Packing A Cooler For A Long Distance Contest

[BBQ Bandit]

Last May - over 600 pounds of pork butts shared among (4) Coleman Marine/Extreme coolers... packed for (4) days and 450 miles in the back of my pick-up bed. Each was packed evenly one layer on the bottom (15 butts standing on end) - with bags of ice on top. Allowed the melting water in place as a cooling agent. The coolers were then covered with several layers of moving blankets, with a reflective tarp with a cargo netting.

No problem... however was about 200 lbs per cooler factoring meat and ice.
Photo from thread... http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2045502&postcount=117

 

[ique]

I dont think you need dry ice. Trim, cryo, freeze. Pack in ice.

Daily or close to it, drain off any water and repack with fresh ice. You'll be fine.

 

[Scottie]

I do a TON of long drives and back to back contests on the road. Dont over think it. Do as Chris says. Get rid of the water. If you can get block ice that is 3" thick. They are perfect. Line the cooler with those, put meat in and cover with ice. I do that in a 100qt cooler and with the meat frozen, it stays for a long time. Over 7 days for me...

 

[Rub]

I do a TON of long drives and back to back contests on the road. Dont over think it. Do as Chris says. Get rid of the water. If you can get block ice that is 3" thick. They are perfect. Line the cooler with those, put meat in and cover with ice. I do that in a 100qt cooler and with the meat frozen, it stays for a long time. Over 7 days for me...

I use disposable full and half pans to make these in the freezer beforehand, pop them out, works great.

 

[djqualls]

Dry ice under a layer of ice in a yeti will actually freeze thawed meat ! it happened to me this summer. We left on Wednesday for a comp and Friday my brisket and butts were frozen on the bottom side.

 

[rooftop bbq]

i would recommend not trimming before hand, if you plan on traveling with it thawed. Keeping that original cyrovac is really important to protect from spoilage.

 

[Sylvie]

I dont think you need dry ice. Trim, cryo, freeze. Pack in ice.

Daily or close to it, drain off any water and repack with fresh ice. You'll be fine.

I also will be driving from the west coast to the Royal and bringing my meats. I think I'm going with Chris' suggestion.

 

[huminie]

Don't over think it? I don't know any other way to do it! haahaa!

Sounds like I will be making some homemade ice blocks in preparation for this.

I was really hoping to learn if there were any tricks for using dry ice to conserve space and reduce water, without having everything freeze up like a rock.

I will probably freeze chicken and ribs (pre-trimmed and foodsavered) as they will thaw quick on the other end. I will probably leave pork thawed in original packaging and put trimmed briskets in frozen and hope they thaw a bit on the journey.

I have 2 brand new 120qt ice chests, one for each day's meats, and an older 150qt for other food and drinks. Thinking I might pack me some tri-tips to cook up while I am there.

 

[Pigs on Fire]

If you really want to use dry ice, there's very simple instructions for using it on the dry ice container in the grocery store.

To keep stuff frozen, place the dry ice on top of the product.

To keep it cold, place the dry ice on the bottom of the cooler and put the product on top...with a layer of some sort of barrier (a brown grocery sack would be a great idea.)

It's really this simple. Dry ice is not cheap. It's a PITA to deal with.

Another poster in this thread and myself laid out a pretty simple plan that is probably the most economical.

 

[sitnfat]

Just make you some dry ice and experiment with it. Just be careful and use gloves and goggles when making and handling. It's 100 degrees below zero so it will mess your skin up

 

[va92bronco]

Here is a youtube video of the sportsmanguys testing high end coolers including the yeti, IRP, Engel, Igloo, and coleman extreme. Pretty informative.

High End Cooler Test by SportsmanGuys.com™ - - YouTube

Coleman Extreme looked like it did better than the Coleman Marine. Glad a got a extreme. though that Engel looked nice.

 

[Andrews]

Don't over think it? I don't know any other way to do it! haahaa!

Sounds like I will be making some homemade ice blocks in preparation for this.

I was really hoping to learn if there were any tricks for using dry ice to conserve space and reduce water, without having everything freeze up like a rock.

I will probably freeze chicken and ribs (pre-trimmed and foodsavered) as they will thaw quick on the other end. I will probably leave pork thawed in original packaging and put trimmed briskets in frozen and hope they thaw a bit on the journey.

I have 2 brand new 120qt ice chests, one for each day's meats, and an older 150qt for other food and drinks. Thinking I might pack me some tri-tips to cook up while I am there.

I do a good size chunk of dry-ice on top of the ice for the first day or two then ice only for the remainder of the trip. Meat will be pre-trimmed and vac-sealed if time permits before leaving.

 

[ique]

Coleman Extreme looked like it did better than the Coleman Marine. Glad a got a extreme. though that Engel looked nice.

I've been tempted by some of the high end coolers, but that Coleman Extreme is pretty awesome for the price.

 

[huminie]

My local walmart had 100qt Coleman Extremes for sale at $55 each. I picked up 2 for the journey to the Royal.