Truck bed into a cooler?

[mattflipper]

Also, I went moose hunting in Newfoundland one time and on the ferry across it seemed like the popular approach was a big cold storage box/bin in the bed of the truck with ice. These things were big enough to fill up the bed of a truck. I assumed it was some sort of cold storage shipping box used for fish or something, everyone had one. I talked to a couple guys and they’d just fill it up with ice in bulk from the processor but you’d just want to be sure to drain it regularly so the water didn’t accumulate depending on the length of the trip.

 

[rayporter]

i have done similar in the front of a horse trailer.

with 2 elk we did not want to buy more coolers so we bought one inch Styrofoam and cut it down for a 3 sided box. the meat is packed in with foam sleeping pads and gear on top.
dry ice [ maybe 25 lb.] will begin to freeze meat by the time we get to Oklahoma city. this with high 90 temps.

later we used half in. army surplus foam sleeping pads and it worked just as well. put one pad in the front and one on the floor and 2 on top with some gear.

dont over think it.

 

[180ls1]

Adding some dry ice to the equation would probably help a ton.

Keeping the wind out/off is also essential. Airflow melts ice FAST.

 

[Maverick1]

Picking some brains here. So, I drew a bison tag in SD for this year and thinking about the logistics of bringing that giant thing back to the Midwest. Yes, I could bring a bunch of big coolers…and I’m prepared to do that. Got to thinking about using a tarp and loading the truck bed with ice plopping meat on that more ice on top then draw down the soft shell cover I currently have on it. Or just get an Ice chest and bring the generator along, freeze it leave ice chest in the truck and good to go. I love to hear everyone’s opinion on this or even better…how do you do it?

One year I shot a cow moose, bull elk, and very large black bear - all on the same trip. Deboned, I was able to fit all three animals into (3) 150 quart coolers. I am not sure how that compares to the amount of deboned meat from a bison, just sharing as a point of reference. On the drive out, I stored all of my gear in the coolers, on the way back my gear got put on the hitch-mounted cargo carrier, with the meat inside the coolers, covered by a couple of sleeping bags inside the vehicle.

Inside a cooler, bags of ice will keep for two weeks or so if put pink insulation board on top of the ice inside the cooler, and more insulation board on to of the cooler, and then a sleeping bag over the top. And these are inexpensive Igloo coolers, not the expensive, overpriced ones.

Congrats on the tag, good luck on the hunt!

 

[dieselchessy]

A small chest freezer on a generator will struggle to freeze when filled with unfrozen meat. If you ran the generator 24/7 and you had the boned meat in 2 gallon ziplocks so you could rotate all the meat. Id venture to guess it would take more than 4 days to get it frozen.
Never tried with buffalo, but have tried with multiple elk in the freezer at once, multiple times.

We use lots of 2 gallon Ziplock and 2.5 gallon Hefty zip kick bags for boned out meat storage. Maybe to small for bison.

 

[dtrkyman]

I immediately thought of building a cooler out of the bed or part of it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tony]

Friend of mine bought a chest type refrigerator, put it in his small box trailer and ran a generator in the bed of his truck, ran a power cord into the trailer. Just stopped every few hours for a break and gassed the generator.
Hauled a couple elk back.

 

[Joshk358]

Appreciate all the replies. Luckily I’ve got all summer to plan for it

 

[kcm2]

You can make your own big ice chest by gluing together ethafoam in a pull behind trailer. Or even in the back of your pickup, to the size you need.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

One year I shot a cow moose, bull elk, and very large black bear - all on the same trip. Deboned, I was able to fit all three animals into (3) 150 quart coolers. I am not sure how that compares to the amount of deboned meat from a bison, just sharing as a point of reference. On the drive out, I stored all of my gear in the coolers, on the way back my gear got put on the hitch-mounted cargo carrier, with the meat inside the coolers, covered by a couple of sleeping bags inside the vehicle.

Inside a cooler, bags of ice will keep for two weeks or so if put pink insulation board on top of the ice inside the cooler, and more insulation board on to of the cooler, and then a sleeping bag over the top. And these are inexpensive Igloo coolers, not the expensive, overpriced ones.

Congrats on the tag, good luck on the hunt!

Sorry, but those must have been some tiny animals or a lot of meat shot up or wasted. My cow moose here in WA took up 600 qts of cooler space with some ice. Not completely deboned but quartered and mostly deboned.

Deboned and frozen I have found about a pound per quart, 30 years experience flying meat back from MO.

 

[Floater00]

We've hunted moose in Newfoundland several times. My truck has a cap. We use 2" foam insulation to line the floor and all four sides, then use an insulated shipping blanket over the top. This let's us pack 2 or 3 moose that are quartered, with the blanket top adjusting to the cargo. Our drive/ ferry back to PA is 29 hours. We add some frozen gallon jugs of water on top,.and have never had a problem.

 

[kcm2]

One of my hunting partners did that for archery pronghorn in one of those small pull behind trailers with a box. ethafoam is a great insulator. He'd line the bottom with blocks of ice and it would stay cold for a week.

 

[Crossweaponary]

Quarter it, let the meat cool first, then pack into big coolers with frozen jugs + some ice. Crack the drain so water doesn’t sit.

 

[CMF]

I immediately thought of building a cooler out of the bed or part of it?

That's what I thought the thread was going to be when I clicked.

There is a good thread somewhere on here where a guy turned a cargo trailer into a cooler.

I like the tuna or fish bag idea. I would lean towards bringing a couple 150qts. and a fish bag or two. The nice thing about the bag is you can roll it up tight and it takes up a lot less room when you're not using it.