Itinerant Air-Cooled

We don't have a thread like this in the Camping & Fishing forum, but I have a couple products to recommend!

Engle MT 45 Fridge/Freezer: https://www.engel-usa.com/products/frid ... ge-freezer

Engles are expensive, but this one was a star performer on our vacation. It easily kept its set temperature, even in the desert heat of Arches National Park. It is truly a joy to not have to worry about keeping enough ice on hand, or keeping your food safe from being soaked by water from melted ice. The longest I ran it without running the engine was about 24 hours, but it did not pull the camping battery below 12V at that (or any) point during the 5000 mile trip. This would be a perfect match for a medium-sized solar panel. You could run it indefinitely if you get decent sun where you are staying.

I kept it in the space between the rear seat (full length fold-out bed on a '75 Westfalia), and the cabinet I built where the sink used to be. This left room for my wife and child to sit in the back while driving if desired. It has two plugs in the back, one for 120V, and one for 12V. If both are plugged in, it will use the 120V, saving your battery for later.

Zodi Extreme Stovetop Hot Water Shower: http://www.hotcampshowers.com/campfire___stovetop

We have had this for several years now, and I am more pleased with it every time I use it. The shower is a canister that you heat on a small propane stove (stove is included). The canister has a temperature indicator strip, and a hand-pump to pressurize it. It holds about 3 gallons of water, which is enough for both my wife and I to take a quick shower, or for one person to take a longer shower.

The thing I like about this is that I can carry everything I need to use it easily. It does not require electricity and has no batteries to go dead half way through your shower. You just need water and propane. You can even fill it with water before you go so your first shower doesn't require access to water at all.

We use the small stove as our cook stove. It easily holds the pots/pans we use to cook while camping, and throws more than enough heat to cook everything we have tried in it. The stove breaks down and fits in the carry case with the canister, making it very compact. The stove uses standard 1 pound canisters of propane.

Feel free to move this if it is in the wrong place. Or add to it if it is in the right one!

I was recently impressed by westy78's EXTREME Coleman ice cooler. Ice still brand new after 3 days when mine was water.
Extreme is always best anyway, in all circumstances.

hambone wrote:I was recently impressed by westy78's EXTREME Coleman ice cooler. Ice still brand new after 3 days when mine was water.
Extreme is always best anyway, in all circumstances.

Yep, I've had good luck with those coolers. They say they will hold ice up to five days depending on the conditions. If it's on the warm side as long as you keep them in the shade they do very well. If it's cold outside like when I go hunting I have to take items out to thaw if they were put in the cooler frozen. I picked both of mine up at Bi-Mart when they go on sale for the PNW people.

Hammy, Bi-Mart has the 36 quart (holds 46 cans plus ice) on sale now through Aug 11th for $28.89. That's the next smaller size than I had up at Linney Creek. It's what I use when I'm camping alone. Page 15 here. http://www.bimartadpro.com/080113coupons/

If you have bottomless pockets and want to go really extreme look at the Yeti brand coolers. A guy I hunt with has one that he uses for frozen items. It'll keep things frozen solid for a week. Outrageously spendy though. http://www.amazon.com/Yeti-Tundra-45-Qu ... B004U6MHV0

With any cooler, if you freeze some gallon milk jugs filled with water and pre-cool your cooler the night before you load it, they will keep ice longer.

Yes. Have tried many coolers, and Coleman Extreme are the best for the money...and not much money at that.

Only took me 14 years to get this one done.
It's one of the best things I've ever done for my bus ( besides the retractable seatbelts).
I put a brass 'T' in the propane line...outside, inline, between the Valve and the Regulator.
Now I can hook up a propane stove, grill, lantern, OUTSIDE the bus, running off of the onboard propane tank. Put on a long hose, and now I'm cooking on a table outside. Nice.
The guys at the local propane dealer set it all up for me.
Cost for the brass parts, less than $15, and another $30 for the extender hose.

AeroPress. It's the best coffee maker ever. Weighs a few ounces, about the size of a beer can, and makes some of the best coffee you've had, at camp or home. And cleaning takes five seconds. Just twist, pop and dust or rinse. It basically makes espresso via an upside-down French press type action that pushes the water out of the coffee instead of the other way around, finishing with a bit of air to extract the oils and form the crema. For a "normal" cup o' joe you add hot water to make an Americano.

My folks got me one, and I turned several others on to it. And just recently I learned that it's made by Aerobie, the frisbee ring-thingy people. I swear I'm not getting paid for this...

LED Christmas lights. Wait for the clearance sales after the holidays, you can get all sorts of cool LED lights for literally a few bucks. The ones that plug in to the wall are almost always 12v with a little transformer to step down the 110v, so you can just cut off the transformer and wire them into the bus directly or attach a cig lighter plug. Lotsa ambiance for little money or power draw. I have those little bare branch tree thingies that stick in the ground and light up white that I can place around the bus.

