Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 85 qt cooler/ice chest?

it comes up on here and almost all other outdoor type forums EVERY frigging summer. the Yeti "challenge"

if you don't like yeti as a company, fine. you think they're overpriced, probably are. don't like the politics, I don't either.

Bottom line is this- you can spew all the crap you want about the above Yeti issues, and you can cheapskate your way through life, but if you want a quality cooler, you're not going to beat yeti.

go buy that wally world crap, or that off brand yeti knockoff stuff. maybe it will do you well. I Hope it does. I've done the tests, lived in Las Vegas, traveled the Arizona summers and now in South Alabama, Yeti can not be outdone, period.

if you live paycheck to paycheck, then you get what you can afford.

Calling out Sam O?

he's busy bailin' hay

There is more than a bit of evidence that WalMart brand stuff IS Yeti. Made in the same factory, by the same people, and with the same materials. Just different logo. At half or less the price.

Extreme coolers are heavy because they have thick walls and lots more insulation. Well, DUH! If you want lightweight, just put your food and ice in a cardboard box. See where that gets ya.

He was branding the other day, now hay?

Dude, I'm glad I'm not a farmer/rancher. We went for a drive in the hills, a 2 mile hike with the pups, more driving to new places we hadn't seen, met a dude who drew a coveted X zone tag here (so did his wife), found out where there might be some elk to see, and had a nice drive home.

I'm tired now, good thing I'm retired!

This is relatively impressive for home testing. Maybe after this one Canyon needs to send there stuff off to Consumer Reports or some other independent testers?

Keeping the one that worked best is a great idea:

IMO the biggest advantage Yeti has over the rotomolded competition (besides advertising) is the function and design of all the little things. The latch’s work better for me than any of the competition I have tried. The lid works better than the others. The handles and handle layout seem better. All that makes it more pleasant to use day in and day out than the others.

It’s about more than just ice retention. Heck, go buy enough styrofoam and packing tape and you can make a cooler that holds ice longer, but that isn’t all it is about. I am certain multiple brands can hold ice well and be strong, so it’s about how you like the cooler design.

Go away Boomer


🤣

Hard to beat a Engle cooler. Especially if you don't like any snags, and you don't want to deal with the rubber latches every time you open the lid. The metal latches have been bullet proof so far for us. We use Engle coolers to keep our bait in, and beat the he'll out of them commercial fishing.

Got a name of a small cooler that holds a lot?

My big rtic holds ice great.

ABY

Anything But Yeti.

Igloo

Been happy with that chineezy cooler I got from that guy on the classifieds a couple years ago.....,

Have a few, yeti, rtic, pelican. The rtic 65 is bigger than the yeti 65. The pelican is a monster, but works better than all of them.

I try to haul an elk 2000 miles one way every year. All of the above work fine.

The colemans I have are inferior.

Also, borrowed a 55 qt K2 from a buddy 8 years ago or so. It wasn't worth a crap.

Have Icey-tek,Rtic, yeti, Engel.
Icey-tek on the boat was probably the beat IMO.

Yeti is nothing special except to the retards that run huge decals on the back glass of their F-150’s.

None of the roto ice chest are worth what they cost.

Coleman Extreme 70.

“All of this grants the Xtreme series a 4.5/5 for quality and 4/5 for features.”

Pay your hundreds…..then keep paying for your ice. I’ve seen Yeti at work, bought ice for it before I needed it for the Coleman Extreme.

Me, too.

Going on week to 10 day long hunts in a national forest has given me lots of experience with lots of different ice chests. We go with a group of 6-10 guys every year and everyone has different brands of coolers, including myself. We typically bring as much ice as we can pack with us so we don't have to drive 15 miles each way to get ice or pay $3 per 10lb bag for it. I used to always use the Igloo or Coleman 120qt and 150qt. Then I bought my 1st Yeti 50qt and I really liked it. I have since acquired a Yeti 75, a K2 90 and a Pelican 65 on wheels. None of which I paid for. As far as holding ice it seems my Pelican does it the best. I have a buddy that has a mixture of Yeti's and Rtic's. They seem to be similar but the Yeti's do edge them out slightly when it comes to holding ice. The build quality of my K2 is significantly less and holds ice the least out of these 4. It is a little lighter than the others mentioned. We often sit or stand on the ice chests and the lids on the Pelican, Yeti and Rtic are all still flat and solid. The K2 lid is bowed so much so that I don't believe it seals 100% around the edges anymore. The K2 was won at a ducks unlimited banquet. If/when the time comes to replace it I would not purchase a K2 to replace it.

I still like using the 120qt and 150qt Igloo's and Coleman's as they are much lighter and easier to maneuver and they will hold a larger volume of ice versus a comparably sized Yeti etc. The problem is if you pack them full of ice and deer meat they can get busted up easily when loading/unloading them in and out of trucks/trailers with all of that weight in them. I've seen the handles get ripped off, lids, hinges and latches all break on them. I've also seen holes get busted in the bottoms of them. You don't have to worry about any of that with the Yeti's, Pelican's and Rtic's. They all take a beating like nothing ever happened. As far as best bang for your buck, Rtic will probably win out of the ones I have experience with as they are much less expensive that the other 2 and you aren't giving up much. The only down side to Rtic is they don't have a large selection of sizes and I don't think they make anything comparable to a 85qt. They do often runs sales and they sell and ship direct. Good luck with your purchase.