Pelican 45qt Cooler review

[Billy Marlin]

So I took the plunge and purchased one of these mainly for my Florida trip and I will say it exceeded all my expectations.

On Saturday May the 7th I stopped off at a bait shop and purchased two 5 gallon buckets of ice for $4 dollars. That was enough ice to fill the cooler to the very top and overflow just a little. Got back to the house an hour later this was sitting in the back of my truck in the sun the whole way home. Scooped out about half the ice and put in a bag in our freezer. Cooler was then put in the front of my FSH 190 which sat out in the Sun our entire trip with temps in the 90's during the day (6 full days). Did not have to add ice to the cooler until Tuesday and even then could have really gone another 2 days at least. 6 days later I cleaned the cooler out only because I threw fish directly into the cooler. Anyways when I cleaned out the cooler on Thursday night it was still half full of good stinky fish ice!!

Besides keeping the ice the cooler on the front of the boat really keeps the bow down in rough water I did move it to the rear of the boat since I already have my trolling motor, batteries, and battery charger in my front compartment so in REALLY rough water it did allow water to come over the bow.

For sight fishing this thing is awesome just have to be aware of the edges almost stepped off a few times until I got used to it. I weigh around 250 and the cooler did not have any problems holding me up.

Got this cooler off ebay for around $225 shipped brand new. Did a lot of research and compared to the Yeti it kept ice longer in head to head challenges. The Orca has a really good cooler but I could not find a good deal on it anywhere. Will probably get a bag cooler in the future as well since these big coolers are really heavy with nothing in them. When you add drinks and ice you will need a cart to get them to the boat if you want to save your back. Probably going to order the RTIC bag cooler unfortunately they have a 3-4month back order time but half the cost of YETI.

 

[Bill D]

@Billy Marlin I have one of those RTIC Hoppers on the way. I'll be sure to do a post when I get it. I bought my dad the Yeti hopper for Christmas, so it'll be a good comparison.

I ordered mine on March 11, but my estimated ship date is 5/18, however it still says Backordered...

 

[Billy Marlin]

I would love to know how they compare, the bag coolers are soooo much better for boats that don't have a lot of deck space like ski boats. Especially if you want to set them in a seat somewhere and when traveling I like to have a small cooler in the front of the vehicle. With my wife, myself, and 2 dogs room shrinks fast so a big heavy cooler is just not feasible.