I used 12 volt coolers for decades. They ARE JUST BARELY USABLE AND ONLY IF YOU USE THEM CAREFULLY. I easily spent far more money on replacing power cords over the years than I did buying 3 or 4 electric coolers. They are the one item I strongly suggest you always buy the 2 or 3 year extended warranty. The Loves “extended warranty” works liek this; you buy the cooler and the extended warranty. 48-72 hours after purchase you register your purchase following the procedure for the warranty. Then save the receipt for the cooler and the warranty, or a pic of those reciepts, and if/when the device breaks you either present proof of the warranty and purchase to the tuck stop or the warranty company and they mail you a gift card of he appropriate amount.
In my last 5 years of trucking, I had a real compressor-based refrigerator/freezer installed by the factory. They are so much less hassle and keep your food cold, not just 40 deg F below he temp in the truck. If you are going to use a 12 v cooler, make sure to use a thermometer, I prefer the electronic ones with a max and min recording in them. You do not want to eat food from your cooler if it got warmer than 45 d F. Food poisoning is terrible and means you may spend a few day and nights doing nothing but rejecting food from all entries and exits and wondering if death is really as bad as they say. On average, if you are very careful, you can get 1-2 years of use from an electric cooler. They need to be shut off/unplugged about once per 10 days or they will freeze up and not keep your food cold enough. At the end, before I got trucks with refrigerators, I was doing nothing but storing fast-food in the cooler plus some OJ and milk for cereal. When I stopped to buy lunch I would buy 2 hamburgers, or whatever. One to eat hot and one to store in the cooler. Cooler or refrigerator it is very nice to have food choices with you instead of depending on getting a big truck into some non-truckstop location just because you are hungry. The world is not a truck stop unless it says “truck stop” on the sign out front. Lots of drivers get into trouble trying to force a big truck in to places that are not made for big trucks. Being hungry is one reason.
