I am part of a charity that provides free hot meals to disaster victims. We travel anywhere within 8 hours of Tuscaloosa. One of our biggest issues has always been refrigerator space and we have decided to convert one of our enclosed trailers into a walk in cooler (hoping to keep it at 37*-38*). The trailer is 8'w 8' h and 16' long, but we are only going to use the front half as cooler. The back portion will be dry storage (canned goods etc).

The trailer is built out of 1.25" square tubing, and we are going to frame the inside 8x8 front portion out and have it spray foamed that should give us about 4.25".

My biggest unknown is how to insulate the floor. The trailer currently has 3/4" treated plywood on the floor and we were hoping we could frame out floor with 2x2's on 16" centers and put 1.5" rigid foam insulation inside the 2x2's.

We would caulk the edges and apply foil tape over it as well.

Then screw down another layer of 3/4" plywood for the floor.



Anyone have an idea/comment/suggestion?






(We are also using a 12k mini split with a CoolBot Pro controller to make the mini split do more than it was designed for.)

Spray foam bottom side of trailer?

Thought about that but dont know how well it would hold up. And it seems like a pain to add some metal or plywood underneath it. Thats why I considered using the 2x2's and rigid foam for the floor.

Could you get an ice freezer or two like outside convenience stores and put in the trailer?

Getting things in and out of an ice machine would be difficult. When we leave for a trip we will usually take 120 boston butts, 1000# of chicken, 350# of smoked sausage, 2500 TNT burgers plus all the stuff we make sides with. It will usually be about 3-4 pallets of food from Wood Fruiticher.

After thinking about it we may just frame out the floor with 2x2's and have it spray foamed when they do the walls and ceiling. Then lay 3/4 plywood over the floor. We are wanting a walk in because currently we have 3 upright freezers, 2 upright fridges and also bring 4-5 chest freezers. It is a pain to sort stuff out and organize it. We are always having to take stuff out to get to something else. We have to really work to get it all in there. Its like playing tetris trying to pack everything.

That’s how we made the walls and ceiling in the walk-in drink cooler at our store and it worked fine, just have a case of great stuff spray foam to fill the cracks. Google used walk in freezers in Birmingham. We bought a door from a place up there and they had stacks of cam lock panels that would fit your need with a little cutting. They are two to four foot wide, have a few inches of foam sandwiched between two sheets of plywood with an aluminum skin.

Build a false floor on the trailer floor and insulate that?

I don’t think you’ll get too much thermal loss out of the floor compared to a wall or roof since it’s shaded.

If it’s just to be a fridge space, I’d just throw a stall mat on the bottom and call it good. Worst case, lay some blankets on the floor when not actively in use to give you a little extra insulation. You’re gonna end up with more trouble than it’s worth if you start trying to build a false floor and all that.

Spray foaming the underside isn’t a terrible idea. But you’ll need closed cell and it might end up being more of a hassle than it was worth if you have to fix wiring or anything like that.