Best coolers for 212x... what's everyone using

pagekl said:

Yeti Tundra 45 is a good size as well for our boats. Impressed with these Yeti's. Put ice in it on a Sunday, Wednesday still had some left.

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What do you do with the left over ice, marvel at it?

That looks like a party with that 65.

Paulie44 said:

One day we will look back and wonder what we're we thinking.

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Unless your cooler saved your beer from a bear.

Ancient canoe said:

Seems that 10 years or so ago this wouldn't be a question, but then a company came along and convinced everyone that their tailgate cooler needed to be bear proof and hold ice for a week.

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It's like a Members Only Jacket. It makes folks feel exclusive. I realize I'm dating myself and I did have a couple or Members Only Jackets. Dark blue and crimson.

I am also looking at a new cooler however I would more then likely use it to augment my fridge in our camper. I have reviewed a lot of them and pretty much leaning towards the Yeti. Why first because they get good recommendations for their customer service, secondly the reviews over the years and even now have been very very positive. Yes they are expensive however if you look at the Yeti site they give a 15% discount to military, verify thru ID.me which is reputable. I also understand they give discounts to teachers. I also like the fact that they do keep food very cold over a long period of time. So now i must decide between the tundra 35 or 45.

I decided to stay with a soft sided cooler since we rarely need more than 5 hours of cool time and the 20 lbs of empty weight for the Yeti Tundra 35 was a deterrent. Lately we have been putting our cooler on the cockpit floor rather than under a seat so we don't have to move off the seats or pull up the non hinged cushions. Lots of folks here like the AO brand so I pulled the trigger on the 12 and 24 can sizes, both for $100.

We have the bench seat in our AR210, so we've been using this 38 can AO cooler since it slides right under that seat. We love it!

Probably doesn't work as well with the 2nd captains chair.



https://www.westmarine.com/buy/ao-coolers--stow-n-go-cooler-38-cans-plus-14lb-of-ice--14974281?recordNum=12

As mine will be primarily for camping I believe my choice will be for one that is hard sided. There are so many makes and models out there that get very good views it will be tough to make a decision. I was thinking of RTIC however they just lost a court case to YETI so not sure what impact that will have on them. So now leaning towards a Tundra 45 as I believe it will meet all of our needs to include an acceptable weight when full.

My thanks to all for their input. After reviewing a bunch of coolers I decided to go with the YETI Tundra 45 as I thought it best met my needs. I bought it directly from Yeti. Although not inexpensive the price was not all that bad with free shipping, my Military discount and also some yeti ice packs.

We love our Grizzly coolers.
Same concept at YETI just less money!

Nothing better than spending 8+ hours boating and still have ice cold beer/food in the cooler.

https://www.grizzlycoolers.com/

jeff_s said:

We love our Grizzly coolers.
Same concept at YETI just less money!

Nothing better than spending 8+ hours boating and still have ice cold beer/food in the cooler.

https://www.grizzlycoolers.com/

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Cheaper than yeti, but at 300 bucks for a 75qt, I'll take my Coleman Marine extreme for 70 bucks. Holds ice at least 24hr in 120° Arizona heat, or 5 days at 70°. Coleman 70 Qt. Coastal Extreme Marine Cooler 3000001845 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y4223D9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Cd6UAb0XK4E7C

To each their own. Once I got my grizzly, my Coleman extreme just stays in the garage. Plus the damn hinges on the Coleman are junk.

And the grizzly floats. Good to have when it fell off the back swim deck cause no one told me they left it there and it wasnt straped down.
Lol

We use the Yeti

Sam's Club has the Igloo Sportsman 55 QT for $168 if you want something large. I kind of doubt you can beat that price on any comparable cooler...if you decide on a rotomolder cooler. I have a Sportsman 2o qt that I got as part of a deal several years ago from Sam's where if you bought a Pelican 45 QT, you got the SM 20 QT for $90. The Pelican is a beast...ice all week if you are careful (admittedly not useful all that often)...but I actually like the SM better.

The Yeti Hopper is my go to, it has gotten more use since buying the boat than it ever did before. Fits under the seats perfectly, in the ski locker, on the deck out of the way, or in the head and keeps a case of beer chilly all the way until the last one (not sure how long it stays cold, the cooler is usually empty before that happens)

eticket said:

@CAM212SS, Do you have a model or picture? I use a soft side under the port aft seat (where the stock igloo also goes). However, it is a pain to keep taking off the cushion and moving people around to get to the drinks. If my cooler fit the bow well and looked good, maybe I'd just keep it there since we don't often have more than two people up there and they are usually in the lounge position anyway.



Thanks, those look good too!

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We had a RTIC and sent back. Just didn’t keep things cold after about 12 hrs. We live in AZ though so maybe none will keep stuff that cold

If you want to save some money and get even better performance than the Yeti, grab the Cabelas cooler. There are a ton of online video comparisons. I had Ice for 5 Days in Lake Powell, I used tricks like a wet towel on the top and kept in the shade whenever I could but it performed very well. Make sure you use block ice whenever you can it last much longer. Another trick is to put ice in the cool two days before you pack it to bring the cooler inner temp down, dump that ice and put in your new block ice. You can also make a cooler cover out of Reflectix foil insulation (lowes and Homedepot) if it is going to be in the sun.

https://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/fishing/2016/03/ice-chest-throwdown-12-top-end-coolers-ranked-and-reviewed#page-2

Although we have a Tundra I recently purchased the YETI Hopper 2 20 as it is easy to carry and is big enough to carry our wine, cheese and sandwiches.

CAM212SS said:

this is the YETI Tundra 35.
View attachment 56372 View attachment 56373 View attachment 56374

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Yours looked so godd, I copied your idea - this is on a 2018 AR210

Todd Kyle said:

Yours looked so godd, I copied your idea - this is on a 2018 AR210

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very nice