BWCA Insulating a 5 gallon bucket Boundary Waters Group Forum: Do It Yourself Gear
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Rs130754
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06/03/2018 11:08AM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
I have done a bit of searching and was thinking of trying to insulate a 5 gallon bucket with a Gamma lid. I am making my first trip in a few weeks and bought a CCS Deluxe insulated food pack for cheap. I was thinking of taking the bucket and putting my frozen or chilled items in it to further keep things cool. I figured I could freeze my chili, steaks, and maybe even a half-gallon of mild and it would keep cheese, butter, and eggs cool. My partner wants to bring along as much fresh food as possible but keeping it cool might be a challenge on our 5 day trek.

I was thinking of using 1" pink foam board top and bottom and maybe a double layer of reflex inside. I would still have plenty of room in the pack for dried goods as well as most of my mess kit. As I have never used the CCS pack maybe the bucket would be unnecessary and just added weight. What are your thoughts?
 
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schweady
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06/03/2018 06:59PM  
Yes, I would say that the bucket is unnecessary. You can do a search on this site, quite a few related threads, including some OCD research with tables and graphs for competing solutions. One tip we have found helpful: filling the growing air space as things are consumed with some lightweight material like crumpled newspaper, etc to reduce convection, a real cold-robber.
 
Lotw
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06/04/2018 12:40PM  
I bought Styrofoam coolers that go inside the bucket off amazon, cheap and easy. as mentioned above wrap everything in newspaper too, that helps
 
SevenofNine
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06/07/2018 10:08AM  
Concerning eggs, if you can get fresh eggs from a farmer you don't need to refrigerate them providing the following is true:
1. They were never refrigerated
2. The eggs are fresh meaning less than a week old.

Eggs come in a naturally protective case. They will last 5 days easily without refrigerating them. I'm not saying you shouldn't just leave them out in the sun of course but in a protective case (to prevent breakage) and bag you won't have any problems. To check if they are bad you can see if they float. If they float they are bad.

Bacon has a long shelf life as well. I've known a guy that takes butcher bacon on a two week trip with no problems. With shelf stable bacon I gave up on the idea of trying this out myself.

I'm all for do it yourself but as far as a cooler. I would make your life easy and go with a soft side cooler, two coolers one inside the other if you are really concerned. When you are done you fold it or smash it down carefully to create space in the pack.
 
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