I found that the most important thing was to use only square or rectangular containers. Round containers waste too much space.
That way a 15 litre Engel was big enough for trips with two adults and two children.
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I found that the most important thing was to use only square or rectangular containers. Round containers waste too much space.
That way a 15 litre Engel was big enough for trips with two adults and two children.
15 litres wouldnt hold my beer for a weekend let alone food for 4 people .Quote:
Originally Posted by vnx205
Rectangular is the way to minimise loss of space. Vacuum sealing lids are a bonus as food lasts twice as long.
Using containers means less gets squashed or rots in water in the bottom of the fridge.
The drinks problem can be solved by only putting a couple in at a time and replacing as used. It only takes an hour in the fridge to cool a beer.
If beer came in square containers, 15 litres would add up to 40 stubbies or cans. That should keep you going most of the weekend. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by loanrangie
Quote:
Originally Posted by vnx205
Damn,, I've had mates that'd knock that lot off in a day, easy. :angel:
We use square/oblong tubs, and we do the can replacement thing too, except for her wine/s.
Have thought hard about buying a vacuum sealer, and as always, it looks a good option, just have to get one.
I started using sealed containers back when I had an esky. I can remember pulling up at camp one night in the high country, looking forward to my steak, opening the esky and fishing out my soaked rotten looking meat. Never again :mad:
Definitley pack bottom up ... :)
Vacum seal everything and anything that can be vacum sealed. Even stuff that can be only partially vacum sealed. Easier to pack, keeps fridge cleaner inside.
Square or rectangular packaging wherever possible, and if it can be removed from it's store packaging, it is. A great space saving.
We have a 47L ARB fridge. I leave the divider in the middle. Flat pack all the meat and perishables that are vacum sealed in the rear 1/2, in reverse order where possible so you just take from the top day by day. Bottles, juice beer, mixers for the bourbon, etc in the front 1/2. Cheeses, butter, all the small stuff into the dairy compartment at the rear, with any spill over ontop of the vacum packed stuff. There's always a bit of space here for fruit & veg if required.
We play the 1 out/1 in game for drinks. The hot one going in always goes to the bottom if its cans, if it's bottles, the hot one stands up, and the cold one lies horizontal across the top.
Once anything from the fridge is opened, or there's left overs, we put them in Zip-Vac bags and evacuate the air ... again, easier to pack and no fridge mess ... for larger volumes we use recycled chinese food containers.
Allways try where possible to pack in such a manner that taking something out doesn't cause the house of cards to collapse ! :)
And ... If your have trouble making it work for you ... get a bigger fridge ! ;)
I vacuum seal pre-cooked meals in bags that fit neatly across the bottom of my 38L Engel, I can fit about six meals on the bottom and only take up about 50mm of depth. Bagged meals are small enough to fit into a 200mm cooking pot of boiling water and brought to temp., hot water in pot is then used for washing up after.
Flat sided containers use the available space, for milk I use the UHT rectangular containers, suprising how many of them you can get to fit.
Never pack Butter or Marg. containers with anything on top, I had a small jar of Vegemite sitting on top of a Marg, container and after about 1 1/2 hours of rough road travel the vegemite jar vibrated through the lid of the marg. and squeezed all of the marg. out all over everything else, needs to be on top.
The frozen meals in the bottom help cool the fridge and are only accessed once a day at dinner time, so not a hassle, I also freeze the UHT Milk, except for 1 container.
I really don't have to run my fridge at least for the first day, I pack my frozen stuff towards the bottom up to 24 hours before I go camping and run the Engel off 240V at home and it keeps everything (meals and milk) frozen when I load the fridge into the disco, I run the fridge till I get to where I'm camping, then I turn it off for 24 hours (if not driving), after that I just run it off the aux. battery and that way I get an extra day from the batteries before I need to plug in the Solar setup. Works for me, Regards Frank.
Good stuff Frank. I've never thought about leaving the fridge off for the first day, that would certainly take some of the load off the batteries, especially if you don't have a house battery.
We travelled for two weeks through part of Tassie with just one battery, never had an issue, but when we didn't use the car for the second day a couple of times, it did worry me a bit.
Agreed - start with the alcohol. End with the alcohol - leave the food out... ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Eevo
It's only when SWMBO started coming camping with me that I even considered the Engel was also an appropriate place for food. ;)
Before that, a loaf of bread, some potatoes, chips and a can of braised steak and onions would see me through a weekend. :angel:
I didn't care what I ate as long as the beer was cold.
Here's another tip for stretching your battery run time I use all the time. Yes, leave home with everything chilled and down to temperature. While you're travelling (engine running) I set the fridge to -5deg so the fridge runs pretty much non stop. When we stop for the day I'll turn the fridge back to 2deg. Generally the fridge won't cycle on again until sometime the following morning ... When we set off again, turn the fridge down and repeat. Means there's no fridge draw on the batteries for up to 18hrs in cool weather, 6-12hrs in hotter weather.
The fuller the fridge is the better this works. If the fridge is part empty I stuff it full of water bottles or beer before we set off each day.
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