This has been a subject of interest with the coming of antelope season and I promised to take some pics of my home-made cooler.

It's basically just OBS & styrofoam sheeting (2" +1").

The cooler is 4' x 4' x 2.5' high and fits well in a truck with toolbox.



I built the OSB box first. the bottom, shown here, is solid and weighs about 60#



the top, shown here, is "skeletonized" to reduce weight. it weighs about 30#



The floor and ceiling are 3" styrofoam (2" + 1").
The sides are the same, with the 2" and 1" layers staggered so there is an interlock.

a bottom corner :



a top corner:



note: the duct tape along the edge both helps the surfaces slide and keeps the styrofoam from "chipping".

the bottom in the bed:



with the lid on, showing both the interlock and the four 6 gallon jugs laid in the bottom.

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x134/utahlefty/Hunting/cooler/DSC01134.jpg[/img]

for a week or less, I'll throw a chunk of dry ice in the middle of the jugs and that is all I'll use. For longer (or many tags), I'll put two 2.5 gal jugs along the side so the floor is completely covered

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x134/utahlefty/Hunting/cooler/DSC01136.jpg[/img]

It will fit 3-4 antelope across the jugs and keep them under 40* for a while -- 10 days with the truck in the sun is the longest I've gone. I slide the lid back, load them in, and pull the lid over. with the jugs, there's no worry about water sloshing around.

don't forget to save the scraps! they're useful to stick over the ice pre-kill to eliminate dead air. this will keep the ice below zero for 5-7 days (I freeze them to -35* at the local locker)

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x134/utahlefty/Hunting/cooler/DSC01140.jpg[/img]

I had considered a chest freezer/generator but expense and hassle nixed it. the cooler cost under $100 for the OSB, styrofoam, and some silicone sealant and took an afternoon to make -- 9 years ago now.

away we go!

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x134/utahlefty/Hunting/cooler/DSC01144.jpg[/img]

not pretty but it works well

Thanks 'Lefty!.

When four of us went up to Newfoundland we had half the truck bed filled with four BIG coolers. Something like that would have been perfect and taken up less space.

Looks like a good weekend project. Hell, it hasn't stopped raining here in two weeks, this might be a project for this Sat.

George

good deal!

I forgot to mention that I also picked up one of those indoor-outdoor thermometers so I can keep tabs on the temp without opening the lid. I stick the probe under the ice initially, once there's game in it, I put inside a carcass up against the spine.

the biggest temp differential I've noted so far has been 130* ( -35* in, 95* out)

the only drawback to this set-up is that it makes your rig look like a suicide bomb.

I was down at White Sands (NM) for my oryx hunt the spring after 9-11. We had stopped at a Walmart in town to get something-or-other and I popped the camper door to check the temp. My friend kept looking over his shoulder, telling me "We are SO gonna end up in prison" .....

made it through security though. they never even checked it...

I was thinkin' that it might draw some looks getting on the ferry in Nova Scotia.

George

In the other thread, you mentioned that you held the foam in with Gorilla glue. Elmers makes a glue named Ultimate Glue. It's exactly the same stuff but quite a bit cheaper. I've seen it at Home Depot, Wally's, & many other stores.

good tip.

I'm trying to remember back that far but we had just purchased a house and there's a decent chance I had everything but the styrofoam already on hand

Gotta wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing. that's such a "cool" looking box I wish I could hunt antelope!

You can............. We have leftover buck tags. All you need is a plane ticket. We might even be able to scare up an extra rifle and beater pickup.................

" I freeze my ice to -35." ?????

Are you sure? My physics sense (pretty retarded!) tells me once water freezes into ice, it doesn't get much colder - only thicker (or faster) with colder temps.
that - and air space between crystals, is why snow is a good insulater, and why lakes don't freeze to the bottom in winter, unless vvery shallow...


Anyone clarify this?

Good idea/construction by the way- if it works, all else is academic!

Don't tease me!

OK- as I said, I have a somewhat retarded physics sense.... Still doesn't seem quite right, tho.... but a lot of things don't. I'm learning to live with the condition.

Ice will assume ambient temperature, just like anything else that is not actually generating heat. Snow is a good insulator because of the air spaces, but it will also assume ambient temperature.

Should fit well somewhere into a " Drug Courier Profile"...

But really, it looks good and makes alot of sense, plus I gotta love anybody who uses as much duct tape and Bungee cords as I do to make stuff...
Ingwe

You're only half remembering your high school physics. Once water is completely frozen, it'll go down to whatever the ambient temp is. On the other end, water can't go any higher than the boiling point (which varies with pressure) until it's completely turned to steam. Then it will go up to the ambient temp.

yeah, RC pretty much has it.
perhaps I should have said "cooled to -35*". most meat lockers (and chest freezers for that matter) will reach -25 to -35 at max power. heck, modern chest freezers hit 0* even at minimum setting.

the colder the jugs start out, the longer the interior temp stays under +40* .

c'mon down!

We used a similar (minus the duct tape), but somewhat smaller home-made rig as a camp cooler for our annual 7-10 day moose hunts in northern B.C. a number of years ago. It kept our steaks and burger frozen for the duration. Unfortunately there wasn't enough room to pack several moose carcasses in it. Great idea for smaller game and birds though.

Is there a reason the "lid" is the same dimensions as the base? Ease of mobility?

assuming you mean in height?

yes, mobility for one -- elk quarters or a whole deer are tough to heft over a tall, fragile lip by yourself.
also:
the overall height was calculated to be able to lay a deer/antelope/elk quarter on the jugs and have it close yet have each half be short enough to be structurally stable.

I appreciate your sharing your design, and after pricing coolers recently I has my mind mulling over the idea. I want to mount one on a trailer at some time in the future along with a small smoker, wood rack and leave room for "car camp" equipment such as tent ect. and even a my little pond prowler is I were to get a large enough trailer.

Would you consider taking and posting a picture once it's full of carcass this fall?

I can - I'm hoping to pick up two leftover antelope tags for WY when they go on sale.

failing that, I'll have late season elk and deer tags. Won't likely need the cooler then, but I could "stage" a pic in the back yard...

I wasn't kidding

back from the run across the border (WY) for antelope season.
tons of antelope this year, must have seen 400 in 24 hours.

as requested, I remembered to snap a few more pics of the cooler.

I had the 4 jugs in my chest freezer for a week or so, equilibrated to -27* F. I loaded it up Thurs a.m., adding a 10# block of dry ice in the center of the square and blocked it off with the spare pieces to eliminate dead space -- like so:



had the first one in a bag by 10:00 Thurs a.m. , and the next by 9:00 a.m. Friday. I tooled on home Friday afternoon, and cut 'em up this morning (48 hours later)

the first was cold enough to be a little "crunchy" after 48 hours in there, the second was about 38* (after 24 hours in the cooler). The dry ice was gone but the ice in the jugs hadn't even started to melt yet.

( it'll keep them below 40* for a week or more)

here they are in the cooler, on the jugs. they're pretty much centered over a pair of them. It's easily big enough to hold 3-5 antelope-sized animals.









not really much to clean up....



takes a day or two in the sun to melt the jugs

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x134/utahlefty/Hunting/cooler/DSC01465.jpg[/img]

after 10 years, it's starting to break up but nothing a little more duct tape won't fix!

Thanks for remembering to post the pictures. Thanks for the PM too. I hope to have a trailer version some day.

That is cool! (pardon the pun).

I am continually amazed at the abilities of the members here! Great photo-essay!!