turbogrill Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 Hi, Do you cut the milk jugs before putting them in the coolbox? Having milkjugs or ziplocks seems like a great idea since you can just pull them out. No sloshing or hitting the pump either. But the plastic seems to isolate quite well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reidry Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 (edited) We use frozen jugs. Fill the jug to 80-85% full (allowing for expansion), throw the screw top cap away and freeze it. Use a good cooler like the new Colemans to transport the frozen jugs to the track. Put 3-4 frozen jugs (again with no screw caps) into your cool box on their side (allows water access to the frozen ice through the open top). Pour in enough water that the water level is 60-70% of the depth of the box, for ours it takes nearly two gallons. We did a back to back comparison at Daytona doing 1:45 stints. With just ice the water finished cool but not cold and zero ice left. With frozen jugs the water finished cold and there were still frozen blocks inside the jugs large enough that they could not drop out through the open top. One of our 1/2 gallon milk jugs sprang a leak in my freezer during the freezing process and made a mess, we're switching to 1 liter tea jugs that are thicker plastic like creamer bottles. I've read that some teams use the medium size Gatorade bottles. We use two cool boxes, so our swaps are fast and repeatable during the pit stop. The large blocks of ice combined with the restriction of the opening in the jug give less surface area to the sloshing water and the ice lasts longer and the water stays colder, it's a win-win! Ryan Edited May 11, 2017 by reidry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 We use frozen Gatoraid bottles with 3 3/8" holes drilled in the top so the water can still circulate somewhat through them. To empty excess water during pit stops we use large peanut butter jars with more holes drilled in the lid. For transport to the track we pack the bottles in tightly, cram crushed ice around them and then put a frozen towel folded to the dimension of the cooler lid over them. Essentially the same thing @reidry does and it works great... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDChristianson Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 We use the hard plastic freeze packs made for coolers. Pull them out, and replace with fresh ones at pit stop. We don't end up with excess water this way. What ever you do make sure there is not even a tiny scrap of a label still on them, it will come off and plug a line. Last year we bought a small apartment size freezer off of Craigslist. Plugged in the night before we go, and when we get to the track. It has worked great no worries about buying and messing with ice. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technical Advisory Committee Chris Huggins Posted May 11, 2017 Technical Advisory Committee Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 We use a chest freezer from craigslist. Makes a great cooler, and once we are at the track we can plug it in and actually make ice. The jugs are antifreeze jugs. We leave them sealed. 3 fit in our cooler, and the water finishes cold and the jugs still have plenty of ice left. The beauty of the freezer is we only need enough jugs for 4 stints or so, then the first stints jugs have had enough time to re-freeze again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaibRX-7 75 Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 We freeze 16 ounce drinking water bottles in put ~14 bottles a mesh laundry bag. At pit just swap the bag with a new one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reidry Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 3 minutes ago, StaibRX-7 75 said: We freeze 16 ounce drinking water bottles in put ~14 bottles a mesh laundry bag. At pit just swap the bag with a new one. Good idea if you don't have a second cool box. We build two boxes so if one pump craps out we have spare box in service while we run to walmart for parts to repair the other one! Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bremsen Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 We freeze 16-32oz bottles/jugs and put them in the cooler on their side with the cap off. When done, just pull the bottles out full of water and swap in fresh replacements. The water level stays pretty even. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahnmel Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 (edited) We use the milk jugs from Costco - the square shape and flat tops with a big lid make them easy to store in the freezer and can fit a couple in the system. We pack yellow fuel cell foam they shipped our cell in around the jugs - it is really porous and doesn't hold much water when you take it out and dries out pretty quick. We pull the tops off - seems to get rid of heat better, we would have blocks left in jugs when we left lids on at the end of a stint, now we generally just have a little piece of ice left. Also bought a $100 craigslist freezer about the size of a dishwasher. Like was mentioned earlier - nothing better after the race than Sundae Cones? Edited May 11, 2017 by jahnmel 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triangle42 Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 We use a deep freeze and 15 16oz water bottles. Best part is after the first stint you have very cold drinking water to rehydrate. If you time it right you can refreeze some of the bottles for later stints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbogrill Posted May 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 And how about protection for the pump? If you have bottles/jugs they are still going to slosh around and maybe hit the pump? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabotTeg118 Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 We just use the cheapo Wal-Mart 12oz water bottles. The plastic is so thin you don't have to open them before freezing, they just bulge out. Have to remember to remove the labels so they don't clog up the pump though. An added benefit is when we pull the bottles out at the stop, we have a cool drink ready to go for the driver getting out. We have the Cool-Shirt brand cooler which is pretty small. I think only 4 bottles fit, so we have to conserve a bit using a timer https://www.amazon.com/Rig-Rite-Manufacturing-510-Variable/dp/B000FP1QT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494525913&sr=8-1&keywords=livewell+timer Running the pump 30s on, then a minute or two off lets us go 2hrs with a pretty small system. Another good idea is to build a separate cool shirt cooler for the pits for the really hot races. We have a giant cooler with a 12V pump and four 10' hoses. It is great for keeping the new driver cool before getting in the car, and cooling down the guy getting out of the car. