Walk-in Cooler.. Trailer Build

[Ddog]

Pretty damn sweet!

 

[Trailerhunter]

Genius. I built a trailer for western big game and settled on a medium sized deep freezer that can fit 4 elk quarters and trimmings. The whole thing runs on a 200ah lithium battery and 600 watts of solar. The solar also charges our E bikes and cell phones, and runs a water pump for our in trailer shower

 

[Dezurtrat]

Genius. I built a trailer for western big game and settled on a medium sized deep freezer that can fit 4 elk quarters and trimmings. The whole thing runs on a 200ah lithium battery and 600 watts of solar. The solar also charges our E bikes and cell phones, and runs a water pump for our in trailer shower

That sounds like a pretty sweet setup! Only down fall is when I head out of state by myself it's a lot more trailer than I really need. I like to be light and fast on some of my hunts. Last year on my Nevada muledeer hunt I didn't even take it just because I was covering so much country and it would've been a headache where I was going. Plus 4 more tires to keep tabs on bouncing around in the desert

 

[Trailerhunter]

I purpose built everything in mine to stay light in order to minimize that exact feeling your talking about. I have an all aluminum 16x7 as well but with a deep 4 foot V nose. Ive towed both flat and V and Im convinced it makes a huge difference. Id love to see your setup in the "camper" side.

 

[Dezurtrat]

I purpose built everything in mine to stay light in order to minimize that exact feeling your talking about. I have an all aluminum 16x7 as well but with a deep 4 foot V nose. Ive towed both flat and V and Im convinced it makes a huge difference. Id love to see your setup in the "camper" side.

I wish i could, i just went through my phone and couldn't find any pictures and unfortunately when hunting season is over the wife turns the back half into a storage unit until the next hunting season comes around so it's full of totes at the moment
It's nothing fancy just some drop down bunks I built that are attached to the wall with E track so i can remove them whenever I want and a flip up table off the Dutch door that comes up between the bunks. I was burnt out after the cooler build so simple it was to get me by. I do plan on finishing the camper half, but it probably won't happen this year, I'm planning on tackling it next year once i build the funds up for it. Thats why in the original post i was asking if people have some ideas, i have quite a few in my head of what the finished product should look like.

 

[Trailerhunter]

I wish i could, i just went through my phone and couldn't find any pictures and unfortunately when hunting season is over the wife turns the back half into a storage unit until the next hunting season comes around so it's full of totes at the moment
It's nothing fancy just some drop down bunks I built that are attached to the wall with E track so i can remove them whenever I want and a flip up table off the Dutch door that comes up between the bunks. I was burnt out after the cooler build so simple it was to get me by. I do plan on finishing the camper half, but it probably won't happen this year, I'm planning on tackling it next year once i build the funds up for it. Thats why in the original post i was asking if people have some ideas, i have quite a few in my head of what the finished product should look like.

Ill take some pics of mine and post them tomorrow. Im constantly thinking about things I would do differently or improve on. I had a ton of fun building mine and often think about doing another.

 

[Boarmaster]

Thats really a nice project. I had the idea myself about 25 years ago. I saw the benefits of an enclosed trailer and I did buy one. But never customized it to hang deer.

 

[Trailerhunter]

Its currently in winter storage mode with nothing in it, but heres the trailer I built for the purpose of my son and I to take on western hunting trips. The bunks are modular with the E track, and this past fall we took a 4 wheeler to Colorado and had both bunks side by side on top of the wheeler. The design plans changed multiple times throughout the build and therefore i have some spaces that are somewhat wasted, but overall im very happy with it. We had 3 adult males living in it for 2 weeks in wyoming 2 yrs ago during an archery hunt. It was tighter but still worked well.