Ove-Gloves! Makes dealing with the fire and handling hot cast iron much nicer. Handling Eep's 3-alarm chili is still up to you, though.

Thanks for the tip on the coffee press. I'm getin one of them.

My wife loves the Aeropress for her coffee but its too smooth for me so I use the old stovetop espresso on the coleman stove. Gotta have a strong cup of joe in the morning or I don't start.

Smooth maybe, but I'll pull some black tar outta my Aero if I'm in the mood. Upside to the ol' coleman though is that smoky flavor it develops as it seasons.

DjEep wrote:AeroPress. It's the best coffee maker ever.

I bought one of those about a year ago, and used it for a while. To tell the truth, I couldn't taste the difference between that and the Melitta drip coffeemaker I used before. And it takes twice the amount of coffee for the same strength cup. So I've gone back to the Melitta, although I do keep the Aeropress in the bus for emergencies. Maybe we should have a brew-off sometime and test the two together.

drober23 wrote:We don't have a thread like this in the Camping & Fishing forum, but I have a couple products to recommend!

Engle MT 45 Fridge/Freezer: https://www.engel-usa.com/products/frid ... ge-freezer

Engles are expensive, but this one was a star performer on our vacation. It easily kept its set temperature, even in the desert heat of Arches National Park. It is truly a joy to not have to worry about keeping enough ice on hand, or keeping your food safe from being soaked by water from melted ice. The longest I ran it without running the engine was about 24 hours, but it did not pull the camping battery below 12V at that (or any) point during the 5000 mile trip. This would be a perfect match for a medium-sized solar panel. You could run it indefinitely if you get decent sun where you are staying.

I kept it in the space between the rear seat (full length fold-out bed on a '75 Westfalia), and the cabinet I built where the sink used to be. This left room for my wife and child to sit in the back while driving if desired. It has two plugs in the back, one for 120V, and one for 12V. If both are plugged in, it will use the 120V, saving your battery for later.

Zodi Extreme Stovetop Hot Water Shower: http://www.hotcampshowers.com/campfire___stovetop

We have had this for several years now, and I am more pleased with it every time I use it. The shower is a canister that you heat on a small propane stove (stove is included). The canister has a temperature indicator strip, and a hand-pump to pressurize it. It holds about 3 gallons of water, which is enough for both my wife and I to take a quick shower, or for one person to take a longer shower.

The thing I like about this is that I can carry everything I need to use it easily. It does not require electricity and has no batteries to go dead half way through your shower. You just need water and propane. You can even fill it with water before you go so your first shower doesn't require access to water at all.

We use the small stove as our cook stove. It easily holds the pots/pans we use to cook while camping, and throws more than enough heat to cook everything we have tried in it. The stove breaks down and fits in the carry case with the canister, making it very compact. The stove uses standard 1 pound canisters of propane.

Feel free to move this if it is in the wrong place. Or add to it if it is in the right one!

Awesome post.. You have shared some vital things to carry while camping.. I will take care of the information and make most use of it.

JLT wrote:

DjEep wrote:AeroPress. It's the best coffee maker ever.

I bought one of those about a year ago, and used it for a while. To tell the truth, I couldn't taste the difference between that and the Melitta drip coffeemaker I used before. And it takes twice the amount of coffee for the same strength cup. So I've gone back to the Melitta, although I do keep the Aeropress in the bus for emergencies. Maybe we should have a brew-off sometime and test the two together.

My wife loves the Aeropress while I find it too filtered of a taste. I prefer my stove top espresso pot as it brews a nice strong cup of joe. So camping we bring both setups as they take up little space and having a great cup of coffee when waking up is a one of life's pleasures.

aeropress: i like it, and it will do strong coffee if you don't overwater it. but it does take the bitterness out, maybe that's what you guys mean by smooth. i still use my stovetop "moka" espresso pot daily though, just hard to make coffee in it for more than one person. i had a friend who worked as industrial designer who was tasked to make a coffee maker for starbucks. they blind taste tested every method of coffee making and that was the best method they found. so they made a big plastic version of one of those and then starbucks declined it and then turned around and ripped off their design.

coleman extreme: you can find reviews online testing them vs. a yeti where the yeti beats it by maybe a day. no brainer. although on ours the hinge screw ripped out of the body on our first trip. still works great but i have yet to find a way to fix it, having tried some serious adhesives.

I can attest: the Extreme is indeed, extreme. EXTREME!
But it does keep the ice icy for 5 days in the hottest weather.
In March, no refrigeration is needed. It's handy.