It has cup holders and hinged handles for convenience, and it’s a hell of a lot stronger than the flimsy styrofoam coolers at the gas station. I’ll be honest in saying that it doesn’t offer the same kind of performance and durability as trendy, more expensive coolers, but it’s also about a third of the price. Coleman makes hard coolers large and small, whereas its coleman camping chair soft coolers are smaller and more suited for outdoor adventures. The soft coolers are also fitted with additional storage pockets for dry items and straps or handles for easy portability. On the other hand, many Coleman hard coolers come with molded cup holders in the lid, and several models are built with a “Have a Seat” lid with a 250-pound weight capacity.
But as mentioned, its weight and bulkiness make it very difficult to move around, and oftentimes in van life, you need to shift stuff around in your van. The “65” in “Yeti Tundra 65” is supposed to represent the number of quarts it can hold–but due to its thick insulation, it really holds closer to 57 quarts. So if I want to use this method, coleman instant tent I have to keep the hose attached to the cooler and plug up the hose. When I want to drain the cooler, I hold the hose up higher than the cooler so I can remove its plug without water pouring out. I also end up with food buried at the bottom, and on my never-ending quest to find good tupperware for van life, my food still gets waterlogged.
The prices range from $300 to $400 for the 60-, 80- and 100-quart models, and what you’re paying for is undoubtedly performance. These coolers are simply made by inserting hot plastic coleman camping chair into a defined mold, given time to cool, and then removed. The process is simpler and cheaper than rotomolding and allows for greater precision because of the molded shapes.
Performance is important, but design matters, too — and sometimes, it’s a deal-breaker. Oh, and if you’ll be spending lots of time camping in a place where bears are a concern, then you’ll probably want to invest in a bear-resistant cooler. The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee keeps a running list of certified options, which includes a number of coolers from this rundown. Several models I’ve tested from Cabela’s, Orca, Rovr, Magellan Outdoors and Yeti all make the cut. That’s all well and good, but I worried that a standard ice retention test on its own wouldn’t tell us the whole story.
I can send my Yeti cooler to hell and back and I’ll still be pulling out a cold drink! I don’t mind if it gets a ding here or a kick there; its walls are so thick that I have zero worries about it doing real damage. Since the cooler walls aren’t very thick, it provides more internal storage space.