Going horse camping. Want to upgrade my food cooler. What’s the best performance for the price? There are some ostentatiously expensive coolers out there but honestly I’d be afraid of them getting swiped from the campsite.
Depends on how long you’ll be going, if you can swap out ice, etc. WalMart actually sells some pretty nice Yeti knockoffs. I have a soft-sided one and it seems just as nice for a fraction of the price. One thing to know about those high end coolers is that they are pretty heavy, and the walls are thick, which takes away from the interior space. At one point I bought a similar brand that was available at CostCo, and after looking at it sitting in my living room for a couple weeks, I returned it and just use my heavier-duty Coleman when I need a large cooler.
I buy yeti coolers. I typically use a 4 person tent if it’s just me or a 6 person tent if OH comes along. I like to have enough room on my tent for the cooler and my pack.
Very happy with our new Igloo 50qt cooler.
It is a hard side, wouldn’t even bother with a soft sided one.
Lightweight & holds ice for days.
Perfect size for DD & I when we go on road trips for dog training/trialing.
Walmart had the best price on it.
We have the big RTIC coolers for the airboat. We fill then with ice and in the florida heat it will keep for at least 4-5 days. Got tired of people stealing the yeti’s too expensive to replace.
We have a hard side Coleman, vintage red. Has a lot of dents in it from hitting trees in the panniers but it still keeps well. When we take it for truck camping we throw a coat or saddle pad over it during the day to extend its time but it does just fine. We’ve never had to worry about people stealing coolers (yet, probably), that’s terrible!
America’s Test Kitchen did reviews of coolers a few years ago. Yeti and Pelican were the overall winners but so pricy, the recommended the Igloo Laguna with wheels as the best buy/runner up. I horse showed with one for years and did find it to be a great cooler.
SO and I go kayakamping (not the COTH kind) every year for several days down a river , and we’ve tested a few coolers now for keeping beverages at perfect temperature. I hate to say it since they are so outrageously priced, but Yeti won for both durability and keeping bevvies crisp and cool.
For horse camping though… how is the cooler being transported? By pack? If so I’d go with a double-layered soft shell, but those don’t keep as long.
We have Yeti and Canyon coolers.
And I really, really like my Canyon cooler. All of my friends in Flagstaff and AZ in general have Canyon coolers. And they are made in the USA.
I was living out of my Canyon cooler and only had to replace the ice once a week for a summer. (it was in the shade out of the sun).
PS and I also hauled it to the farmers market every week when I used to vend in the hot FL sun and only used those reuseable coolie packs to keep it cold.
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@OnAMission have literally had them stolen out of the airboat from a busy parking lot while we were eating dinner at a restaurant. People Suck
This would be truck camping not packing on a mule. I hesitate to buy anything with big obvious $$ brand recognition like a Yeti because I don’t want to worry about it disappearing. We have addicts and marginal people through all our small towns and burbs, not just inner city, and there’s a lot of constant theft and reselling or pawning of things.
If you do go Yeti route, remember to pre-cool your cooler.
We have two (paid for neither, one was a wedding present, the other was a gift from work), and I like them but…
First time we ever used one we filled it with ice and off we went camping. Cooler was stored in our garage and was warm… so by the time we actually opened it it was filled with cold water, not ice. We now pre-cool it with a bag of ice, dump the water, and refill with ice that will last forever. Was a learning experience!
Also… they are flippin’ heavy. I use them at horse shows but mostly because they sit in the tack room of my trailer. I would not recommend one if you have to carry it anywhere.
Thanks for all the responses!
I would ideally like something that would keep block ice going for a weekend in summer. I was looking online at Canadian Tire and realizing some coolers are quite heavy! Anything would be an upgrade through from my very lightweight 25 year old at least low end Coleman.
Yetis seem to be running about CAN $600, so nope. Way too much cash to leave in the pickup truck outside the liquor store in a sketchy small town. I think I will go to Canadian Tire (our national chain of auto parts and camping gear and garden supply) and heft a few around. Our local Walmarts are not that good on camping gear.
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