What size small freezer for truck bed for elk?

[Marshfly]

I now have a popup topper on the truck with solar and an aux battery setup. I think I want to move to a small chest freezer instead of multiple coolers and ice for hunting trips this year. I plan to add an inverter to the topper electrical but I do have a small inverter generator that I could bring if I absolutely needed to. My truck also has a 2kw inverter built-in that I could use if needed. So I have plenty of 110v power options.

What size freezer should I be looking for to fit a bull elk by itself or maybe an elk and a mule deer? People that have done this, are you just sticking the quarters in, putting it on max freeze, and then defrosting to process when you get home? Most freezers today seem to have a fridge mode so maybe that's the best option? Looking for advice from people that do this instead of screwing with ice.

 

[Caseknife]

If your canopy is cab height, might be a bit hard to open the lid of the freezer.

 

[IAm_Not_Lost]

You could just grab a budget 5-7cu chest freezer. As the other poster said, may be hard to open the lid.

I keep a Dometic fridge running off the aux battery and solar in my truck under the camper shell, and even with the extra height camper shell I have, I don’t think I could fit a standard height chest freezer and open the lid.

 

[Billy Goat]

Debone, freeze, thaw at home and process is what I have done.

However, if you remove the freezer from the truck, put the meat in and freeze it, then you need unload it to get it back in the truck and it's a 3d jigsaw puzzle. I was able to plug freezer in to store meat, then made drive home with the lid taped shut, used it as a cooler really. But it didn't thaw, and once home I plugged it back in.

I can't remember what size freezer, isn't real big. I can measure it later.

Most freezers have pretty good Amp draw so keep that in mind with your inverters.

 

[Tod osier]

I now have a popup topper on the truck with solar and an aux battery setup. I think I want to move to a small chest freezer instead of multiple coolers and ice for hunting trips this year. I plan to add an inverter to the topper electrical but I do have a small inverter generator that I could bring if I absolutely needed to. My truck also has a 2kw inverter built-in that I could use if needed. So I have plenty of 110v power options.

What size freezer should I be looking for to fit a bull elk by itself or maybe an elk and a mule deer? People that have done this, are you just sticking the quarters in, putting it on max freeze, and then defrosting to process when you get home? Most freezers today seem to have a fridge mode so maybe that's the best option? Looking for advice from people that do this instead of screwing with ice.

A mature bull on the bone will fit into a 9 cubic foot freezer. There is quite a bit of air space in that case.

I travelled with a freezer with fridge mode on a trip and that was a nice option to have to work on stuff before freezing.

 

[Marshfly]

If your canopy is cab height, might be a bit hard to open the lid of the freezer.

My topper pops up so opening it to put quarters in is no issue.

 

[Marshfly]

You could just grab a budget 5-7cu chest freezer. As the other poster said, may be hard to open the lid.

I keep a Dometic fridge running off the aux battery and solar in my truck under the camper shell, and even with the extra height camper shell I have, I don’t think I could fit a standard height chest freezer and open the lid.

I currently have a 50L 12v fridge/freezer in the bed all the time. You can see it in the picture above. With all of the power sources I have available it just doesn't make sense to me to be screwing with ice now.

 

[Kurts86]

In perfect utilization you could fit ~60 lbs of meat/cubic foot but 40-50 lbs is more realistic with boned out meat packing inefficiencies.

A bull elk boned out is going to be 200-250 lbs of meat and Mule deer is around 75 lbs boned out. So a bull elk is around 5 cubic feet of meat and a mule deer is around 2 cubic feet.

No 110/120v appliance is going to pull more than 1800w as they are designed for 15amp service. A 2000w inverter should cover most anything 110v. The last time a checked most freezers are pulling 600w-1000w under load.

 

[Backyard]

Doing simple math:
2x150qt coolers = approximately 10cf
So as stated earlier, a 9-10 cf should handle a bone in bull.


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[Marshfly]

Doing simple math:
2x150qt coolers = approximately 10cf
So as stated earlier, a 9-10 cf should handle a bone in bull.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But it takes you two coolers with ice. Cut the quarters at the knuckle to remove the shank and I should be able to pack them in there much tighter.

This is why I am looking for people that have specifically done this. It isn't as simple a doing the math to convert a cooler to a freezer. I can fit the same food in my 50L 12v fridge as I can a 90-110qt cooler since I don't need ice.

 

[Backyard]

But it takes you two coolers with ice. Cut the quarters at the knuckle to remove the shank and I should be able to pack them in there much tighter.

This is why I am looking for people that have specifically done this. It isn't as simple a doing the math to convert a cooler to a freezer. I can fit the same food in my 50L 12v fridge as I can a 90-110qt cooler since I don't need ice.

Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out already. Good luck this year!


