Would appreciate your advice as to how to keep the food cool make it through a 5 day stay in the Hiace without spending too much extra money. Once have the van in the location - am there for 5 days - so can't get out to get ice once the first bactch melts.
Usually move around so it's a not a problem to keep the battery going for the fridge and lights. Any suggestions when staying in one place for exteneded time. Don't want to spend the money on solar or gene just for this one occassion.
Freeze everything you can before you go. Get a good quality Esky.Get the Esky cold then pack in the food on top of the ice in the approximate order you intend to use it, making sure it will not get water logged. If using only a fridge, the same system works without the ice. If you have excess capacity, freeze up some suitable plastic containers and use them until they thaw , then remove from fridge
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is this an eski or a fridge? Sounds like an eski to me.
1st, get it nice and cold before you load it up.
2nd, use a bock of ice...they stay much colder and solid far more longer than a bag of ice cubes from the shops. You can make your own. Just fill a pan, pot or anything and freeze it. then put in eski.
3rd, freeze some meals in advance. They also work to keep the eski very cold. Also freeze all meats.
4th, if possible, use a seperate eski for drinks. That way you only open the big one for foods and not constantly for drinks.
Few other commen sense things. Keep in shade, only open when needed. Possibly keep covered with a cold damp cloth depending on where it is.
It must be a fridge as he keeps moving around which keeps the fridge and lights going, normally. As the others have suggested, plenty of ice in small bottles. I have a few little bottles about 50 mil, that I keep in my fridge at home. Will put them in my fridge with my blue blocks. Did that last time I travelled, only opened the fridge when necessary and when unable to turn gas on it would last a little while longer. You don't have gas I take it. I also carry a small esky for things that won't fit in the fridge, with blue blocks in amongst the food.
If its a fridge, make sure when you park your van that the side which has the fridge in it is parked on the south side of the van, so it wont have direct sunshine on it at any time of day. Also try to have the whole van in the shade if possible. The ambient temperature makes a huge difference to any fridge or esky.
To clarify the situation: The Hiace has a fridge that runs of of the house but it won't last more than 2 days at best when the van is stationery so was looking for solutions to keep going for 5 days.
Any leads to the best esky out there would be a great help.
maybe use battery type lights to save all the power for the fridge - book lights for reading and hikers head lamps are great for seeing and leaving hands free
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Jenny and Barry
2009 Roma Elegance / 2013 Colorado. Permanent travellers 2011-2015 now just travel for 4-6 mths
ZEDJAY, The best esky is a fibre glass one, like the Down Under brand or similar which I use in the boat. Fibre glass does NOT absorbe heat &/or adour.like steel & plastic.
As stated the home made block ice is far better, the longer you can leave it in the freezer before you use it the better.
2nd, go to a rural supply & buy your self a bag of coarse salt, add one cupped hand full of the salt per one block of ice, sprinkle salt on the ice as you pack the esky.then a little more spread around the esky to finish.
We have used this system many times & works very well, even bringing drinks from ambient temp to near freezing.
This system does not stop the ice from melting any quicker, however the salty solution you have after melt down is colder than ice, I will defy you to hold your hand in the water for any length of time, You can only dive in & grab a drink & get out before you turn blue.
I over done the salt on one accasion & had cans freeze from ambient temp & poped the seals.
PS, have a coldie for me.
Cheers;
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There are many out there that are quite good and a few that are very good. Price is a reasonable indicator. Do a little research on eBay, read the spec s and then go down to your local camping goods supplier, find the one that best suits your requirements AND budget and then HAGGLE. Especially if there is more than one camping goods store in your area
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Take only your memories, leave only your footprints
Don't you have the 240V option? Where are you camping? In the Kimberley when we went camping we'd carry 2 litre plastic bottles with frozen water. We'd check them every morning and take out the thawed ones and replace with solid ones. The thawed water was our daily water supply. The esky with the frozen bottles was only opened once a day and it was kept in the shade in the tent. Depending on how much room you have, and how you can prepare beforehand this system works really well. As previously suggested, keep your drinks in another esky or in the fridge. If all else fails you may need to shorten your stays or get a back up power supply.
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20ft Roma caravan - Mercedes Benz Sprinter - SA-based at the moment. Transport has no borders.