 

[buzzy]

That’s sweet. Sounds like a possible side job taking orders and selling some on the side. But the build out sounds pretty intensive and time consuming. Getting that meat cooled down is so important. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Dezurtrat]

Its currently in winter storage mode with nothing in it, but heres the trailer I built for the purpose of my son and I to take on western hunting trips. The bunks are modular with the E track, and this past fall we took a 4 wheeler to Colorado and had both bunks side by side on top of the wheeler. The design plans changed multiple times throughout the build and therefore i have some spaces that are somewhat wasted, but overall im very happy with it. We had 3 adult males living in it for 2 weeks in wyoming 2 yrs ago during an archery hunt. It was tighter but still worked well.

That's a pretty simple but, slick setup for sure. I built mine that has 3 drop down bunks in the back and i would say 3 adults is max for an extended hunting trip in my trailer.

 

[Dezurtrat]

That’s sweet. Sounds like a possible side job taking orders and selling some on the side. But the build out sounds pretty intensive and time consuming. Getting that meat cooled down is so important. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you, my wife and friends told me i should build and sell them but like you said it is very labor intensive especially with just me doing the work. With inflation on everything my guess to build this right now, trailer and cooler as it sits currently would probably be around 16-18k and that's not including my time. Not very many people out there would be able/willing to drop that amount of coin just for a mobile walk-in cooler/camper.

I tell you what though. After a long night of packing and getting everything hung in the cooler, the whiskey comes out and i can finally celebrate and have a good time and not feel rushed

 

[Dezurtrat]

I plan on doing my write up this weekend on the awning i built for it. So i guess you could say part 2 is coming soon

 

[jpuckett]

What a cool thread. Great builds you guys!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dezurtrat]

So For the awning I have delt with some serious winds where i hunt in the desert. We have had numerus quick shades get destroyed or sent to the next county like wizard of oz a permanent awning was something i thought about for a while but I've seen those things get hammered before by wind and plus the cost alone was something i really didn't even consider. I like things simple and if it gets destroyed by heavy winds it's reasonably priced to replace. Just like the cooler i put a lot of thought into it researching online looking at what other people have done or recommended.

I decided to go with the plain ole tarp route, I ended up ordering some white RV Awning trim which looks amazing and you hardly even know its on the side of the trailer. It came with the track, stainless tapping screws, trim insert to cover the screws and this epoxy tape/putty that i can't remember what they call it but it is next level sticky! When installing it you have to put it in the freezer for a little bit to keep it solid/workable, by the time i was almost done installing it, it was a sticky mess. Next was these little paracord mounts i found online that slide in the track that attached to the tarp.
Ordered a plain ole white tarp 10x18 as a pilot run. Now for the frame work, I went back and forth about a full frame like a wall tent or a 3 sided frame that attaches to the trailer. I really didn't want to attach anything to the trailer so i decided to build a steel frame that ran parallel with the trailer. I had access to some free 1 1/4" and 1" steel pipe thats pretty heavy wall and decided to use that for now until i decide to upgrade to lighter pipe.

The legs are extendable for uneven ground or if i want to dip a corner for drainage. Pictures are worth a thousand words and i will post them so you can see what im talking about. i drilled a hole in the 1 1/4" carrier pipe and welded a nut then run a bolt in to the 1" internal leg to adjust height. I did the same for the top spreader bars since the gromets on tarps vary i wanted the frame to be universal to work with other tarps.
The top of the legs have a piece of metal round stock that extends up about 1 1/2" to go through the gromet holes of the tarp. As do the bottom of the legs there is a large spike to keep them from moving around with a plate that extends out with a hole to run a stake through.

For anchoring everything down i tried using my 8" rebar stakes for my canvas cowboy tipi but, during the test at my home with 40-50 MPH winds they were starting to pull out of the ground. My hunting partner told me about some YouTube video he saw where a guy used big lag bolts and just drilled them into the ground for his wall tent. Sounded like a good idea, got on the internet and started shopping, Amazon had some 1/2" x 12" galvanized lag bolts, when i got them i welded a washer about a 1/2" down from the hex head and welded a chain link onto the washer for the support straps.

