The fitting chain — an extraordinary element for any cooler — is connected such that we had a quite difficult time unscrewing the real attachment, and normally needed to utilize two hands to achieve. The additional crates and casting pole holders outwardly continued to pop off when we lifted the cooler or pushed it facing something with a specific goal in mind. The steward plate igloo water cooler isn’t exactly the right size to fit cozily in the streetcar handle, thus slides a great deal when set up. However, we tracked down the inward dry crate and two jug openers outwardly to be genuinely helpful. On numerous occasions, we found our hand searching for a front handle that doesn’t exist, only to latch onto the bottom of the little white box nestled on the front.
It also had two attachments for either fishing poles or an umbrella. I’ll use the umbrella attachment the most, as it’s never a bad idea to find some igloo water cooler extra shade on a hot day. Up against some pretty intense competition, the Igloo Trailmate didn’t turn any heads in our torturous insulation testing.
The sheer number of great accessories justifies a lot of this higher asking price and even as a simple cooler, it does a decent enough job to not make us gasp too much at the asking price. But where the Trailmate shines is in its mobility and features. There isn’t anything that Yeti offers that can match Igloo in these areas. Also, despite all of these additional igloo water cooler features, you will still find that the Trailmate is typically more affordable than a similarly-sized Yeti. If you go with the Trailmate Liddup or Trailmate Marine models you will only have a single color to choose from. The Liddup comes in a gray/red combo and the Marine comes in white (similar to all of Igloo’s other marine-inspired products).
This brings me to a point that if it did turn over all the contents would come out, as the lid is not locking. In our testing we had it going up trails, sitting out in the 90+ degree heat and opened and closed the door to keep grabbing beers. It kept some ice up to the 4 days even with all of these conditions! As always the ambient temperature and how often you open the cooler will dictate how long the ice will stay.
The extra boxes and fishing rod holders on the outside kept popping off when we lifted the cooler or pushed it up against something in a certain way. The butler tray isn’t quite the right size to fit snugly in the trolley handle, and so slides a lot when in place. We did find the internal dry basket and two bottle openers on the outside to be fairly useful though. You get a durable, weather-resistant exterior and wildly impressive ice retention thanks to its MaxCold Ultra™ insulated interior — plus, a whole crew of handy adventure-friendly features. From the big (all-terrain wheels) to the small (bottle openers) and a ton of handy features in between (butler tray, dry storage, umbrella holders and way more), Trailmate has everything you need. Head out to your favorite picnic spot with your meal packed in the Igloo Trailmate™ Journey 70 qt.
The last thing we’d like to tackle is the price matter; you could save something around a hundred dollars getting the Trailmate though might that differ according to your seller and where are you buying it from. Yeti became the bar setter in coolers industry after coming up with their first roto-molded cooler and even though Igloo is one of the oldest names in the field there are still some main differences between the two brands. All in all, it remains a purely personal choice how you’re willing to use the Trailmate and where. Camping is an obvious reason why anyone would get the Trailmate; the extreme mobility of this cooler will allow you to haul it anywhere you go as long as there’s a path that can support those wheels. Not only that, fishing is also a very valid option that you’d like to experience with the Trailmate given the featured accessories that’ll make that possible.
A few factors are holding these coolers back from significantly longer ice life. They include a lack of rotomolded insulation, a lack of thick rubber gasket, and lack of a more advanced latch system that creates a tighter seal. Igloo’s rough Trailmate Excursion likewise has curiously large, off-road wheels so you can pull your products across asphalt, sand and grass.