YETI OWNERS: Need a size recommendation

triplezip

triplezip

Knows what a fatty is.
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Hi all,

My question is for those brethren that own and use Yeti coolers (specifically) for KCBS bbq comps.

I've finally had it with cheap coolers. Settled on buying 2-3 Yeti's for the coming season. We'll be transporting them in an enclosed trailer with the rest of our gear, and will be loaded in and out (not stationary). We usually compete with one brisket, three butts, four racks, and 18 thighs. Looking for ideal size recommendations + rationale, considering weight, capacity, etc -- for KCBS comp applications (four meats, prep items, beverages, personal food, etc) as well as personal / home use.

Thanks y'all.
 
I'm not a yeti owner (yet), but I've cooked with a buddy of mine who loves his Tundra 65. https://www.yeti.com/hard-coolers/tundra-65-cooler/YT65.html

It's his meat cooler, and the reason he choose it for that purpose is because it will fit a full size foil pan in it. Very convenient for seasoning/injecting and then keeping the meat cool until it goes on the cooker.

IIRC, he cooks just about the exact same quantities as you do, so I don't see any reason why those items wouldn't fit just fine in the 65.
 
2 65's will do it easy. It wont conveniently fit a foil pan, but anything bigger than the 65-75 is too damn heavy to move with one person when loaded. Even our RTIC 65 is really a 2 man job when loaded if someone is standing around with nothing to do.

We have a yeti 125 as well. Incredible size, efficient, but damn heavy loaded.

A yeti 105 is very similar in size to the 125, just not as long. will hold a foil pan without crimping
 
We use 3 coolers from Squatchboxx.
All our meats are in one "RDTRPPR" model (~63qt) and we each bring our own drinks, sauces, etc in their "WKNDR" (~40qt). Never need ice, super durable, easy to move around.

Check them out at https://squatchboxx.net.
They're pretty active on Facebook and Instagram. Some pretty cool drinkware as well.

Shoot me a PM if you're interested, I might have a discount code. :wink:

119m06e.jpg
 
I have a 65 nd it is perfect, it will hold 24 chicken thighs, 4 racks of ribs, 3 or 4 butts depending if I bought single or double packs and an 18 pound brisket with 30-40 pounds of ice. We have a toyhauler with a fridge so all of our food, drinks etc go in there. I will sometimes throw a 6 pack of Shiner Bock on top if I feel like a beer. After meat inspection I fill a pan in the bottom of our 2 cambros and cool them off and as I trim, inject season etc I put the meat into the cambros. We have a/c in the prep area and they will stay cold all night with a full pan of ice in them. I usually wind up dumping a half cooler of ice when we pack up. won't use it for anything else in case of cross contamination.
 
thunderalley3 said:
I have a 65 nd it is perfect, it will hold 24 chicken thighs, 4 racks of ribs, 3 or 4 butts depending if I bought single or double packs and an 18 pound brisket with 30-40 pounds of ice. We have a toyhauler with a fridge so all of our food, drinks etc go in there. I will sometimes throw a 6 pack of Shiner Bock on top if I feel like a beer. After meat inspection I fill a pan in the bottom of our 2 cambros and cool them off and as I trim, inject season etc I put the meat into the cambros. We have a/c in the prep area and they will stay cold all night with a full pan of ice in them. I usually wind up dumping a half cooler of ice when we pack up. won't use it for anything else in case of cross contamination.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but there is NO WAY you are getting all of that in a Yeti 65. The inside dimension are only 10 5/8” × 11 1/8” × 23 1/8”
 
Last edited:
If it was me, I would buy a couple of camchillers and haul everything but chicken in the cambro. You can put everything in hotel pans which is easier than digging through a cooler for what you need. If you trim at home, you can just wrap in plastic wrap. No worries about it getting soggy in a cooler and you have one less thing to lug around.

You can put chicken in there if you like, but I like to keep it separate in a small cooler to avoid any cross contamination.
 
Blanton said:
Sorry, but there is NO WAY you are getting all of that in a Yeti 65. The inside dimension are only 10 5/8” × 11 1/8” × 23 1/8”
Click to expand...

