery, and solar. I looked at a fridge and the Goal Zero Yeti 1000 ($1000 at Costco) and a fridge for $500-600 but it simply made no sense for my shorter trips in the LLC when a small roto cooler using frozen water bottles ran about $100 shipped.

Just to follow-up, I returned the RTIC. One of the feet came off and wouldn't fit back properly and the top wouldn't stay open unless the cooler was slightly tilted back. Worse, the bottom inside is slightly tapered. Enough so that I couldn't fit my Costco frozen water bottles in front to back. I ended up with the more expensive Yeti Roadie ($160 on sale from REI last week). It holds five Costco bottles of water in the bottom as my base layer.

Still, if I went out longer in the LX470, I'd look into a small fridge and Goal Zero battery. Much more civilized way to travel.

 

[rlynch356]

I have an ARB 50 in the Trailer that we leave for base camping (G31 battery and 100w solar) when we go out.. and a Yeti soft cooler in the truck for lunch and drinks... honestly if you have access to ICE and good cooler you'll be fine. We just got tired of the finding Ice every couple of days and stuff getting soggy.

I am looking putting a narrow fridge in the D90 (i have 2 kids which love to go camping and offroading), so with the backseat in play i'm limited on what i can fit in the load space. Basically the same reasons apply, finding ice (remembering Ice), days at the beach and soggy stuff make the fridge a better long term investment for us. We'll keep the cooler for soccer

 

[fire_strom]

Does anyone use a single small fridge/freezer as an ice factory to keep multiple coolers cool? How's it work?
-G

 

[e60ral]

Does anyone use a single small fridge/freezer as an ice factory to keep multiple coolers cool? How's it work?
-G

Trays of ice seem in a small freezer seem really impractical to make enough ice for coolers. They make portable ice makers, I don't know how common they are but I remember seeing some in videos from australia.

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[SoCal Tom]

Trays of ice seem in a small freezer seem really impractical to make enough ice for coolers. They make portable ice makers, I don't know how common they are but I remember seeing some in videos from australia.

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A better idea would be 2 sets of ice packs that could be swapped back and forth as needed.
Tom

 

[ArkansasDon]

I have 2 rotomolded coolers; K2 Summit 50 & a Canyon 22qt. I also have Engel 22qt. 12v. fridg\ freez which I totally love. I make ice in it for drinks only & keep my meat frozen. I also have a pint jug which I have frozen to help keep my Engel colder & from working on & off (it's about mass). My trailer is 100% solar; 200watt Renogy portable suit case panel, 30amp Renogy Wanderer charge controller, VMax 155 amp hour AGM battery which gives me plenty of power & charging for my Engel. In my K2 Summit 50, I have 1 gal milk jug frozen to 2 bags of ice & I keep "ice" 4 days, out of the sun. That cooler we store milk, juice & other items need to keep cool. We store our coolers under the trailer in shade. My 22qt Canyon is for beer & diet drinks, it has qt. milk jug frozen in it topped of with ice I get just as long 4 days of ice.
I was reading another thread were some say they get a week-end out of their frid\freez before their batteries die off. They never stated what 12v. fridg\freez they have or type or size of battery they have either. IMO your charging system is only as good as you build it. Like I said, I get more than enough power & then some from my charging system as long as I have sun or the require sunlight needed to keep my battery fresh.

 

[e60ral]

I have a 31M 110ah battery made by East Pen and a Dometic 40qt and can easily do a weekend without anything else with the fridge on the highest setting. Sometime on the 3rd day is when my fridge will die in high ambient temps. If I put the fridge on the medium setting I can go another day, but I don't like cycling the battery that low unless I need to for some reason. (I have a battery monitor that trends voltage so I can tell exactly when the fridge shutoff and have trending data to support the above).

On my factory battery it was fine in cool temps, but in summer time it could only reliably make it half the afternoon and overnight, so enough if your roadtripping and camping overnight with long days driving but that's it.

If you're just a weekend warrior a good battery is probably all you need, although in my case I also had to add a voltage booster to raise the charging voltage so my battery was happy. I carry a jump pack for peice of mind and also have an on board charger so I can plug in if I ever want to.

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