Management makes the decisions, but is not affected by the decisions it makes.
another sorce of power is the purple 1900amp /38amphour jumpstarters from SuperCheap Auto.....they come up on specials at times...apart from jumpstarting
...great for running extra things like EvaKool torpedo lights......
we even run our waeco fridge for few days off them
Not trying to be smart or any thing but it was not many years ago that we camped for upto a month with no fridge or esky. We used to manage ok back then. Takes a bit more planing to do but for a week it wont be hard. Maybe also instead of buying an esky you could invest in a portable 100 amph battery pack that may extend your fridge time, turn the fridge down so its not so cold, theres an extra day. most importantly is to not stress and have fun cheers blaze
As well as my fridge which is 3 way I take an esky with frozen bottles in amongst the food. As the water defrosts it is used for drinking. I also take a fair bit of tinned or dry food for emergencies where I can't use the fridge eg. The gas runs out, not plugged into mains power and not travelling for a few days. The esky is great for things like bread, fruit, some veges etc that won't all fit in the fridge anyway.
We have the little 3 way fridge in the van, and a portable fridge, also 3 way, about the size of a large esky, which we also can use with ice.
I try to plan ahead re food. Carry longlife milk, soup and juice. Always have freeze dried peas, instant mashed potato, canned tomotoes,(also capsicum, mushrooms, corn etc) lots of rice & noodles etc. Supermarket bread lasts longer then bakery bread. When that runs out - I make damper or scones.
We can live without butter/marg and yoghurt for a few days. I try to use fresh/frozen meat/fish in the first instance, while everything is cold, and can do heaps with canned tuna and salmon when there is no refrigeration.
When I was a kid I saw my dad and uncles keep their beer in a bag, left under water in the lake or creek, safely tied to a length of rope around a suitable tree. Must have kept it cool enough, because they drank it.
At home my dogs eat fresh chicken wings, but they eat dry dog food on our travels, so even they help!
Just remembered... if your battery goes flat, the fridge will repeatedly start to cycle then stop again. Best to turn it off if this happens. Then go to the esky or tinned/dried food as R &R suggested.
You could try dry ice slabs, but dry ice will freeze drinks. Wrap well in paper before putting in base of esky - lasts longer and to avoid contact with the base and sides of the esky.
A lot of fishermen buy Tropical brand eskies - insulation thickness, tough as and a great seat or spare table.
Hi Zedjay, in addition to the excellent suggestions above, if the battery will run the fridge for two days, then you could try running the fridge for 8 hours only of a night, and place a wet/damp towel over it during the day. Opening the door as little as possible.
Johnw
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another sorce of power is the purple 1900amp /38amphour jumpstarters from SuperCheap Auto.....they come up on specials at times...apart from jumpstarting
we even run our waeco fridge for few days off them
I recently used one of these to supplement my house battery (in the van) when camped "off power" for several days. I recharged it a few times by connecting to the main car battery the same way as if to do a jump start and idled the car for about an hour. The car's aux battery was being recharged at the same time.
Don't know what the long term effect would be if doing this on a regular basis but I figure if it's designed to handle the very high discharge current of a starter motor there shouldn't be any major problem with the recharge current of 15 - 25 amps (I measured it)
I also sometimes use a CTek 3.8 amp charger to recharge it from the mains instead of the plug pak that comes with it.
While it may not be the most luxurious way to live, I'd suggest if it's short term then pack food for the second half of the week that won't need refridgeration. I lived in the rainforest in far north qld without power for 5 years and the main thing I missed was my automatic washing machine. Would go shopping once a fortnight and for the first few days would have "cold" foods, then back to powdered milk, dehydrated and canned foods. You can also get UHT milks, cream, custard. I still live in an area where we can get flooded in, and have power dropouts in stormy weather, so my pantry drew the comment from my daughter-in-law "Oh, it's like going shopping". Have fun!
PS, and yes, I told her that like shopping you have to pay
-- Edited by The dog lady on Saturday 17th of September 2011 01:11:54 PM
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Cheers, Marianna.
The more I learn about people, the more I like my dogs (Mark Twain)
Jim...had my 2 for nearly 4 years.....long as you charge them up every 3 weeks or so....use 240v mains...Pajeros cig lighter or my 80watt solar panel..they been fine for me so far....handy if your in trouble....I even use them to charge my mobile phone and run my laptop.via an adaptor....spends most their life behind drivers seat when away.
Used mine last week to jump start the (diesel) Pajero, did the job ok. I'd left the key in the "aux" position for too long and was powering the van (3 way) fridge without the engine running. When travelling I store mine strapped behind the cargo barrier and use the cig lighter plug to keep it "topped up" I used it to run my TV while camped to conserve power on my house battery. The quoted amphour capacity seems realistic too. It seems to perform as well as some of the more up-market battery packs for a fraction of the price.
Am keen to learn. Never heard of a 1900amp /38amphour jumpstarter and also didn't know that the fridge continues to cycle even once the battery has died.
Have printed out your replies and will start planning. It will be my first big trip away on my own and I don't want to get stuck. Thanks for the reminder to not stress Blaze
