Coleman Xtreme Rolling Cooler Review: A Season of Long Weekends

By the time you are hauling ice chests for a crew of grandkids, you learn to read a cooler the way you read a defense. The Coleman Xtreme Rolling Cooler has been on the tailgate of my silver Tundra for every three-day weekend this season, from the county beach park in March to the state campground last month. It has been loaded, dragged, sat on, rained on, and opened about forty times a day by small hands, and it still holds ice like it did on day one.

I am Sam Faleolo, 63, retired high school football coach, and I have camped long weekends for most of my adult life. When you bring three to five grandkids along, the cooler stops being a piece of gear and starts being the difference between a happy trip and a trip where somebody is eating warm sandwiches by Sunday. This is how the Coleman Xtreme held up over a full season of real use.

How I've Used It

My pattern is simple. Friday morning I load the Tundra with tents, chairs, the camp stove, and the Coleman Xtreme. I pack it the night before: a bag of ice on the bottom, drinks layered in the middle, and the stuff that needs to stay cold on top. By the time we roll into the beach park, the cooler has been in the truck for two hours in Hawaii sun, and the ice is still solid.

Over the season I used it for everything a family cooler gets used for. Cold water and juice for the kids, drinks for the adults, lunch meat, cheese, eggs, leftovers from the night before, and a bag of ice for the drinks cooler when the cheap one gave out. On the last trip I counted eleven openings in one afternoon. That is the real test. A cooler that loses its cold after a few opens is useless no matter what the label says.

I also did the things you are not supposed to do. I sat on it while tying my shoes. I dragged it across gravel when the wheels caught. I left it in the truck overnight once because the kids were tired and I did not want to unload in the dark. The Coleman Xtreme took all of it and kept working.

The worst abuse came on a Labor Day weekend at a beach park on the windward side. The cooler sat in full sun from about ten in the morning to four in the afternoon for three straight days, because the only shade at our site was taken by the tent and the kids. I moved it under a picnic table when I remembered, which was not often. It still had ice in the bottom on Monday morning. Not much, but enough to keep the milk cold for breakfast, and that was the test I cared about.

Ice Life: The Number That Matters

Coleman says the extra-walled insulation keeps ice up to five days. I will tell you what I actually saw. In March, at the county beach park, I packed it Friday night with one bag of ice and opened it maybe a dozen times a day. Sunday morning, before we packed up, there was still ice floating in the bottom. That is two full days and change, with real use, in Hawaii weather. I have not needed a fifth day, but I believe the five-day number is honest if you keep the lid closed and the cooler out of direct sun.

The trick, and this is true of any cooler, is to pre-chill it. I started putting a bag of ice in the Xtreme the night before a trip, then dumping it and packing fresh ice in the morning. That one habit added most of a day of ice life. The extra-walled insulation does the heavy lifting, but it works better when the walls start cold.

One honest note: the drain plug is at the bottom, and when the ice melts, the water comes out fast. That is a good thing when you are cleaning it. It is a less good thing when you forget to close the plug before you pour in the ice water. I have flooded the bed of my truck exactly once. My own fault, and the plug is easy to reach, but it is worth saying.

What I did not expect was how much the drain helps with the food itself. On the first trip I let the meltwater sit, and by Sunday the hot dog packages were floating and the bread I had wedged on top was soggy. Now I tip it and drain about half a gallon every morning and every evening, and the ice lasts noticeably longer because it is not sitting in warm water. It is a thirty second job and it makes the difference between a cooler that works and one that turns into a soup pot.

Sunday morning, before we packed up, there was still ice floating in the bottom. That is two full days and change, with real use, in Hawaii weather.

What the Wheels and Handle Are Really Like

The rolling part is the reason I bought this over a plain chest. My knees are 63 years old and they do not negotiate stairs the way they used to. The telescoping handle pulls the cooler on two wheels, and on flat ground, a loaded Xtreme rolls along like a luggage cart. From the truck to the picnic table, from the table to the tent, it saves my back every single time.