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reidry Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 1 minute ago, CabotTeg118 said: We just use the cheapo Wal-Mart 12oz water bottles. The plastic is so thin you don't have to open them before freezing, they just bulge out. Have to remember to remove the labels so they don't clog up the pump though. An added benefit is when we pull the bottles out at the stop, we have a cool drink ready to go for the driver getting out. We have the Cool-Shirt brand cooler which is pretty small. I think only 4 bottles fit, so we have to conserve a bit using a timer https://www.amazon.com/Rig-Rite-Manufacturing-510-Variable/dp/B000FP1QT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494525913&sr=8-1&keywords=livewell+timer Running the pump 30s on, then a minute or two off lets us go 2hrs with a pretty small system. Another good idea is to build a separate cool shirt cooler for the pits for the really hot races. We have a giant cooler with a 12V pump and four 10' hoses. It is great for keeping the new driver cool before getting in the car, and cooling down the guy getting out of the car. For sprint racing the little 13 qt cool shirt cooler size is just barely enough. For endurance racing we built two boxes from the Engel 30 QT coolers. With the big box we don't need to run a timer in Spring races in Florida, but might consider one for Summer. Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krackerx Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 We ran the small coolshirt box at charlotte last year. It was 100 degrees and we could go 2 stints before we need to change ice. 2 frozen coolant jugs and a timer 30 seconds on 2 mins off. Caps on the jugs so water level never needed to a adjusted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triangle42 Posted May 11, 2017 Report Share Posted May 11, 2017 3 hours ago, turbogrill said: And how about protection for the pump? If you have bottles/jugs they are still going to slosh around and maybe hit the pump? Our system has the helmet air piping right next to the pump acting as a shield. 15 bottles is the most that can be packed in the cooler so not much sloshing around and beating up the pump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogtired Posted May 12, 2017 Report Share Posted May 12, 2017 Our cooler has an external pump. I know a guy that will build ya'll one if interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted May 13, 2017 Report Share Posted May 13, 2017 Kinda on the same topic...CoolShirt has one of their 12 station coolers for the pits set up at COTA. The reported price tag....$4500.00 Don't get me wrong as I love my CoolShirt, but dayuuuummm! Gotta be a government contract in their somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reidry Posted May 13, 2017 Report Share Posted May 13, 2017 10 hours ago, Doc said: Kinda on the same topic...CoolShirt has one of their 12 station coolers for the pits set up at COTA. The reported price tag....$4500.00 Don't get me wrong as I love my CoolShirt, but dayuuuummm! Gotta be a government contract in their somewhere. Id love to see a picture of how the pump manifold inside that pit cooler works. The system is $3500 on amazon, but it includes 12 cool shirts and 12 sets of insulated hose. It's not like the cooler box itself is 3 grand. I made an adapter using a laptop power brick and a few parts from a local electronics shop so we can run one of our small cool boxes in the pit for the driver on deck. Ryan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted May 14, 2017 Report Share Posted May 14, 2017 21 hours ago, reidry said: Id love to see a picture of how the pump manifold inside that pit cooler works. The system is $3500 on amazon, but it includes 12 cool shirts and 12 sets of insulated hose. It's not like the cooler box itself is 3 grand. I made an adapter using a laptop power brick and a few parts from a local electronics shop so we can run one of our small cool boxes in the pit for the driver on deck. Ryan Oh yeah, I forgot you get 12 shirts and the hoses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakks Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 19qt Engel cooler filled with bagged ice from gas station and enough water to cover the pump at the start of the race. Lasts 2 hours. Not sure why you guys need the full flow all the time....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 14 minutes ago, jakks said: 19qt Engel cooler filled with bagged ice from gas station and enough water to cover the pump at the start of the race. Lasts 2 hours. Not sure why you guys need the full flow all the time....... 'Cause racing is supposed to be hard...and complicated. You all at JAS just make it LOOK easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakks Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 Just now, Doc said: 'Cause racing is supposed to be hard...and complicated. You all at JAS just make it LOOK easy. Less than $15 part saves a lot of headache with having to freeze jugs/bottles although we have to buy ice. Pick your poison. LOL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted May 15, 2017 Report Share Posted May 15, 2017 Just now, jakks said: Less than $15 part saves a lot of headache with having to freeze jugs/bottles although we have to buy ice. Pick your poison. LOL We use most of our ice for beer. Priorities differ from team to team... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMoneyWasters Posted May 22, 2017 Report Share Posted May 22, 2017 What pump are you guys using for the home built coolers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bremsen Posted May 22, 2017 Report Share Posted May 22, 2017 (edited) Rule 500GPH bilge pump, I'm pretty sure. I'll double check tonight when I get home. Edited May 22, 2017 by Bremsen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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