Coleman  Steel Belted Cooler - 54 qts.

Have had the green 54 Qt. for about five years now. The body of the cooler is very robust and the construction and ergonomic angle / action of the side toting handles is also very solid. Some have mentioned issues with the drain plug, and while it's not the original screw design, mine has held up just fine. There are a few shortcomings, unfortunately. One, as also previously mentioned, is the omission of the bottle openers on the original models that were stationed on the sides with the handles. Maybe they've since been deemed dangerous for children or something; who knows? The bottle openers were a great feature on the original Coleman steel belt coolers and they are sorely missed now. Two, and even more critical of a deficiency is the latching mechanism. It simply does not steadfastly fasten down the lid like the old versions did. I can fasten the lid down with the **plastic** latch, and then still manage the lid open with just an upward tug, bypassing the still closed position latch. The latch merely holds the cooler lid in the closed position but doesn't really clamp it down firmly (again, like the old ones). This has been an issue from the beginning and necessarily due to eventual wear and tear. One final gripe: When the lid is in the open position and is tilted back, the hinge connection points seemingly receive unintended stress and has caused a bit of 'sagging separation' from the external steel of the lid; to the point where the internal foam insulation material is slightly exposed. I will look to include a pic soon to better describe this issue. FWIW, the Coleman logo plastic sticker/badge on the front side peeled off after only a few uses; not a big deal though and the cooler looks a bit sharper and vintage without it I suppose. Despite the listed gripes, this very much remains my go-to cooler on a wide variety of road trips. You can load a ton of beverages into this thing and keep them nice and chilly for longer than your comparably sized cooler. (Plus it looks really cool and rustic too.) I would recommend the Coleman 54 Qt. Steel Belt cooler (I think the price has gone down since they first came out too), with the hope that issues with the slipping latch fastener and stressed-when-hanging-open hinges issues have since been improved upon by the manufacturer in more recent models.

Have had the green 54 Qt. for about five years now. The body of the cooler is very robust and the construction and ergonomic angle / action of the side toting handles is also very solid. Some have mentioned issues with the drain plug, and while it's not the original screw design, mine has held up just fine. There are a few shortcomings, unfortunately. One, as also previously mentioned, is the omission of the bottle openers on the original models that were stationed on the sides with the handles. Maybe they've since been deemed dangerous for children or something; who knows? The bottle openers were a great feature on the original Coleman steel belt coolers and they are sorely missed now. Two, and even more critical of a deficiency is the latching mechanism. It simply does not steadfastly fasten down the lid like the old versions did. I can fasten the lid down with the **plastic** latch, and then still manage the lid open with just an upward tug, bypassing the still closed position latch. The latch merely holds the cooler lid in the closed position but doesn't really clamp it down firmly (again, like the old ones). This has been an issue from the beginning and necessarily due to eventual wear and tear. One final gripe: When the lid is in the open position and is tilted back, the hinge connection points seemingly receive unintended stress and has caused a bit of 'sagging separation' from the external steel of the lid; to the point where the internal foam insulation material is slightly exposed. I will look to include a pic soon to better describe this issue. FWIW, the Coleman logo plastic sticker/badge on the front side peeled off after only a few uses; not a big deal though and the cooler looks a bit sharper and vintage without it I suppose. Despite the listed gripes, this very much remains my go-to cooler on a wide variety of road trips. You can load a ton of beverages into this thing and keep them nice and chilly for longer than your comparably sized cooler. (Plus it looks really cool and rustic too.) I would recommend the Coleman 54 Qt. Steel Belt cooler (I think the price has gone down since they first came out too), with the hope that issues with the slipping latch fastener and stressed-when-hanging-open hinges issues have since been improved upon by the manufacturer in more recent models.