Truck bed fridge w/o bed cap?

[Rocksylvania]

Hi everyone. Couldn't find a recent thread on this topic. It seems the only truck bed fridge that is meant to be exposed to the elements is the "ARB Elements" 63qt. At $1,400 on average, I'm looking for other options. Very curious about your experience putting other refrigerators in the bed, without a bed cap. Might have another bed system eventually but for the next few years I'll be sticking with the bed rack. Old picture back before the swingarm was installed but you get the idea.

 

[Rocksylvania]

Not sure what your budget is. I was able to snag an ARB Elements from REI for 1K, they had a low price at the time because it was out of stock [I believe 1289], then I was able to apply a 15% off coupon they sent me because something I ordered was unavailable and was able to stack that with a member coupon., then chose store pickup for no shipping charge.

I'm only mentioning it, because it's really the fridge that is designed to stay outside so far.

Yeah that's what I'm finding, the elements is the only one out there, just curious if and how people have found other solutions. Long time REI member, will keep that in mind. Budget isnt really the issue, willing to spend the money for the right solution. If I had a more conducive setup I'd ideally be looking at a 2 compartment dometic. Or even a national luna. Thanks for your input.

 

[Grendel]

We are looking at purchasing a fridge soon, looking at dometic dual zone (75?) from REI. Gotta love the 20% off sale. But that being said it will probably be mounted in the bed of my truck. It won't be on it full time just when camping. My question is should I bee looking more at the ARB elements or will the dometic be fine for the occasional rain while driving, etc,

 

[Rocksylvania]

We are looking at purchasing a fridge soon, looking at dometic dual zone (75?) from REI. Gotta love the 20% off sale. But that being said it will probably be mounted in the bed of my truck. It won't be on it full time just when camping. My question is should I bee looking more at the ARB elements or will the dometic be fine for the occasional rain while driving, etc,

That's pretty much my question too... I'm hoping someone who's already tried it sees this. Worst case scenario, I'll be at a festival in August where dometic had a booth last year. Hopefully I'll get to chat with a rep or two. The Elements is the only one advertised as such so far but it's really too large a single bottom compartment for me. It has a second zone that's basically in the lid, but ideally, a half and half like dometic would better meet my needs. Eventually someone will be working on it...

 

[Brewbud]

That Element is nice. I already have an ARB 63qt so I am not looking to upgrade though. My fridge goes back in forth between my Jeep and my truck. When in the truck it is on a mount on the rear seat. The slide doesn't help much here as far as daily access but it does when it comes time to load the fridge into the truck. I know it is not what you are looking for but it is an option.

 

[Rocksylvania]

That Element is nice. I already have an ARB 63qt so I am not looking to upgrade though. My fridge goes back in forth between my Jeep and my truck. When in the truck it is on a mount on the rear seat. The slide doesn't help much here as far as daily access but it does when it comes time to load the fridge into the truck. I know it is not what you are looking for but it is an option.

View attachment 98472

That is a cool setup.

Thought about doing the slide and fridge on top but back before I decided to outfit my rig I did a rear seat delete and custom box and got it painted with rhinoliner. From the top of the box to the bottom of the door is 24" which makes getting in the fridge impossible. And since I'm an access cab, that would've worked well. But unless I scrap the box, a fridge has to go in the bed. Plus, I kinda wired the plug in back there already too.
Pardon the mess, had a bit of an little electrical project in process when I took this last month.

 

[Horse Soldier]

I picked up a whynter 45qt fridge off of Amazon for 500.00 and built a weather proof box with a diy slide rack. No picks sorry I finally got my 80 series landcruiser from Australia last month and getting it set up. Hope this helps. Ps- I can put more in the whynter than my Engel, both the same qt size. Have fun and Roll Tide.

 

[Rocksylvania]

I picked up a whynter 45qt fridge off of Amazon for 500.00 and built a weather proof box with a diy slide rack. No picks sorry I finally got my 80 series landcruiser from Australia last month and getting it set up. Hope this helps. Ps- I can put more in the whynter than my Engel, both the same qt size. Have fun and Roll Tide.

That's an interesting fridge, thanks for the tip. I think that's one possibility.

