Transporting frozen food

[Proud2AVoter]

I am in need of certain info and I've not figured out the solution. My wife and I are in the process of preparing to move to another state, but have a big problem. Over the past couple of months we've been able to get good prices on meat and have filled our upright freezer. How do we transport all of it from Kommifornia to Montana safely without having it go rotten? Obviously, using an ice chest or two is going to happen, but how can we keep it frozen over a 1,800 mile trip? Ice will constantly melt and not sure if dry ice would work. This is being done on a shoestring budget and not sure how to overcome the cooling aspect and still keep everything frozen. Any ideas are appreciated, but please don't flame me if this question seems stupid. I just don't have the right answer and losing our food investment is not acceptable. Thanks ahead of time.

[wafflehouse]

i would say it depends..

1. on how much and what you are moving.. if you are moving mostly solid blocks of meat versus something with a lot of airspace like frozen veggies

2. how you are moving it.. are you putting it in the back of a pickup? or in a uhaul?

3. how long are you going to take to get there? 25-30 hours? or stop at a hotel every 8 hours?

[MarkB]

I don't have any details P2AV, but this might help. I once had a friend who owned a whitewater rafting company in Colorado, and once a year he did a trip from Glenwood Springs to Lake Powell, for a fairly large group. This trip took several days, and each of the nights was a theme party on the beach, which the clients had planned and packed for - Mash night, music night, volleyball night, talent night, etc. Very expensive trip, kind of famous in it's day, and his customers ate like kings along the way.

A few of his employees manned supply rafts, and the perishable food for each day was put into large good quality Coleman style coolers, on dry ice (the ice paper bagged, not loose), and then the coolers were duct taped shut, not to be opened until the day that the food was to be prepared out of that particular cooler. He had coolers that were "refrigerator" coolers for things like eggs, cheese, drinks, etc., and the ongoing wet ice supply for these was also kept frozen until needed in dry ice coolers. The last night was usually a steak cookout, and the steaks were just fine, that particular cooler not being opened until the morning of the cookout most likely.

Sorry I don't have better information, but at least I know it can be done.

The "camping stories" at the bottom of the page this link takes you to is something along the line of what I described:
http://www.dryiceinfo.com/camping.htm

[JohnWalker]

A local grocery store here sells dry ice. It will keep food frozen in a freezer.

[Proud2AVoter]

i would say it depends..

1. on how much and what you are moving.. if you are moving mostly solid blocks of meat versus something with a lot of airspace like frozen veggies

2. how you are moving it.. are you putting it in the back of a pickup? or in a uhaul?

3. how long are you going to take to get there? 25-30 hours? or stop at a hotel every 8 hours?

Sorry for the lack of info

1.it's all meat, frozen and packed in ziplock bags, ranging in size from quart to gallon

2. Probably inside our vehicles (PT Cruiser and a Scion xD)

3.It may take about two days since we're moving a whole house (with pets...and us, that need potty breaks)

Realistically, coolers are all we can use and I guess if needed, they could be drained if the ice melted. Won't dry ice cause extreme burns to the meet?

[goatlady]

In you situation, dry ice would be the way to go. pack those coolers, put in a thick layer of newspaper on top of the foods, then put the dry ice on top of the newspaper which will act as a buffer and prevent damage. You don't need very large pieces of dry ice with the coolers staying closed tightly. Why are you not taking your freezer? hen I moved from SD to Arkansas my freezer was loaded on the truck on Thrusday afternoon, arrived the following Monday and everything in the freezer was still frozen solid except for 2 packs of veggies.

[Lenno]

I would build a large insulated chest using doubled 3.5" foam board from the housing industry or sprayed on polyurethane foam, you could put 50 gallon drums in a square frame and spray the frame. I would cool the chest with dry ice and have identified dry ice sources along your route.

[orion commander]

I would build a large insulated chest using doubled 3.5" foam board from the housing industry or sprayed on polyurethane foam, you could put 50 gallon drums in a square frame and spray the frame. I would cool the chest with dry ice and have identified dry ice sources along your route.

How much will doing extra storage cost add to the over all cost of the food? I would just go with core cooler and larger cooler with more dry ice. Went camping once and tried dry ice. It not only kept the food cold but froze the non frozen stuff I only wanted to stay cool.

Brother in law used to come from Texas to Iowa in the summer with shrimp and oyster frozen in a block of ice and added dry ice. Twenty two hour trip. It was still frozen hard when he arrived.

[goatlady]

Lenno - they are moving using 2 vehicles not a truck. Where the heck are they supposed to put a large chest or a 50 gal drum - on the top of the car?

"Probably inside our vehicles (PT Cruiser and a Scion xD)"

[Proud2AVoter]

Sorry guys, my head is not as "in the game" as I'd hope. Our freezer(s) are just part of regular refrigerators. One is a side by side and the other is a freezer over fridge, just good ol' regular fridges. We might need to get a moving truck for all the furniture, and could leave the foods in fridges. But considering the changes in regional temperatures along the travel route, I thought the appliances would gradually lose all their cooling ability. I am aware it may be no different than being a power outage where you don't open them and the food "should" be okay. Lenno, great idea and very "out of the box" thinking, you're a RockStar! We're moving because we're done here financially. The move is taking every last penny and we have no credit to put it on. What's the lifespan of dry ice? I'm reading and assuming as long as there's no exposure to different environmental temperatures it will remain in it's frozen state.

ETA: everyone here is RockStars and these ideas are helping, not gonna play favorites and cause bad feelings. The experience in our little circle here is great and I learn something every time I click a link.