chest freezer in pick up bed questions

I bought a chest freezer several years ago specifically for hauling in an enclosed trailer behind my motorhome. I have an outlet at the back of the motorhome just for the freezer. There is a cord that runs from the trailer along the tongue and connects to the outlet at the back of the motorhome. The outlet is set up so water can't get to it and it won't pull out.

I only paid $50 for the 15 CF freezer. It has more than paid for itself in savings on ice for coolers. I boondock for long periods and carry more food than will fit in fridge.

Dakota98 wrote:
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Planning on 6 days to get there. Seems to easy, other than getting freezer into pick-up.

How's your payload capacity looking ?

Thanks, I better double check.

tatest wrote:


I can't imagine that a 1/2 steer is worth enough more in Virginia vs Washington to haul it across the country using $1000 worth of fuel. Double that, you have to drive back. The fuel costs alone would buy a whole steer: cut, dressed, and frozen.

OP here....

Your putting it nicely...We were going to visit anyways. Bringing along a freezer started innocent enough. Gee, it would be great if you could bring some "grass feed" beef off the farm type thing. One good thing is the freezer will also stay at sister in laws.

Thanks posters...Many good ideas I didn't think of.

Just fill the empty spaces with frozen gallon milk jugs (washed out and 75% full of tap water). A full freezer and no opening of the lid, is the way to go. With 4 teenagers, I don't need to do this any longer, but I used to...Our freezer is full of food ..... :-)

This is from thesimpledollar.com

"Fill your empty milk or juice jugs with water, then stick ‘em in the freezer.
A freezer, whether it’s a deep freezer or a freezer housed in the same appliance as a refrigerator, functions best when it’s really full, as the cold items help keep other items cold and maintain the low temperature.

But how can you keep it full without stocking it with a bunch of food that you may or may not eat? If you’re not into filling your freezer with food, fill it with water.

It’s simple. Take an empty milk jug (or juice jug), rinse it out, then fill it about 75% full with tap water. Stick that jug in the freezer and just leave it there. It’ll freeze, then it will help keep the temperature of your freezer low over the long haul, causing your freezer to kick on a bit less often to keep your items cool.

Even better, you can directly use these jugs when you need a lot of ice. You can either stick the jug entirely in a cooler or smash it open and use the broken ice pieces to your desire. Works like a charm – we do it all the time!"

see it all the time here in BC. People heading home from the coast with a freezer full of salmon and ground fish. Freezer in the back of a pickup and a small honda running beside it.

We did that in June of '78 when we moved from ILL. to S.D. except the freezer was in a U-Haul trailer. We camped with tents and sleeping bags way back then. Plugged freezer in at night. All was well when we got there. Freezer was pretty much full. In fact the freezer is still going strong to this date. Bought new in '73. Go for it.

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Planning on 6 days to get there. Seems to easy, other than getting freezer into pick-up.

How's your payload capacity looking ?

This time of year, with summer sun heat loads across the Great Plains? I would figure on packing the free space in the freezer with dry ice and maybe buying more along the way (most supermarkets have the stuff in this part of the world).

I can't imagine that a 1/2 steer is worth enough more in Virginia vs Washington to haul it across the country using $1000 worth of fuel. Double that, you have to drive back. The fuel costs alone would buy a whole steer: cut, dressed, and frozen.

Yep it works. Pretty much only seen it done in AK though. Seems like a pain in the @ss to haul a half a beef coast to coast though.

We fish in Alaska and have a 17 cu ft chest freezer we fill completely. Once loaded into the pickup bed (with a large cap) we have an extension that runs from the bed to a 110v plug at the radiator. Another extension from the RV to the pickup allows us to run the RV inverter and power the freezer. While running, the solar array and the RV engine generator provide all power I need. We boondock all the way home starting out with occasional snow showers in Alaska and 90+ degrees along the US Canadian border, down Michigan and across Ohio, PA and West Virginia to Delaware. We hardly ever run the RV generator and the freezer stays at zero degrees.