Longer Hunts - Camp Food Cooling - Propane or 12V Fridge - Other?

[TX_Diver]

Curious as to what those of you who take ~2 week trips do to keep camp foods cool for extended periods of time without dealing with melting ice, going into town for dry ice, etc.

Last year I rented a camper and the propane fridge/heater was great in the sense that everything was on at the push of a button and I didn't need to build a fire every evening, worry about my food spoiling over the week, etc.

This year as I'll probably be gone for longer it's probably not feasible to rent a camper. Initial thought this year is to setup a kodiak canvas or springbar type tent with a nu wave heater and maybe even a propane fridge? I also see some 12V cooler setups but they get pricey fast. Looks like a propane fridge pulled from a camper can be had for $40-$100 off my local facebook marketplace. I assume I'll need some misc. parts to connect it too, but could be done for ~$200 and not have to mess with ice for awhile.

Are there any drawbacks to running a propane fridge inside a tent? I have seen mixed feedback on venting them. Is there a way to vent them without cutting a giant hole in the side of the tent? I'm not opposed to cutting a small hole in the tent if I can vent it through a pipe or something.

Are there other options I'm not considering? I looked at a mini fridge and generator, but the consensus is they only keep food cool for a few hours when they're not running and I'd rather not run a generator that long (or at all if I can get away with not bringing one).

Worst case is the usual coolers and frozen water bottles, but after the first week I don't have a way to re-freeze them and then I'd need to hit town for ice.

Thanks!

 

[Fisherhahn]

I wouldn’t worry about venting the fridge, I’d just keep it outside the tent. We always pop up a couple 10x10 canopies to cover food and coolers. I’d keep it under something like that. No food inside our tents anyway.

 

[TX_Diver]

Found one nearby that someone had already setup to run off a 25lb tank but it sold. Will keep an eye out for others.

I'll need to go to town for gas after 6-7 days anyways, so worst case I could get more ice then, but Ice is always a bit of a paint as stuff gets wet no matter how you stack it in there.

 

[strikerfired]

What about using dry ice? Would keep cold longer

 

[NRA4LIFE]

If you can get a propane fridge for $100 that would be the steal of the century.

 

[TX_Diver]

What about using dry ice? Would keep cold longer

Have in the past but it gets expensive pretty quick and isn’t available everywhere. I’ll look into it again though as I haven’t in the last year

 

[TX_Diver]

If you can get a propane fridge for $100 that would be the steal of the century.

Apparently it was because someone else went and got it before I could

Will keep an eye out for another one though

 

[Lbc1991]

A bit late to the party but… we use a small deep freeze with a bunch of water bottles frozen to keep it cold during the day then run the generator for a few hours at night to help keep everything frozen. Couple coolers, one for thawing and keeping food cool that can’t be frozen and another for vegetables just rotate the water bottles to keep everything cool. Had romaine lettuce after 11 days no problem. Bit of a pain to lug around but cut way down on coolers and whatnot for longer trips.

 

[TX_Diver]

A bit late to the party but… we use a small deep freeze with a bunch of water bottles frozen to keep it cold during the day then run the generator for a few hours at night to help keep everything frozen. Couple coolers, one for thawing and keeping food cool that can’t be frozen and another for vegetables just rotate the water bottles to keep everything cool. Had romaine lettuce after 11 days no problem. Bit of a pain to lug around but cut way down on coolers and whatnot for longer trips.

How long do you find you have to run the generator for each day to keep stuff frozen?

I have a small chest freezer I'm not currently using...

 

[Lbc1991]

Really depends on the time of year. We ran into a hot spell moose hunting a couple years ago in October where it was up around 30c during the day and if we ran it for 4 or 5 hours it was fine. I should add the freezer we use has a layer of that foil insulation inside of it which I found helps quite a bit.

 

[Rthur]

A bit late to the party but… we use a small deep freeze with a bunch of water bottles frozen to keep it cold during the day then run the generator for a few hours at night to help keep everything frozen. Couple coolers, one for thawing and keeping food cool that can’t be frozen and another for vegetables just rotate the water bottles to keep everything cool. Had romaine lettuce after 11 days no problem. Bit of a pain to lug around but cut way down on coolers and whatnot for longer trips.

We do similar, 5 cu/ft freezer with a honda gen.
Block ice, ziploc tubs, and bottles.
Change out the fridge ice blocks and refreeze.
Should have went this route years before.
Shade on the food tent helps.

R

 

[Lbc1991]

It definitely makes longer trips where we have the trailers and big tents a lot easier that’s for sure. We just leave the freezer in an enclosed trailer and put the coolers in the awning of one of the wall tents for easier access. Plus we get lights off the generator as well so that’s always a bonus not cooking with lanterns and headlamps.