Picked up a 19 qt Pelican cooler at a garage sale last weekend for $10. Used it for the first time and found it very heavy and bulky for carrying just a few dollars worth of ice. IMO, the extra weight and effort to handle isn’t worth the negligible increase in performance over my larger Coleman cooler. The larger models must really be a pain in the rear to haul around wherever you need them. I suspect they might be worth their weight in cases where a cooler will be left in the sun for many hours, or whenever you won’t be able to get more ice in several days. That having been said, this one has confirmed what I had thought, that people are going out and paying $300 or more for a designer label cooler just to keep up with the neighbors. I guess the guy I bought this one from decided it was time to quit chasing the crowd. But then, I bet I can easily get at least twice what I paid for it in my own garage sale.

I won a Yeti Road cooler in a raffle and thought cool, turns out it being so small it doesn't hold ice well at all for the amount you can't put into it.

Could be wrong, but I suspect these coolers are going to be more common at garage sales as they lose their attractiveness to the follow me crowd. I can’t see the average person wanting to deal with all the extra weight and hassle once other folks stop paying so much attention to what they have.

Maybe, but they are going to come more common at garage sales as people start selling their old ones and buy news ones as well. These have now been around for several years. Of course they are going to start showing up in garage sales...just like virtually every other consumer product that has been around that long, regardless of how much it cost originally.

I have 3 Yeti's. All given to me. The biggest is a 125 quart. I will say this. They are bulky and heavy. But during the summer they definitely keep ice longer than my previous coolers. That is important to me. They key is keeping them full.

My RTIC 65 is/was a Godsend on the camping trip to the coast, and 5 years of elk camp in Montana. You are probably ok with a coleman if you never venture off your lease or get away from society for 24hrs or longer. But if you do, a high quality cooler definitely helps.

Cooler dealers have either great advertising or there are a lot of fools out there.

I love when guys make posts like this implying that you aren't a real hunter unless you share their views.

CLEARLY you must not be a real hunter if you don't think you need a $500 cooler that weighs a ton.

The Coleman Extreme 7 day will hold ice just about as long as the famed Yeti at 1/5th the price. No, the Coleman won't last as long, but I can buy 5 of them for the price of a yeti.

I disagree based on my experience with my RTIC. I don’t like driving back to town for ice.

If you think it’s over priced and inefficient don’t buy one. America.

how the hell did hunters kill elk, moose, mule deer out west back before these coolers were on the market

Thanks for reigniting the cooler wars! I have way too many, all shapes and sizes, collected over 30 years, one was one of my grandfather's, pre-1930.

For what they cost they should make their own ice.

LOL, there was a day when hunters didn't have coolers or ice. They managed as well.

The new coolers are pretty great. They are expensive, but quite useful. They are good enough to make some folks' lives much easier. A buddy of mine hunts in the middle of nowhere in west Texas. Prior to getting their super coolers, they had to go into town every 36 hours for ice, roughly a 65 mile round trip. He and his partners feel they are well worth the expense.

I'm just taking advantage of technology. Not stepping on toes. If I were, it would be like saying if guys were fine without high quality coolers back then, then why are y'all using rifles instead of longbows? Longbows worked back then too, today we just have some conveniences.

its always so funny how everyone gets bent out of shape on either side over an ice chest

I have some of both types of coolers. My 100 quart doesn’t get used a lot and I don’t want a super heavy 100 qt so I bought a light weight one that is easy to handle. I also have a 65 qt rotomolded cooler that is great for those summer trips where you need to make ice last a couple days. I also have a yeti sticker on my Dyson vacuum

I brought my first yeti 45, about 10 years ago. I was just trying to see if I could keep an ice chest longer than 6 months in my truck, first week I had it went to D&D picked up some 9-49-12 wire, when loading they dropped 2 rolls in my truck, 1 landed on the yeti never lost a beer and did not hurt it at all, would still have it if someone had not stole it. I now have
1 replaced 45 yeti
1 igloo great white 250
3 rtic 65
1 ice bin 20
1 yeti 25
1 yeti 30 or 35
2 magellan 75
1 yeti 75 to replace the igloo that was on my boat so I could have cold beer after 3pm

Oh and to be sure my beer stays cold I have a hoshizaki at the house

You have a Dyson!!!!

I am about 8 miles to town where I hunt. I have an old 150 qt Igloo that I use to pack my deer or hog meat out and it works fine for that. I have a newer 54 qt Coleman that is suppose to keep ice for 2 or 3 days to carry food and beverages with and probably another 6 assorted sizes and types.

If I was going to be in a remote areas for several days or more I would certainly want a RTIC or something like it

For me it wasn't just about keeping ice longer, it was about not having to constantly replace hinges and latches on my old Igloos. Just got tired of them breaking at the worst possible times.
As I have gotten older and hopefully wiser the " buy once, cry once" motto suits me just fine.
Cheap guns, cheap booze and cheap women are for someone else to deal with......well maybe not the cheap women, just can't seem to find them anymore.

Sunday we drove 10 hours, and found the driveway to the ranch. The man's driveway is 14 miles long, and takes 90 minutes in a pickup. I don't have Pelican coolers as a status symbol. I have them because they are well made tools that save me tons of time and diesel.

I'm a forester. I carry a cooler full of drinks every day. I got along fine with igloos and colemans for years. Iced them up each morning. Finally broke down and got an RTIC. I fill it up with drinks and ice Monday and have cold drinks all week. If it really hot I will add ice one day during the week. It was over priced but I like not having to stop and buy ice every day. I think it payed for itself in one year. It's heavy to tote but I don't take it out of the truck. When it craps out, I will probably get another.

Those little 20 qt coolers are not meant to keep ice and contents cold more than a day or two once you use it for food and stuff. Sure drinks will be cold many days. You really need 60 qt or bigger to keep stuff cold extended amounts of time. 19 qt Pelican is for the day at the pool. Still heck of a deal though. I still use my 65 qt Igloo 5 day 15 years old. Get's the job done but about time to replace... RTIC looking good.

But are the expensive, high-performance coolers really worth the lift (pun intended)?