The folded rear seats of a vehicle can make a very comfortable place to camp the night. But a big cooler is one guest that can really crash and burn the party – a hard, bulky nuisance that's uncomfortable on or near the bed and unsecure outside the vehicle. This remains true even if you have an elevated bed system like Hele Outdoors' camper-in-a-duffel Box. Recognizing the issue, Hele presents a creative solution: a dual-zone cooler that's slimmed and flattened enough to slide neatly under the bed.
Hele's Box camper bed system features a degree of height adjustment so high it doubles as an outdoor table. But even those long, snap-lock extendable legs can't set the bed high enough to comfortably clear the average hard cooler without making the person on top have to squirm in and out of bed, likely still bashing their head on the vehicle roof as they go.
If a pair of campers is using Hele's double bed, there's simply no room left for a cooler in the back of the vehicle. Maybe it'll fit in the front seat, maybe it'll have to store outside ... regardless of the weather or what types of predators or vermin might be lurking around for a snack.
We've solo camped atop folded rear SUV seats without a Hele-like bed system a number of times, and while you can store a cooler next to you in back, it still tends to be uncomfortable. Smash a toe or shin into that heavy, unmoving block of rotomolding once or twice while sleeping and you'll be ready to toss it in a raging river and forget you ever owned it.
We never experienced any problems leaving the cooler outside, but we do know there are plenty of places you would not want to do so owing to the local population of ravenous bears. Yeah, you can throw locks on the corners and rely on that fancy bear resistance rating (assuming that applies), but even if the bear doesn't destroy it and eat all your food, we still don't love the 1:1 ratio that results from a 400-lb bear wrestling around with our $400 cooler in the middle of the night.
Not one to waste much time coming up with fancy product names, Hele offers another solution with the Ice Box. The company essentially smashes the cooler into a long, slim form low enough to slide under its Box beds while one or two people snore cozily away on top.
Beyond offering the unique capability of fitting below the bed, the Ice Box offers a few other design intricacies meant to improve the camping experience. Hele splits it into two separate compartments, with the larger one designed for foods that you access less frequently: meats, dairy, vegetables and similar goods. The smaller section is for drinks and snacks you'll be grabbing more often. Some people pack two separate coolers for the very same reason of ensuring one stays cold longer by limiting how often you're opening it.
Two compartments is a good idea in some ways, but with a cooler that's already been shrunken down like the Ice Box it eats into the total capacity a little too much for our liking. We'd prefer they just use as much of the interior as possible to maximize cold storage capacity and maybe attach two split lids with a (thin) removable divider in the middle. Or maybe keep the design as simple as possible and offer a Kickstarter reward that packages two single-compartment Ice Box coolers together for a lower per-unit price – one food, one drinks, done.
Hele doesn't list a total capacity, and our math isn't perfect because it appears the Ice Box's internal compartments are tapered, but applying the basic volume formula to the individual compartment dimensions Hele lists, we calculate a total capacity of 25.8 liters – a fairly limited amount of space for a camping trip.
That said, there's only so much room possible in a cooler built to slide away under the bed, even with a single continuous compartment. And if you can learn to pack around the Ice Box's limited size, it will save you from the other problems of a large, heavy cooler, including having a lower, more stable center of gravity to prevent unwanted tip-overs.
Hele says the cooler will retain ice reliably for about two days, so it's really more of a weekend cooler than a week+ version, anyway. That, or you just have to refill it with food and ice more often.
Beyond splitting up different foods and drinks, the dual-compartment design is also meant so that users can quickly access beverages without pulling the entire cooler out of the car. Slide it out roughly 1/3 of the way to access the small compartment and the heavier 2/3 is still inside preventing it from tipping over. Grab something from that front compartment, then slide it back, or leave it out and use it as a table. Hele calls the latter "tailgate mode" and includes two cup recesses atop the smaller lid for holding drinks.
After the camping trip is over, having a slimmed down cooler is also a boon for those living in small apartments, cabins or tiny houses. Instead of having to deal with a big box that takes up more closet space than you have to spare, simply slide this one away under the bed and forget about it until the next trip. To put numbers to it, the Ice Box measures 9.5 in tall (24 cm) and extends 34 in (86 cm) long and 14 in (36 cm) wide. It weighs 25 lb (11.3 lb).
The recently launched Coleman Snap 'N Go collapsible cooler is another slim storage solution, but its taller dimensions when set up into cooler mode won't help with car camping in the same way the Ice Box does.
Hele is winding down a Kickstarter campaign for the Ice Box over the next few days. The cooler is still available at pledge levels as low as US$189. Along with other Ice Box-only rewards, Hele is packaging the Ice Box with its single and double Box beds for pledge levels of $549 and $649, respectively. It's already hauled in nearly three times its goal with over $42,000 raised, and if everything continues running successfully, backer deliveries will begin in March 2027.
Hele doesn't mention anything about bear resistance, but the Ice Box does use a rugged rotomolded construction just like Yeti and other tough-as-nails coolers. It has a series of stretch T-latches to close securely, a bottle opener at the corner and rope carry handles with grab bars.
Source: Hele Outdoors
