Packing the cooler for a road trip (2024)

FAQs

Packing the cooler for a road trip? ›

Wrap Your Cooler in a Wet Towel

This will help keep the cooler's temperature down and make your ice last even longer.

Wrap Your Cooler in a Wet Towel

This will help keep the cooler's temperature down and make your ice last even longer.

Pack your cooler with several inches of ice or use frozen gel-packs, frozen juice boxes or frozen water bottles. Block ice keeps longer than ice cubes. Use clean, empty milk or water jugs to pre-freeze blocks of ice.

On a related note, you can pre-chill your entire cooler. Take a few sacrificial bags of ice, put them in the cooler the night before your trip, and then load your pre-chilled food in the day you leave.

Air is the enemy.

Ideally, there should be no “extra” space in your cooler. It should be completely filled with food, drinks, and ice. We find that the best way to achieve this is to pack one layer of food, then a layer of ice, and repeat until the cooler is full.

Making sure you use enough ice in your cooler is key. We recommend following a ⅔ ice, ⅓ contents ratio. This means that one-third of your cooler can hold your cold drinks and food, while the other two-thirds should be filled with ice if you fill the cooler completely. The more ice you use, the longer it will last.

The layers in your cooler will create zones that go from really cold down at the bottom to chilled up at the top. Start your layers with block ice down at the bottom of your cooler. Then add any frozen goods and the goods you need to keep very cold, like raw meat.

Another option for your frozen food to last longer is to wrap it in aluminium foil. It insulates the container and prevents it from warming up. Combining the foil with a high-quality cooler ensures that your food remains frozen for days at a time.

5) Insulate the cooler exterior

It's a good, better, best situation. You can strap your cooler onto a trailer or a roof rack but placing it out of direct sunlight inside your vehicle and wrapped in a blanket or sleeping bag is best if you can. On a boat or at a campsite, these same principles apply.

Wring the cloth out so that it's damp, not dripping wet. Lay the cloth over the fan. As it blows the air out, it'll circulate through the cloth and the air will feel cooler. Make sure that the cloth cannot get caught on the fan in any way at all––if this is a possibility, don't use this method.

Is a hard or soft cooler better for road trips? ›

For camping, road trips, tailgating, hunting, and all other activities likely to take a full day or more, Engel hard-sided coolers are almost always the best option.

Meats. Fish, poultry, and ground meat: These are both very perishable and potentially hazardous. Do not keep these foods in a cooler for more than a day or two—never over two. Steaks and chops: These should keep for three or four days in a cold cooler.