The wheels are plastic and they are not made for sand or rough trails. On packed dirt and pavement they are fine. On the soft sand at the beach park, you are better off lifting the handle and carrying it, or just dragging it by the side handles. I learned that the first weekend. The wheels are a convenience for the parking lot, not a promise that you can roll this thing across a beach.

The side handles are molded in and comfortable enough, even when the cooler is heavy. And it does get heavy. Empty, the 70-quart Xtreme is manageable. Full of ice and drinks, it is a two-person job to lift into the truck bed. The wheels make the flat parts easy, but you still have to lift it once on the way out and once on the way back.

The handle also matters for who can move it. On our last trip my oldest grandson, who is fifteen, rolled it from the truck to the site by himself, a good hundred yards over a gravel path and a strip of grass. A cooler you have to carry with two adults is a cooler that stays at the truck. A cooler a teenager can roll is one that ends up next to the stove, where you actually need it.

How It Handles a Crew of Grandkids

The 70-quart size is the sweet spot for our trips. I can fit two gallons of water, a dozen juice boxes, a six-pack of soda, lunch meat, cheese, eggs, a bag of ice, and still have room for the kids to bury their hands in looking for a cold one. On the trips where I bring five grandkids, I add a second small cooler for drinks and keep the Xtreme for food. That split works better than one giant cooler.

The lid closes with two latches that are easy for small hands to work, which is both a blessing and a curse. The kids can get their own juice, which means I am not getting up forty times a day. It also means the lid gets opened a lot, and the cold escapes. Even with that, the ice held. I checked the temperature of the milk on Sunday morning of the March trip and it was still cold enough to pour over cereal.

I also learned to pack it in layers for a crowd. Drinks go on the bottom on a bed of ice, because the kids open it forty times a day for juice boxes and water. Saturday's dinner meat goes in the middle in a sealed bag. The things we need first go on top. That way the lid opens, someone grabs a drink, and it shuts again in a few seconds, instead of somebody digging through everything with the lid up while the cold pours out.

One thing I will say about the lid: it is not a seat. I sat on it once while I was putting on my boots and it held fine, but it flexes and I would not trust it with a heavy adult for long. Coleman does not sell this as a seat, so that is not a complaint. It is just a warning for anyone who is used to the rotomolded coolers with the hard tops.

The Tradeoffs Nobody Mentions

The Coleman Xtreme is not a rotomolded cooler and it does not pretend to be. The walls are thick for a budget cooler, but they are not the inch-thick armor of a premium brand. If you need ice for a week off-grid, buy the rotomolded one. If you need ice for a long weekend with a family, the Xtreme does the job at a fraction of the price.

The other tradeoff is the plastic. It is tough, and mine has survived a season of abuse, but it scratches. The outside of mine has a few white scuffs from being dragged across gravel. That does not bother me. A cooler that lives on a tailgate is going to earn its scars. If you are the kind of person who wants your gear to stay pretty, this is not that cooler.

And the handle, while useful, is not a telescoping pole you can lock at any height. It has a couple of positions and it works, but it is not as smooth as the handles on the expensive rolling coolers. For the money, I will take it.

If I had one wish, it would be a lid with a molded cup holder or a cutting area, the way some coolers have. It is a small thing, but at a busy campsite every flat surface gets used. As it is, the lid stays clear, which is probably for the best with a crew of kids who would otherwise use it as a table, a seat and a drum.

Who This Is For

This cooler is for the family that camps on weekends, not the expedition that lives off-grid for two weeks. If you drive to a campground, set up a base, and spend the weekend eating, drinking, and chasing kids, the Coleman Xtreme is the right tool. It keeps food cold, it rolls across the parking lot, and it does not cost as much as a small used car. For a retired coach hauling grandkids, that is exactly the math that works.

Who Should Skip It

Skip it if you need ice for a week in the backcountry, because the rotomolded coolers win that job. Skip it if you are going to drag it across sand every trip, because the wheels will frustrate you. And skip it if you want a cooler you can sit on, because the lid is not built for that. For everyone else, this is the cooler I reach for first, and after a full season, I still reach for it.