Pelican 35 or 45 cooler for my boat?

[wmk0002]

I own a Pelican 35. Bought it strictly for holding frozen bait for sturgeon fishing. I research everything before I buy and looked at Yeti, Pelican, Engle and a few other brands. I decided to go with the Pelican because of a few things. 1 they are made in the USA, 2 the latches and handles and finally the price. If you are looking to put a lot of stuff in it go with a bigger one. You should have a 50/50 ratio of ice to product. The other thing to do is to pre-cool your cooler. 24 hours before you go out start rotating bags of ice through it to cool the inside down. On average I spend about $150 on bait per trip for sturgeon fishing. Before I bought the 35 sometimes I would come home with quite a bit of bait left over and by the end of the trip it was thawed and no good. I got sick of wasting $100's of dollars a year on bait that went bad. I now come home with bait still frozen after 3-4 days on the water. My next Pelican will be the 250!

I pre-cool my coolers with frozen old 2 liter coke bottles. Just replace the bottles with ice/bait/food/drinks as you fill up packing it. Make up for any voids by leaving in a frozen bottle.

 

[LDUBS]

For a day on the boat I take the $18 Igloo I got from Walmart. It does OK but not something for an expedition. It is 28 quart. I need something a little larger. I would like to have it wider without getting any deeper. I wonder if anyone has ever built their own cooler to specific dimensions & shape?

 

[uttexas]

To answer your question--just get the bigger one--you'll regret it if you don't. 35quarts isn't enough for a four day camping/fishing trip. It's also not big enough to stand on safely.

I'll second the Coleman Xtreme Marine 70 quart--best cooler under $50
As long as you are under 200#, you can stand on it no problem
With some easy modifications: closed cell foam insulation board or closed cell foam flooring (Lowes/Home Depot) wrapped in Reflectix (Lowes/Home Depot) Lexeled (Lowes) under the lid it is a five day cooler, even in the Texas summer

Best Cooler at $75
Igloo BMX 52quart--about 220# standing capacity is my guess

Best Cooler at $100
Ozark Trail 52quart--you can stand on it up to 300#

Modifications--