If you’ve just invested in a portable fridge for your camping adventures, or you’ve been running a 12v fridge for years, you might think that an ice box is old technology. After all, didn’t we all start out with ice boxes in the beginning? No doubt you remember the days of melted ice and snags floating in icey water. That’s why we invest in 4×4 fridges after all! However, it may come as a surprise that many of the most well-travelled 4×4 adventurers in the country aren’t ditching ice-boxes at all, and in fact are still using them to provide a couple of vital functions. The reason why comes down to your 4×4 battery!

For a portable fridge to run properly, it needs 12v power. The Adventure Kings 60L fridge and Adventure Kings 80L fridge are built with incredibly efficient compressors and excellent insulation which means that they use a whole lot less power than you’d think, but like any fridge they can only work as long as there’s battery power to keep them running.

When you’re around camp this Easter, especially if it is one of those beautiful campsites that you don’t want to leave, chances are you’re going to want to do a whole lot of nothing. Okay, maybe some fishing, or drinking, or reading, or bushwalking – but certainly not worrying about whether your batteries are up to the task of keeping your fridge cold.

The fact that you’re parked up at camp for a couple of days makes the situation even harder and places more stress on your deep cycle battery because not only are you not driving anywhere, but you, your mates and your family are probably opening and closing the fridge 30 or more times a day. And you know what the kids are like – they’ll stand there with the fridge open for 30 seconds trying to decide if they want a bottle of water or a cordial! Every time you open your 12v fridge you let the cold out and it has to work hard to bring the temperature back down again. That means your portable fridge’s compressor will be constantly running, and you’ll see the results when your deep-cycle 4WD battery goes flat very quickly. Yes, you can definitely use a solar panel like any from the Adventure Kings range to help your battery, but an icebox can help even more!

Many 4WDers and campers are switching onto the fact that an icebox is the perfect companion to your 12v fridge. An icebox lets you store all your drinks while leaving your fridge to do the job of keeping the food nice and cold. Have a think about how often you open your 12v fridge, and for what reason. We’re willing to bet that 90% of the time it’s because you want to get a drink out, right? If all those drinks lived in your icebox then straight away you’re opening your fridge 90% less often, meaning it doesn’t have to work anywhere near as hard to keep its internal temperatures down.

Whether you’re going somewhere epic like Fraser Island or Cape York this Easter, or you’re heading to your favourite local campsite, an icebox can take a huge amount of strain off your vehicle’s 12v system. What’s even better is that the Adventure Kings range of iceboxes are available in sizes 40L, 60L, 80L and 100L to suit everyone from a solo adventurer to the biggest clan heading bush. We’ve tested them and proven that they’ll keep ice for days too! The trick here is not to break up the ice and pour it over the drinks, as tempting as that might seem. Keep that method for your next backyard BBQ. When you’re camping, buy blocks of ice or keep the bag of ice frozen up together in the middle of the icebox and put your drinks all around it. Using this method and keeping the icebox directly out of the sun, it’s very doable to make one bag of ice last well into the third day!

Portable fridges are a brilliant way to ensure your food stays cold, but there’s definitely still a place for the humble icebox in every campsite. And here at 4WD Supacentre, you can get ahold of both for way less than just buying a 12v fridge just about anywhere else!