Help me with my next purchase, please! Fridge/Freezer or Lights and awning?

[Truckee]

I've had a fridge for over 15 years but have never had an awning or work lights... so I vote fridge. But I also mostly camp where there are trees/shade. Tarp works for emergency rain protection.

 

[OVRLNDCBR]

I've been very careful about deciding what I want to add to my truck, trying to keep my purchases practical and I've been shopping carefully. I've been saving up money from my food blog earnings and I'm ready to work on one of two things. I'm very conflicted on which one to do. I have approximately $300 to spend on one or the other of these additions to my truck.

Option 1: Alpicool 53 qt, fridge/freezer (dual zone or single) for my camp kitchen. This would obviously allow me to hold food at safe temperatures on outings without having to buy ice or suffer melting ice issues and waterlogged food. This goes along with my desire to have a really nice and cool camp kitchen as I love cooking and eating and is also in line with my long term goals to do long distance trips. The fridge/freezer can pull double duty if I take it to work and use it in my office as a personal fridge.

Option 2: 5ft wide awning and "work lights" for my truck's bed rack. I would fasten the awning over the side of my truck that has the camp kitchen for, obviously, shade and to have a dry area for food prep in the rain. I'm looking at the idea of adapting rock-lights to my bed rack so I can have lighting that is not just controllable from my phone, but I could also use my phone to change the color of the lighting depending on my needs (red for night vision, amber to not attract bugs, bright white for best vision, etc.). These additions to my truck would also benefit my cooking hobby by giving me a shaded or dry food prep area as well as a shaded place to sit and relax with light to work with. There is no practical application outside of overlanding though.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this, folks! Thank you.

My setup so far. I have a Coleman two-burner stove and the beginnings of a chuck-box for carrying my cooking stuff out with me. I also have a LPG powered generator for powering a fridge overnight, if I go the fridge/freezer route. So fridge/freezer or awning and lights?
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Huge fan of the fold out platform - Brilliant! What brand or where did you manage to find this?
Oh and I vote Fridge - shade you can manage with/without considering you have a vehicle however off food in the middle of nowhere = hard no from me :)

 

[trikebubble]

I'll drink a wet can of beer ..... I won't drink a warm one.

 

[Johnreynolds10]

My vote is frig all the way. But I would be careful on a cheep fridge/freezer. I started out with a cheap one, and soon realize I threw my money away. Ended up in the long run with an ARB. Well worth the money. Rolling 8 years now with mine and no problems what so ever. Best of luck with your decision. Cheers

I was looking at these as well. Do you just use your 12v? I worry about draining my battery with continuous use.

 

[By way of aztec]

I run solar as well. 300 watts. My longest run without turning on my rig, seven days. only reason I turned my rig on was to go to town. Essentially I could stay Boondock indefinitely as long as my batteries hold up. The right fridge freezer uses little amp hours.

 

[Graeman]

Since cargo capacity is not really an issue for you - buy your fridge and then go get a 10x10 ezup awning to use until you can purchase one of those fancy awnings that will not get used every time that you go out in your truck. The fridge will get used every time and ice cold food and drinks are way more important than a cool shade awning that pops out the side of your truck. Also just because a refrigerator is inexpensive doesn't mean that it is bad. There are some good under $500 fridges on the market now, compared to 5 years ago. Definitely keep it inside the cab of the vehicle to help it last, by not exposing the unit to the conditions that are outside of the vehicle - heat, cold, wet, dust.

 

[GLOCKer]

Huge fan of the fold out platform - Brilliant! What brand or where did you manage to find this?
Oh and I vote Fridge - shade you can manage with/without considering you have a vehicle however off food in the middle of nowhere = hard no from me :)

Are you referring to the tent? It's a Smittybilt Overlander tent that I picked up used. It's not the best on the market, but it seems pretty good and I can set it up myself.

 

[GLOCKer]

I was looking at these as well. Do you just use your 12v? I worry about draining my battery with continuous use.

So the fridge/freezers I am looking at run off 12V power and come with a wall adapter to power them of regular house outlets. My thoughts are that during the day, while driving, I will keep the fridge strapped into the back seat being powered off my truck while I'm out and about. I've got a small generator that runs off gas or LPG that I'll use at the campsite to power my fridge/freezer and charge my gear up. You could also get a battery setup like Jackery or Goal Zero and charge your battery while you were driving and through-power your fridge/freezer (fridge/freezer plugged into your battery box, battery box plugged into your vehicle) and run it that way!