Chest freezer in my truck

[keller]

I haven't tried using a chest freezer yet, but this year my buddies and I are trying it. We're not taking a generator or anything though. It will just act as a big cooler.

buy an inverter and mount it in your truck thats my plan if i get to hunt this year

 

[packer58]

I haven't tried using a chest freezer yet, but this year my buddies and I are trying it. We're not taking a generator or anything though. It will just act as a big cooler.

You may not be real happy with the insulating ability of the small chest freezers, that's a lot of space to keep cold with ice... plus once your ice starts to melt it's going to get into the floor insulation and you'll have one heck of a time getting the smell out later.

Find a way to get power to it.......

 

[bmod93]

buy an inverter and mount it in your truck thats my plan if i get to hunt this year

That's a good idea. We'll have to look into that. Thank you!

 

[bmod93]

You may not be real happy with the insulating ability of the small chest freezers, that's a lot of space to keep cold with ice... plus once your ice starts to melt it's going to get into the floor insulation and you'll have one heck of a time getting the smell out later.

Find a way to get power to it.......

The freezer just gets used for coon hides, so smell isn't a huge deal. I like what Keller mentioned though with using an inverter. A generator is obviously ideal, but with no trailer we'll be short on space.

 

[bear run]

Is there a device that will tell my portable generator when to turn on and off to keep a chest freezer cold? Most chest freezers once cold run for like 90 seconds per hour and running a generator for no reason is wasteful and i will run out of gas. Commerical refers have there thing but a little device for the common man could go along way.

 

[Stalker69]

Is there a device that will tell my portable generator when to turn on and off to keep a chest freezer cold? Most chest freezers once cold run for like 90 seconds per hour and running a generator for no reason is wasteful and i will run out of gas. Commerical refers have there thing but a little device for the common man could go along way.

I don’t believe there is a way to turn your generator on and off by a “ thermostat ”. But you can run it while your at camp, like an hour or what ever in the afternoon, and an hour or so before bed thats usually all we have to run ours keeps ours to keep everything rock solid. May need to run longer on days when an animal is killed, to get it frozen solid initially.

 

[bear run]

If I have a chest freezer with cold game inside and I leave camp for 1,2,3 days at a time. How many cycles would a deep cycle battery give to the compressor on a 10 cubic feet freezer? Trying to work backwards on how much time I have to spike out a camp before a dead battery. Lets say a 27 group deep cycle battery?

 

[fmyth]

Is there a device that will tell my portable generator when to turn on and off to keep a chest freezer cold? Most chest freezers once cold run for like 90 seconds per hour and running a generator for no reason is wasteful and i will run out of gas. Commerical refers have there thing but a little device for the common man could go along way.

My Honda EU2000 runs 8 hours on one tank of gas(1 gallon).

 

[Stalker69]

If I have a chest freezer with cold game inside and I leave camp for 1,2,3 days at a time. How many cycles would a deep cycle battery give to the compressor on a 10 cubic feet freezer? Trying to work backwards on how much time I have to spike out a camp before a dead battery. Lets say a 27 group deep cycle battery?

You would have to have inverter ( 12v/110v) and I don’t think a deep cycle would last long at all. But I don’t know that for sure, curious if any body’s tried it.

 

[keller]

i talked to a guy that had a 5 cu freezer at a farmers market with 2 deep cycle batteries and inverter he said it would last a day at the market.

 

[fmyth]

The paperwork for my 7cf chest freezer shows it draws 1amp to run. If you convert that to 12v DC thats 11 dc amps. My rv battery is 100amp hours but is a standard flooded lead battery so you really only can use 50% of its capacity. Without accounting for the power lost in conversion from DC to AC I think I could only run my chest freezer off my rv battery/inverter for about 4 hours. This website can help you with the math. https://www.caravansplus.com.au/guides/calculating-how-big-your-battery-needs-to-be-a-44.html

 

[mmac]

I saw the new F150 will have a built in generator on the hyrbrid that can easily power a freezer this size. Now that is going to really be interesting.

 

[bear run]

I think I could only run my chest freezer off my rv battery/inverter for about 4 hours

Four hours is a long time. Now think. Once cold, the freezer will only run like 90 seconds every hour. How many hours of run time? How many days afield can you now be? Cost of deep cycle marine battery and cost of inverter? Still need a generator while at truck camp. Maybe buy a generator with inverter and see if one can piggy back a battery thru the generators inverter??????? Getting closer to glory.

 

[Blockcaver]

The two upright freezers that I have weather station monitors in at our house do not run “90 seconds out of an hour”. One of the freezers cycles reliably 3 times in 24 hrs going as low as -17*F, then warms to -12*F before starting. The other cycles twice per 24 day but swings across a wider temperature range...-19*F to -2*F.

Both freezers are in a garage running about 60*F right now and are fairly full and have not been opened over the past 24 hrs.

I haven’t put a monitor in our 5 CF “hunting” freezer as it rarely gets run at home, but speculate that it is set up the same way.

Our house refrigerator cycled 12 times over the past 24 hrs and runs a narrow temp range....33.4*F to 37*F. It only cycled once during the night and much more frequently during the day when it is getting opened a lot.

 

[HighUintas]

I'm in Florida and have a muley hunt booked for Oct. in Wy. With this whole Covid thing going on, I'm not sure if I'll be able to fly, or if driving will be my only option. If that's the case, I'm thinking of buying a chest freezer and putting it in the bed of my truck. If I tag out, I could freeze my meat before I head home, then plug in the freezer at night, when I stay at a motel. While traveling during the day, the freezer should be an effective cooler till I stop and plug in again. Has anyone here done this? Curious how it worked out for you.

I bought my chest freezer from a couple that used the chest freezer for nearly the same purpose as you. They bought a half or maybe a whole cow, froze it and put it in the freezer, then drove 23 hours to where they live now. They said it worked very well.

 

[Setxhunter]

We use the freezer method and love it. We cook a bunch of meals and freeze them for the week.

We run the generator for an hour or so each day and keeps everything frozen. Meals and extra ice or whatever you need. Then if we kill something we just freeze it and head home.

I wouldn't do it for a solo trip but if yo have a couple of buddies it's a good option.

 

[mlgc20]

Any issues with the freezer bouncing around in the back of a truck? The plumbing in those freezers can be a little fragile.

This is what I was wondering. I was intrigued by the chest freezer concept. But, it seems likeany time I see a rig in the woods with a chest freezer they drive like the freezer is made of glass.

 

[SIontheHunt]

I did WY to SC last year with an elk and antelope in cooler with about 10lbs of dry ice..closed it and left it in the truck...2 days later still frozen...no wet mess when I got here.

do you have to vent a hard cooler when using dry ice?

 

[SIontheHunt]

Is there a device that will tell my portable generator when to turn on and off to keep a chest freezer cold? Most chest freezers once cold run for like 90 seconds per hour and running a generator for no reason is wasteful and i will run out of gas. Commerical refers have there thing but a little device for the common man could go along way.

i would go with a battery and inverter if you want to leave it for days. To do what you said you would need to program a smart relay with a thermocouple to send a signal to your generator to start up. Not to mention the relay would need power to measure the temp.

 

[SIontheHunt]

sorry for blowing up this thread but I had an idea.

Ideally you could set your truck up with an automatic charging relay to a spare battery. The relay basically allows your truck to charge your truck and auxiliary batteries while it is on, then when it is off it isolates the circuit. Th aux battery (you can also charge 2 aux batteries) would power an inverter to run the freezer. This would allow you to leave the freezer for multiple days and it would run on the way home without using a generator.