So for the test at home the cheap white tarp i had ended up tearing in the corner because of how tight i had it stretched and the amount of wind hitting it. It lasted 6 hours before it was done thats about 5 1/2 hours longer than i imagined it would last so plus there. I shopped around for a while looking at tarps, canvas and other things to use but settled in on a 10'x18' 18oz Heavy duty vinyl tarp from amazon, the thing weighs 30# so it's a serious tarp!

Install is pretty easy, I just have to remember to have a ladder in my trailer anytime i take it though. I setup the frame laying on the ground, feed the tarp down the awning trim, tie the ends of the tarp off tight on either end. I just use paracord, i usually have 1 lag drilled in the ground about 18' away perpendicular to the center of the trailer with a strap ready to go. Hook the tarp to the frame and stand it up and attach the strap to keep it upright. Then i go around and drill the other 4 lags in so there is a total of 5 straps holding the awning up. The whole process only takes me about 15 minutes to do by myself, way faster with a second person.

The remaining gromets along the tarp get zip tied to the frame, I found some LED string lights on amazon that i just feed through the zip ties and for right now the power cable just runs down the leg and attaches to a battery pack. Eventually i will have a 12v exterior plug up high on the trailer where i can just plug the strip lighting into the trailer and have them run off the trailer. They are bright!! Almost need to wear sun glasses at night when you're trying to cook dinner

The bonus to this is if I'm away from the trailer for a while backpacking/spiking out or packing meat all night and come back to a torn up awning I'm only out $100 and i always have a second one in the trailer incase the first one decides to fail. But after 3 years of some serious weather i haven't had to replace the original.

Sorry for the bad pictures of this. Its from my phone 5 years ago taking a picture of the computer to send to my hunting partner for his input








Track install







All mounted up, can't even tell it's there
Looking at the picture i just realized i did'nt mention the steps, they're scissor steps i got from E-trailer. I've bought a bunch of stuff from those guy's and they always treated me well and have what i need. So the steps come with a hanger that you can either bolt or weld it to your trailer, I welded them on. The steps are removable, my biggest thing was i didn't want anything hanging under the trailer to get torn off going through rough terrain. They're pretty slick. Just pop them off, collapse them and toss them right inside the door. Also its hard to tell in the picture but i also mounted 4 scissor jacks under the trailer one in each corner so when i get to my destination i run those down with my impact gun to stabalize the trailer up.

 

[Dezurtrat]

So next is the frame, it's my first prototype and has served me well but i'm looking at upgrading to a lighter/stronger pipe system

 

[Dezurtrat]

This is the cheap prototype tarp for the first test run





This is the tarp im currently using at the moment that is rock solid



Cheap tarp, about 24 hours before the high winds hit





All lite up at night. I tell you what this beats the crap out of running a lantern or head lamps when you're trying to cook



I don't have any pictures of the heavy duty tarp but it looks exactly like this one.

 

[MountainFeral]

This is the best thread I've found on here so far

 

[Dezurtrat]

This is the best thread I've found on here so far

Thank you! This thread is definitely going to take a while to complete, maybe a few more years. From here on out anytime i work on the trailer/add stuff to it i will be posting it here in the thread.

 

[onlybrowning]

This is really cool. I built a cooler last year, but not on a trailer. Mine looks like an air conditioned outhouse, but it’s on skids so I can lift it with forks and it’ll fit in a truck bed. I love the enclosed trailer idea! Nice work.

Ps: I found a great alternative to a Coolbot. You can find details on YouTube.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dezurtrat]

This is really cool. I built a cooler last year, but not on a trailer. Mine looks like an air conditioned outhouse, but it’s on skids so I can lift it with forks and it’ll fit in a truck bed. I love the enclosed trailer idea! Nice work.

Ps: I found a great alternative to a Coolbot. You can find details on YouTube.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'll definitely have to look for it on youtube but, for right now the coolbot system hasn't let me down yet
I thought about the portable cooler idea like you built but decided to make it permanent in the trailer.