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[Marshfly]

This is probably where I will end up.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hotpoint-Hotpoint-6-9-Cu-Ft-Chest-Freezer/5014938537

Same height and depth dimension as the 4.9 cu ft but only 8" wider. And I would imagine they have the exact same cooling unit and will use about the same amount of power over a day.

 

[Kurts86]

Ice is going to require 3x the capacity of a deep freeze because you should have around 2x the ice volume to meat to chill it out.

My personal record for moving boned out meat was 53.75 lbs/cubic foot flying chilled meat home. That was 86 lbs in 1.6 cubic feet (48 quarts).

When I designed meat processing machines we used the density of water for meat in solid models. A cubic foot of water is 62 lbs for reference.

 

[Tod osier]

But it takes you two coolers with ice. Cut the quarters at the knuckle to remove the shank and I should be able to pack them in there much tighter.

This is why I am looking for people that have specifically done this. It isn't as simple a doing the math to convert a cooler to a freezer. I can fit the same food in my 50L 12v fridge as I can a 90-110qt cooler since I don't need ice.

And when I'm saying that a mature bull on the bone fits in a 9 cubic foot freezer, that is frozen on the bone and then put in, just to give you an idea what you are working with. I'd think a deer could fit interstitially, especially if boned out. A boned out mature bull elk and an antelope fit in a 7 cubic foot if stacked in carefully unfrozen. That takes a long time to freeze that way.

 

[fmyth]

I carry a 7cf chest freezer in the bed of my Ram 1500 crew cab w 5'7" bed. I can get a boned out bull in it or a quartered out cow or spike. I could probably get a quartered out bull in it if I cut the rear quarters at the knee. The truck has a cab height ARE shell on it. I have to pull the freezer onto the tailgate to open the lid. I can lift it onto the tailgate empty then put the meat in it. When I get home I pull it onto the tailgate open the lid and move the meat into coolers then pick up the freezer and carry it into my garage. In camp I run it with a HF 1400 Predator Generator. I don't run it on the 2 day drive home.

 

[fmyth]

This is probably where I will end up.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hotpoint-Hotpoint-6-9-Cu-Ft-Chest-Freezer/5014938537

Same height and depth dimension as the 4.9 cu ft but only 8" wider. And I would imagine they have the exact same cooling unit and will use about the same amount of power over a day.

My Walmart cheapo Hisense measures 33H 35W 20.5D which is very close to the one you posted at 33.27H 33.28W and 21.89D.

 

[Marshfly]

This is super valuable info. Thank you guys!!

I carry a 7cf chest freezer in the bed of my Ram 1500 crew cab w 5'7" bed. I can get a boned out bull in it or a quartered out cow or spike. I could probably get a quartered out bull in it if I cut the rear quarters at the knee. The truck has a cab height ARE shell on it. I have to pull the freezer onto the tailgate to open the lid. I can lift it onto the tailgate empty then put the meat in it. When I get home I pull it onto the tailgate open the lid and move the meat into coolers then pick up the freezer and carry it into my garage. In camp I run it with a HF 1400 Predator Generator. I don't run it on the 2 day drive home.

And when I'm saying that a mature bull on the bone fits in a 9 cubic foot freezer, that is frozen on the bone and then put in, just to give you an idea what you are working with. I'd think a deer could fit interstitially, especially if boned out. A boned out mature bull elk and an antelope fit in a 7 cubic foot if stacked in carefully unfrozen. That takes a long time to freeze that way.

 

[Weldor]

It would be really nice if someone could make a refrigeration unit that could be retrofitted into a 150 qt cooler. You'd be a millionaire. We use our 150's to store gear on the way out and haul meat on the way in. About 10 -1 lb packs of dry ice in each one freezes the meat overnite in 70 plus degree weather and gets you home without thawing in 90 plus degree heat .

 

[IAm_Not_Lost]

I currently have a 50L 12v fridge/freezer in the bed all the time. You can see it in the picture above. With all of the power sources I have available it just doesn't make sense to me to be screwing with ice now.

I didnt say you should screw with ice. I’m just saying I wasn’t sure if your setup had the height to handle a standard chest freezer with top lid. If it can, then just buy a $169 dollar 5-7cu feet chest freezer that you can pull in and out as needed.

I’ve put three deer in one 7cu ft freezer with room, or one elk plus extra room.

 

[Marshfly]

I didnt say you should screw with ice. I’m just saying I wasn’t sure if your setup had the height to handle a standard chest freezer with top lid. If it can, then just buy a $169 dollar 5-7cu feet chest freezer that you can pull in and out as needed.

I’ve put three deer in one 7cu ft freezer with room, or one elk plus extra room.

I wasn't disagreeing with you. More agreeing with you. haha