How to save money on the road?

The good ones are in the $600 range, and worth it.

As for the cheaper ones (the thermoelectric ones, around $100), it's not the vibration that kills them, it's the continuous duty. They aren't designed to run for months on end. The Coleman coolers (the most popular among truckers) has a cheap fan on the outer heat sink that wears out in a couple of months. Get a 92mm ball bearing computer case fan (the 80mm ones work, if that's what you can find) and swap it out. I can do it in under 10 minutes.

 

As a nerd who just built his own computer (including four case fans) I approve this message.

 

For Argument's sake I've been using my Coleman 12v cooler for a year without it burning out. It does freeze up at times but then you just need to unplug it and let it defrost some.

If some are having problems with the little motor burning out one thing I would suggest is occasionally cleaning out the fan on the outside. Dust and everything else gets stuck on the outside fan and eventually, and pretty quickly, it will get clogged. Unplug the cooler. There are 4 screws holding on the outside plastic cover. Pull the cover and brush off the crap on that fan and it will run smoothly again. Do this every once in a while. I leave mine on almost constantly and don't have any problems. It's been pretty low maintenance but it does require some. As far as the water that builds up at the bottom, I don't know of any shortcuts other than just pulling all your food out, spraying down the bottom and wiping it out with some papertowels. Then just put your food back in. If you overfill this cooler the motor may ice up as well so you need to leave some room to allow the air to circulate. If the motor ever gets noisy on you it's most likely frost building up on the inside fan. Unplug and let it melt then plug it back in.

 

Whoever builds these for Coleman uses the cheapest fans they can find. Mine started "growling" about six weeks after I started using it, and the fan completely quit after about six months.

The stock fan used a plastic sleeve bearing, which eventually wore out. I dropped in an 80mm ball bearing case fan that I happened to have in my junk box, and the cooler runs as good as new.

These units have two failure points; one is the outside fan, as we've been discussing. The other is the cigarette lighter plug. The easy workaround for that is to cut off the plug and wire the cooler directly to the CB binding posts, if your truck has them.

I've been given two more from drivers who have replaced them. Both had bad fans. One had the plug cut off; the other had a new plug attached. I can spend less than $20 on a new fan and plug, spend a half hour cleaning the cooler and replacing the parts, and sell it for $50.

As for the wet bottom, I keep a hand towel in the bottom to soak up the water (and spillage).

 

This got me to thinking if I am not drinkin-smokin-gamblin-chasing women I do not think I need a job!

 

I've seen a couple of posts about the crappy fans in the Coleman 40 quarts but maybe I just got lucky and got a good one. I got mine in 1998 at Wally World in the RV section. Since then I've replaced the fan motor (about $20) twice, but I can tell from the sound it's about time for the third one. I never had any problems with the either the plug to the 12v outlet or the connector to the plug in; other than one time back when I first got it and had taken it out at home to do a thorough cleaning and put it back in (on hometime) with a beer buzz going and plugged it in backwards and warmed up and ruined my food that I put in for the outbound LOL. I do clean the outer fan periodically. Q-Tips work great for getting the dust and stuff off the insides of the curved tines of the fan. A little maintenance goes a LONG way with those things. Yeah, hand towel in the bottom for the condensation and every weekend I rotate it out and give it a good cleaning with Windex or Mean Green - but hey; I clean out and wipe down my fridge at home too. so no biggie there.

I'm not saying the other posters are wrong by any means. I'm just saying I've had really good luck with mine.

 

lunch box cooker was my first and still have it !!

a 12V cooler will last a few yrs, if cleaned regularly.

when it dies I use my Wilco pts to buy a new one. they don't drop pts after a yr.

last one cost me $10. lol

I spend about $8-10/wk. usually coffee.

home on weekends.

cook food to bring,ect.