You are so right, I got all wrapped up looking at the 65 and thinking that I need one that I typed it in my description.

I have a 110 now that I use as stated but looking at adding a 65 when find a deal.

Thanks for making me think again !! :doh:
 
I pretty much agree with above. I have an RTIC 65 and its about as big as I can handle by myself, and its a pain to load by my self. I can hold all my Comp meat but it is tight. I believe the rtic 65 is bigger than the yeti IIRC. It actually holds 65 qts, where as yetis outside dimensions are similar to a normal 65, and therefore only holds 55 or something like that.
 
I dont mean to hi-jack this thread but I do have a question for Yeti owners.......do you feel their performance vs. price seems reasonable?

Also, for someone like me, that has multiple Coleman's, which I've probably invested $250 in all of em, do you feel the Yeti's are worth paying the money and ditching the Coleman's?

On average, I spend about $35-40 in ice pre-comp. I will spend another $20 during the comp if free ice is not given and the weather is warm.
 
Untraceable said:
2 65's will do it easy. It wont conveniently fit a foil pan, but anything bigger than the 65-75 is too damn heavy to move with one person when loaded. Even our RTIC 65 is really a 2 man job when loaded if someone is standing around with nothing to do.

We have a yeti 125 as well. Incredible size, efficient, but damn heavy loaded.

A yeti 105 is very similar in size to the 125, just not as long. will hold a foil pan without crimping
Click to expand...

Will it hold a standard hotel pan ?
 
MikeJ65 said:
If it was me, I would buy a couple of camchillers and haul everything but chicken in the cambro. You can put everything in hotel pans which is easier than digging through a cooler for what you need. If you trim at home, you can just wrap in plastic wrap. No worries about it getting soggy in a cooler and you have one less thing to lug around.

You can put chicken in there if you like, but I like to keep it separate in a small cooler to avoid any cross contamination.
Click to expand...

I'd definitely agree with this. If you don't already have a cambro, they're much nicer than a cooler for dealing with rubbed/injected meats.
 
MikeJ65 said:
If it was me, I would buy a couple of camchillers and haul everything but chicken in the cambro. You can put everything in hotel pans which is easier than digging through a cooler for what you need. If you trim at home, you can just wrap in plastic wrap. No worries about it getting soggy in a cooler and you have one less thing to lug around.

You can put chicken in there if you like, but I like to keep it separate in a small cooler to avoid any cross contamination.
Click to expand...

The camchillers are a cool idea, and the Cambro is certainly more ideal than a cooler in terms of convenient access for meats. However, they're apparently only rated for 8 hours of use, so seems like you would either need to switch over to ice in a pan or transfer your meats into a cooler anyway once the prep, injection, etc was done on site. No?
 
masque13 said:
I dont mean to hi-jack this thread but I do have a question for Yeti owners.......do you feel their performance vs. price seems reasonable?

Also, for someone like me, that has multiple Coleman's, which I've probably invested $250 in all of em, do you feel the Yeti's are worth paying the money and ditching the Coleman's?

On average, I spend about $35-40 in ice pre-comp. I will spend another $20 during the comp if free ice is not given and the weather is warm.
Click to expand...

I only use a Yeti so I can be one of the cool kids.............Joking of course

I use them for the overall durability, and yes, this style does hold ice better, be it a Yeti, RTIC, or any other of them out there. What is nice is not having everything floating in water after a couple of days.

I must say though you seem to use a lot of ice. I may use a total of 40lbs all weekend, so $7-10 for me.

I don't use the Yeti for the meats as they are only on ice for less than 12 hours. I do plan to get a 110 though for long travels like the Royal
 
We have both and there is basically no difference between the Yeti and RTIC. Its no wonder Yeti was so pissed at them. I haven't seen the new generation of RTIC hard sided coolers, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy another. They really do hold ice much better. I bucked the rotomolded color trend for years, but after having them, I have a hard time justifying anything else.

