ice chest replacing the isulation

[gerrynshaz]

Hi

During my restorations, I'm currently at the side where the ice chest is.  I not going to dismantle the sink, ice chest etc, I've pretty much kept the kitchen in tact.
In replacing the van frame from the outside I noticed behind the ice chest,  the masonite had a hole in and when I put my fingers inside I managed to pull out what I thought was saw dust.

I could see it surrounds the whole ice chest.  Where the hole was, some of the (i think ) saw dust had fallen to the rear of the chest but theres still some on the top of the chest. I imagine the side still have the insulation.  The masonite looks weak but will propbably hold up.

I wasn't sure if the sawdust was meant to be there or not so when I googled  ice chest they were in fact insulated with either of the the following, sawdust, cork, seaweed or straw.  Mine is either sawdust or cork (similar size to sawdust)

I was thinking about pulling off the rear piece of masonite removing the sawdust/cork and replacing it with expandable foam or just cutting up foam boxes and lining the tin skins with that.

I'm leaning towards using either expandable foam or polystyrene sheets because I would of thought that technology obviously improves 

Just after any thoughts.  Has anyone actually done what I'm contemplating?

Cheers in advance

Gerry    

[don]

Jul 6, 2017 16:07:06 GMT 10 gerrynshaz said:

Hi

During my restorations, I'm currently at the side where the ice chest is.  I not going to dismantle the sink, ice chest etc, I've pretty much kept the kitchen in tact.
In replacing the van frame from the outside I noticed behind the ice chest,  the masonite had a hole in and when I put my fingers inside I managed to pull out what I thought was saw dust.

I could see it surrounds the whole ice chest.  Where the hole was, some of the (i think ) saw dust had fallen to the rear of the chest but theres still some on the top of the chest. I imagine the side still have the insulation.  The masonite looks weak but will propbably hold up.

I wasn't sure if the sawdust was meant to be there or not so when I googled  ice chest they were in fact insulated with either of the the following, sawdust, cork, seaweed or straw.  Mine is either sawdust or cork (similar size to sawdust)

I was thinking about pulling off the rear piece of masonite removing the sawdust/cork and replacing it with expandable foam or just cutting up foam boxes and lining the tin skins with that.

I'm leaning towards using either expandable foam or polystyrene sheets because I would of thought that technology obviously improves 

Just after any thoughts.  Has anyone actually done what I'm contemplating?

Cheers in advance

Gerry    

[don]

Hi Yes my clipper also has sawdust as icechest insulation. I have added small sealed unit fridge unit to my icechest so it can be user as a fridge when power is available or as an icechest . I have cut a 20mm hole on the left side alongside my metho stove to top up the sawdust as I had to remove some when adding the gas tubes for the fridge.. Cheers Don.

[gerrynshaz]

Hi thanks for reply
thats great having fridge n ice chest set up
i can't visualise the setup though
Don what are your thoughts on changing the sawdust with either polystyrene or expandable foam
cheers

[Franklin1]

G'day gerrynshaz,

Before you bother with the insulation side of the story, I would recommend you check how well the door seals on the front of the ice chest. The door on mine is slightly warped, to the point where there is a gap of a few millimetres around one bottom corner. This would make my ice chest less efficient, but that is not an issue for me because I use the chest as a food pantry instead, and have a portable Waeco fridge for the cold stuff (the Waeco is either located outside the van, or kept in the back of the 4WD).

I can't see any problems in using alternative insulation. I originally had good intentions of trying to use mine as an actual ice chest, and used the 50mm-thick fibreglass insulation that is used under corrugated iron roofing. Now that I use it as a pantry, I can only say that it keeps my Weet-Bix dry .

cheers,
Al.

[gerrynshaz]

Hi Al
Thanks for reply
I'm pretty the door closed tight 
thanks for thr tip
 Cheers gerry 

[shesgotthelook]

We had to build an ice chest for a van that had lost is somewhere along the renovation trail. I used builders insulation paper around the outside but not sure that it is that effective. I have re lined a few doors with self adhesive foam strips, available in lots of different widths from hardware stores, & this seems to work very well. SorryI can't do the photo thing anymore !

[gerrynshaz]

Hi sgtl
thanks for the reply