Cooler for GTI

I may have found the perfect cooler for the hatch of Golfs. I needed something to put in the hatch and keep the rear seats up. Just general camping, fishing, travel use. It's tough to find good dimensions since coolers aren't often perfect rectangles.

The Lifetime 28qt cooler is just about perfect. Well-built, less than $100 at Walmart(currently $76US).

Huntermike said:

I may have found the perfect cooler for the hatch of Golfs. I needed something to put in the hatch and keep the rear seats up. Just general camping, fishing, travel use. It's tough to find good dimensions since coolers aren't often perfect rectangles.

The Lifetime 28qt cooler is just about perfect. Well-built, less than $100 at Walmart(currently $76US).
View attachment 27021

Click to expand...

That looks like a pretty rad cooler, thanks for sharing!

Does that cooler still fit with the floor in the upper position?

dietcokefiend said:

Does that cooler still fit with the floor in the upper position?

Click to expand...

Good question! Yes, it does. It can be anywhere from the center to about 4" from the side of the car. It will not go to the far outside of the compartment and still close the hatch, as shown:

hows the cooler holding up? Water-tight, keeps cold for a long time? Thinking about buying one shortly

I have a Yeti Hopper 30 that fits in the back no problem if people are looking for a soft sided cooler.

vbrad26 said:

I have a Yeti Hopper 30 that fits in the back no problem if people are looking for a soft sided cooler.

Click to expand...

As much as I'd like a Yeti, I can't bring myself to pony up the cash especially given that many competitors have coolers that perform almost as well for a quarter of the price. If I camped or boated often or things like that I'd go Yeti all the way.

My parents got an Ozark Trail soft side from Walmart like the one pictured and it works pretty well

Yeah I'm sure that there are others out there that don't cost nearly as much and do just as well.
I did not pay full price so I'm not mad about it lol.
But I do know that it is super durable, 100% leak proof and will keep cans cold for days.
Just the other weekend I packed it at about 6AM and was out on the boat till about 5PM.
I didn't unload it till after 5PM the following day and it still had about half the ice left in it after around 36 hours.
It was in the shade pretty much the whole time, and about 24 of those hours the cooler was not opened once, so that helped.
But despite that I think it did a good job. They say if you pre-cool it and put salt in there it will last for 3 days, and it probably would...

imthanick_a said:

As much as I'd like a Yeti, I can't bring myself to pony up the cash especially given that many competitors have coolers that perform almost as well for a quarter of the price. If I camped or boated often or things like that I'd go Yeti all the way.

My parents got an Ozark Trail soft side from Walmart like the one pictured and it works pretty well

Click to expand...

this x100 I mean If I used it every day I still would opt for a normal prices cooler. I was at the golf store and there was a yeti lunch box that looked like it could fit about 6 cans of beer. They wanted 125$ ... Ill bring a 20$ cooler that will work for a few hours and get me through. But I do agree. The yeti will keep it cold in like 95 degree heat for a week lol

imthanick_a said:

As much as I'd like a Yeti, I can't bring myself to pony up the cash especially given that many competitors have coolers that perform almost as well for a quarter of the price. If I camped or boated often or things like that I'd go Yeti all the way.

My parents got an Ozark Trail soft side from Walmart like the one pictured and it works pretty well

Click to expand...

Same, or similar brand anyway, for a fraction of the price. Works great. Same with the travel cups. Ozark trail for maybe $10 instead of $30+ for Yeti. Tested against Yeti on YouTube, VERY little difference in insulation duration.

Yeti's cool and has some good stuff. I don't know if their patent ran out or what but like Harley and others half the time you're just paying for the name as others have eaten away the niche they held that justified the price.

Update, I bought the cooler before vacation last week. It was sitting in my 80°F+ garage for a few days with a case of small gatorades in it, no ice or anything, just waiting till I left to pack it. With the case of gatorades in there being 80°+, I dumped all the ice from my freezers ice maker bucket into it (less than a small bag from the gas station worth). It was packed around 5pm friday, and packed with as many cold beers as would fit on top at around 8pm. We left for Tennessee around 2 am Saturday. When we got to our destination at 1 o'clock, there was still some ice left but not much. We unloaded all the beers and most of the gatorade. By the next day all the ice had melted but the remaining drinks were still cold. It was sitting in an air conditioned house since 1pm saturday. I think if I had pre-cooled the contents and put more ice in, it would have lasted much longer, but this was just a test to see how it fared. Since we were in a house with a fridge/freezer, it didn't really matter. I'm still happy with the performance of the cooler for the price, though if I had paid more for it I would not be satisfied. For a weekend trip, this would be a good option if packed correctly with pre-cooled drinks/cooler, and a lot of ice.


Another update: I let my cooler sit in the air conditioned house before loading it up on saturday around 4. Put in 6 beer bottles, 6 of my girlfriends seltzer waters (both refrigerated prior), then dumped the same amount of ice as the last time on top. I poured some salt on the ice and put in two lunch box sized ice packs and closed it up. In and out for drink all night, and I put in a 12 pack of Coors light around 11 from the gas station, and in and out of the cooler until 2ish. After my girlfriend drove us home, I forgot about the cooler in the back and the next day we went grocery shopping at 5 and the cooler was in the hot car all day. After the store, there was still a bunch of solid ice left and all the drinks were ice cold, and it kept the food cold while we went into the next store. I still haven't unloaded the beers and it still had the same amount of ice as yesterday, I'm pretty impressed! Sorry to hijack the thread and make it about a cooler review, but just wanted to give my input here!