The RTIC soft sided coolers are not on the level of yeti. but at a fraction of the price effective.
 
Yeti 250 Impressions

I took Myron's course a few years ago and saw he had a bunch of Yeti 250's in use. I looked at them after camp and they were PRICEY. I figured out a way using Amex points on Amazon to help fade that problem. So I'll concentrate on how well it works for a comp.

You pre-chill the cooler with a sacrificial frozen gallon bottle or two overnight. Then line the bottom with ice blocks (which I made over a few weeks using a mold from an old plastic cookie container). Then cover the blocks with a couple 7 lb bags of loose ice. Then you can easily lay in two briskets, two butts, 4-6 racks of ribs, and 18+ thighs and cover them with ice and have room left over for camp food, etc. Cover with some more ice bags. Optionally top it off with a yoga mat. At the end of a 4 day comp weekend those blocks in the bottom will barely be melted at all. Meats will temp at 32 for inspection. Full-size hotel pans will fit in it easily. Makes a great bench too. Downsides: heavy as all hell, we used a floor jack and a couple guys to get it into/out of the RV storage compartment.

I think coolers are like smokers to some extent, you always want bigger ones. I'd err on the side of buying larger than you think you need.
 
I just got in my RTIC 110 when they had them on sale. You cant beat the price of them. It is heavy empty, cant wait to see how heavy it is full.
 
Blanton said:
I only use a Yeti so I can be one of the cool kids.............Joking of course

I use them for the overall durability, and yes, this style does hold ice better, be it a Yeti, RTIC, or any other of them out there. What is nice is not having everything floating in water after a couple of days.

I must say though you seem to use a lot of ice. I may use a total of 40lbs all weekend, so $7-10 for me.

I don't use the Yeti for the meats as they are only on ice for less than 12 hours. I do plan to get a 110 though for long travels like the Royal
Click to expand...

thanks for the info!

the reason we use so much ice is that I have one cooler that is my meat cooler.....and honestly, I probably over ice it for safety reasons. I probably use 4-6 bags of ice in this cooler.

I have a second cooler that is a drink and BBQ related glazes etc that has to be kept cold. it's a fairly large cooler to hold all of that stuff and takes probably 4-5 bags of ice.

then I have a third cooler that holds nothing but my parsley. it's a smaller cooler but I still wind up using 1-2 bags of ice in it.

so when I go to the store i usually wind up buying I suppose around 12-15 bags of ice which I guess is actually closer to $25-30 than what i stated earlier.

I'm guessing that at warmer comps we go though about another 4-7 bags of ice while we are there. I'm sure some of that is not actually necessary, but I like to keep things very cold, so I do what i do.....lol
 
@masque13

Here is something to consider whatever coolers you use. Too large of cooler and you do need to fill with ice for maximum efficiency. A smaller cooler with less ice will actually work better than a large one not filled. You are also carrying one for produce. No need to put that on ice. For a single contest I use an 82qt coleman extreme and put a divider in for 1/3 of it. Meat and ice go in the 2/3 side, produce goes in the other end with no ice. That side is just like a refrigerator and no ice on produce is needed. Then I stack my built boxes in that same end where the produce was.

I use a Yeti 65 for my injection bottles and beer, and have the tray available for what not.

On a side note, perhaps will run into you this year. Plan to come down to Mundfordville
 
triplezip said:
The camchillers are a cool idea, and the Cambro is certainly more ideal than a cooler in terms of convenient access for meats. However, they're apparently only rated for 8 hours of use, so seems like you would either need to switch over to ice in a pan or transfer your meats into a cooler anyway once the prep, injection, etc was done on site. No?
Click to expand...

Mine will get me to the comp and stay cold through Friday night with no problems. Depending on how early I loaded up, I might add some ice to a pan for ribs overnight. I put big meats on late Friday night and never add ice before then. If I am doing a double, I throw all the meat in a Coleman 150 5-day with the camchillers and 30-40 lbs. of ice. The chillers will be good for day 1 prep in the Cambro, but I will do a couple ice pans on day 2.
 
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