Rear storage compartment as cooler?

[Sea Ranch]

Greetings. New here

Wondering . . . Has anyone attempted to use the rear behind-the-seats storage compartment as a cooler? You know, an ice chest?

And I don't mean putting a small cooler in there. I mean, using the compartment itself as the cooler. Perhaps remove it and use spray foam underneath to insulate it. Et cetera.

Just thinking out loud . . .

 

[Duncodin]

Greetings. New here

Wondering . . . Has anyone attempted to use the rear behind-the-seats storage compartment as a cooler? You know, an ice chest?

And I don't mean putting a small cooler in there. I mean, using the compartment itself as the cooler. Perhaps remove it and use spray foam underneath to insulate it. Et cetera.

Just thinking out loud . . .

How are you going to cool it? Just using ice blocks might work becase there's not enough room to install refrigeration. In any case it's not water tight so any condensation in there is just going to drip down behind the seats.

You could maybe rig up a small container with a couple of peltier plates just about big enough to put a couple of cans in.

 

[Stevo7682]

@Duncodin in my view your idea has some traction and with some minor parts outlay could be made to work acceptably as basically all you want to do is fit the components found in those 12v plug in mini fridges ( drinks cooler)
So yeah I think could make that work without a massive outlay .
Stephen.

 

[Sea Ranch]

Thanks for the responses!

My wife and I travel in a 2+2 so have the luxury of space behind us. We always carry one or two small coolers with us and top them up with ice each morning from the motel. Keep drinks, dairy, et cetera plenty cool all day AND accessible while driving.

The Zed doesn't have the luxury of that kind of space, so just looking at work-arounds.

So the rear compartment is not water tight? That would have to be addressed, for sure. I don't think I would be ambitious enough to do a refrigeration conversion, but yeah, those 12 volt compressor-based coolers on the market now could be cannibalized.

My sights were set a little lower Just an icebox that's watertight, and perhaps insulation from in behind/underneath would be necessary to prevent condensation on the outside of the compartment panels. Which would mean spray foam, I believe.

 

[Kenhayes247]

My wife's Skoda had a glove box that was cooled by the Car's A/C unit. It was nothing more than a pipe that tapped into the car's existing A/C system and fed cold/chilled air in when the A/C was on.

It also has a small cover where it fed into the glovebox that could be closed when the A/C was set to heating mode.

If your car has A/C fitted this could be a simple solution to chilling the glove box area without too much work

 

[Sea Ranch]

Very cool thought, Ken (no pun intended). Thanks. I'll be looking into how accessible those A/C blower ducts are