Well, I pulled the trigger

What the heck is that? A Tibetan imaginary somethingorother?

It is a high end cooler/ice chest.

I am on the road a good bit these days, and having a cool lunch and cold drinks was getting harder with the cheap cooler I have been using. When I am at the house/office, I use frozen 2 liter bottles to help make the bagged ice last longer. That is harder when I am on the road.

Oh, I remember the thread a while back now about a Yeti cooler. Never seen or heard of one until that thread. Had forgotten all about it. When you mentioned needing to overhaul your toolbox I got to thinking you had a new pickup. Duh! Homer would be proud of me.

I thought it was a new toyota pickup.

Yea, I need a new pickup as well, mine has a lot of miles on it, but still runs and looks pretty good. I am hoping to get another year or so out of it.

That tells you something when you "pull the trigger" on an ice box. It's expensive ( they are).

I've always wondered how well a home made ice chest would work if it was bulky with 6" of the good insulation.
Nothing against the Yeti. I think they are the very best made.

I'd be interested in a realistic review.

> I've always wondered how well a home made ice chest would work if it was bulky with 6" of the good insulation.

I have no experience in this realm, but my guess is that the insulation would be the easy part. Harder would be getting a seal on the lid good enough to match the insulation. And then there's the finish -- durability and ease of cleaning. Cosmetics would be a distant third, but still something to consider.

You will love it. Just make sure you remember it insulates both ways. If it sits empty in your truck or garage in the heat and then you add ice it will all melt in a short time due to the retained heat. It is best to pre chill it before loading it up or just keep ice in it. I have a small one I keep in the back floorboard of my truck. I get in and out of it multiple times a day. I usually add a small bag of ice to it every other day. It has had ice in it pretty much nonstop for the last three months.

I was thinking along the lines of stainless steel liner and a commercial seal.
The ones you buy at the store need to be insulated with a good weight to insulation ratio and they need to be compact.

I was thinking if compact and appearance didnt matter.

If cosmetics and bulk don't matter, see if you can find a military surplus blood transport container. The one a family friend had -- they got it in the late '70s, so I'm thinking it was Vietnam-era equipment -- was built to take abuse, sealed like crazy and had maybe 10 inches of neoprene insulation on all sides.

That doesn't sound half bad.

I saw a black ice chest at walmart the other day.
I guess the public keeps the expectations low and the manufacturers follow suit.

How difficult would it be to include a wire basket shelf to keep dry goods cold?

If I knew I would never forget to clean the ice chest out after a long weekend, I would probably buy a Yeti, but at this point I think I will wait.