Freezer for my fish

[Little_RV]

We are in Alaska and just went Halibut fishing and got our limit. Now we have 100 lb of fish and its to expensive to ship and we won't be leaving until fall. We have heard of others who bought chest freezers and put them in the truck. We are considering this but want to know if the 150watt solar panel would be enough to run it? What about running off the lighter in the truck when moving?

Any info would be great. We are new to all this

[dadmomh]

Or.....I'll split the shipping with you and store it in our freezer. When you get back, just come and pick it up. Did I mention we live in TN and LOVE halibut! You may be a few pounds short.

[daveyboy12]

What are they going to do with 100lbs of fish... EAT IT, what else not in one sitting but it will easily last a few mths and still taste delicious. And no he doesn't want to split his Halibut.

You could get an inverter as suggested, Harbor Freight (or Amazon) sells them pretty cheap (1200watt or 1500watt peak) would run a small 2x2 chest freezer.
Solar panels would be to hit and miss and you would likely need about 200watts of panels, a controller for the batter, and you would still need the inverter to run the refrigerator unless you had a 12v refer.

I'd get an inverter off Amazon for $90 and a small chest freezer.

[jvoelzow]

Seems to me that the cost of the freezer would be as much as shipping it. ??

Unless you're going to use that freezer all the time (annual trips?), I'd go the shipping with dry ice (assuming you can either put off the shipping until you get home or have someone to receive it).

Halibut at $1 a pound is a real bargain. (Of course, we're not counting the cost of getting up there to catch it, are we 🙂

Jim

[CincyGus]

Fedx Expess 1 day service overnight to someone at home with freezer space. They handle dry ice shipments all the time. They have a hub in Anchorage.

[coolbreeze01]

I just hope it doesn't go to waste because it was too expensive to deal with properly. Good luck.

[Dtaylor]

dbbls wrote:
Have you considered the dry ice option? A lot of people do this to bring fish home. Only need to replenish the dry ice once or twice on the way home.

Try this. Just don't store in enclosed area as dry ice produces CO2

[stubblejumper]

robsouth wrote:
What are you going to do with 100 pounds of fish? Maybe just sell all but a little for you and be done with it.

I have fished in B.C. and 100 lbs of fish is nothing. ... 2 salmon, 2 halibut... We can easily eat that much in a year and hence the annual fishing trip. Plus it would be illegal to sell sport fish.

As for keeping frozen, we just freeze it and pack in dry ice, wrap in insulated foil bubble wrap and it stays that way for 3 days which is our drive home. You could just add more dry ice along the way. Most fish camps are very well prepared to help you out.

[JRS___B]

If I lived in Colorado, I would gladly pay 100% of the freight charge in exchange for 50% of the fish. Maybe you should partner with someone.

[Francesca_Knowl]

Little RV wrote:
We are in Alaska and just went Halibut fishing and got our limit. Now we have 100 lb of fish and its to expensive to ship and we won't be leaving until fall. We have heard of others who bought chest freezers and put them in the truck. We are considering this but want to know if the 150watt solar panel would be enough to run it? What about running off the lighter in the truck when moving?

Any info would be great. We are new to all this

"Too expensive to ship"????

I looked at Alaska Air's Seafood Express rates page just now, and it looks like a dollar a pound is about average...
Even at two dollars it would seem like a bargain to me, since halibut (my favorite fish) is going for twenty dollars a pound down here!

If there's someone at home to receive/freeze it, that's the option I'd use.

[PenMan]

Fish fry? You could invite a whole campground of campers.

[robsouth]

What are you going to do with 100 pounds of fish? Maybe just sell all but a little for you and be done with it.

[JRS___B]

Where are you storing 100 pounds of fish right now?

I have to assume it is in a freezer other than one your RV, and that is where it is going to stay until you leave in the fall.

Dry ice makes the most economic sense to me. I assume this will not be an annual occurrence.

Even a mixture of dry ice and regular ice will keep things cold enough that frozen foods stay frozen.

There are lots of techniques and suggestions on how to do it sponsored by dry ice companies. Just Google them.

[dbbls]

Have you considered the dry ice option? A lot of people do this to bring fish home. Only need to replenish the dry ice once or twice on the way home.

[tandkj]

We still have the freezer from when we fished in Seward. We run it off the gen, check into a small gen.