 

[Lindenwood]

When I was researching the same thing, I found lots of anecdotes of people leaving them under RTTs for extended periods with no issues. Specifically, the RTT generally protected them from direct water intrusion. I even found a couple anecdotes of folks just leaving them in open truck beds and on exposed racks with no issues. Of note, I never found a single report of one failing from being left outside.

All that said, if I had a truck, I would second the notion of building a mildly weather-resistant box and leaving the fridge in the shed. It doesnt have to be fancy or water-tight; in fact more airflow is better than less. Id think if you just keep water from splashing into it you'd be good.

Good luck!

 

[Horse Soldier]

That's an interesting fridge, thanks for the tip. I think that's one possibility.

I now have 90 qts for a $1000.00 instead of 45 qts for 900.00. 2 whynters vs 1 Engel.

 

[Rocksylvania]

I now have 90 qts for a $1000.00 instead of 45 qts for 900.00. 2 whynters vs 1 Engel.

That sounds like great way to get this done. I was also looking into the various footprint of these fridges to see how they will mesh with my existing cargo boxes. Looks like I'll be condensing from 4 cases to 3 to make it all fit. Unfortunately the footprint for 2 separate fridges would limit my cargo capacity too much for the necessities. And since most of my trips will be in the 1-2 week range, I'm going to roll the dice with the elements fridge from arb. REI has it on clearance right now for 25% off. Picking it up at the store tomorrow.

I also have an Engel 45 MT45F Combi fridge, that fits perfectly on the platform in the back of my Extended Cab. What's nice about this fridge is you can run it as a freezer and a fridge at the same time. It's modular in that a plastic sheet separates the fridge part from the freezer part and you can move the sheet to make the fridge part larger or vice versa. Their 60 qt version of the combi is much shorter than the 45, but the freezer space is not adjustable, like the 45.

That sounds like the best design so far. But since the cab isn't an option, while building a weather resistant box for it in the bed would be, I'm going with the elements. Couldn't pass up REI's clearance sale. From what I've read, it seems that the frozen items can be kept frozen if they make up the bottom layer, and then the rest layered on top.

 

[sharpertool]

It's been a few years since anyone commented on this one. I'm also curious about it.. I could take out my rear seat, but that's pretty permanent.
I have a utility trailer, not an overlanding one, but it has lots of room. I don't want to do extensive modifications to it, as I use it for firewood, mulch, and just around the house, but I'm wondering if there are some ideas about how to mount a fridge to it.

 

[Longshot270]

It's been a few years since anyone commented on this one. I'm also curious about it.. I could take out my rear seat, but that's pretty permanent.
I have a utility trailer, not an overlanding one, but it has lots of room. I don't want to do extensive modifications to it, as I use it for firewood, mulch, and just around the house, but I'm wondering if there are some ideas about how to mount a fridge to it.

Taking out the seat is easy and not permanent. It’s one of the best modifications I did with my truck. Some other advantages are the cooler is in air conditioning when driving so it works less and vibrations in the cab aren’t as bad as in the bed or a trailer.

 

[Wandering_Scotty]

It's been a few years since anyone commented on this one. I'm also curious about it.. I could take out my rear seat, but that's pretty permanent.
I have a utility trailer, not an overlanding one, but it has lots of room. I don't want to do extensive modifications to it, as I use it for firewood, mulch, and just around the house, but I'm wondering if there are some ideas about how to mount a fridge to it.

I’m a big fan of having my fridge in the back seat of my rig. I think it’s convenient, it’s a great spot that doesn’t take away from other storage areas in my rig, it’s out of the elements in the shade and I can control the environment through my a/c. Plus it’s close to all my outlets so I didn’t have to rewrite anything when plugging it into my 12v. When making the decision to commit to removing the back seat it came down to asking myself a few questions. Do I really need my back seat and how often am I actually going to be using my backseat. Also removing your back seat isn’t permanent at all. So if you ever decide it doesn’t work for you then you can just throw it back into your rig.

 

[64Trvlr]

I'm very happy with my Iceco fridge/freezers. I have 2 63 qt fridges, one of them lived in the back of my truck for 3 years, rain, snow, dirt nothing has bothered it and it's still working perfectly.