As far as color options go, you can purchase this in one of two colors, Greystone which is the one featured in this article and a lighter grey. The constant color feature among the two are the orange rimmed wheels which I don’t love but, it is not a deal breaker. I’m using my North facing deck as the staging area which receives direct sunlight at almost all hours of the day. I also placed  a small weather system on the deck rail to help get a sense of how hot surface temperatures are in the area. On one of the hottest days, the remote sensor reported temperatures exceeding 107 Degrees Fahrenheit while the air temp was in the high 80’s. REI had a member sale over Memorial Day weekend and we were able to save 20% on our cooler. Here’s our take on the Ozark Trail 26 Quart Cooler which we think is perfect for van life. The small towns in the Ozark region provide a peaceful atmosphere during winter, giving visitors a chance to experience the tranquility of the wilderness away from the crowds. The cooler months are the ideal time to enjoy the raw, natural landscape, observe wildlife, or simply relax next to a roaring fire. From fishing to hiking, from family camping to solo bike trekking, Luke adores spending quality time enjoying nature, oftentimes checking out new coolers while doing so. Well, we are always hunting for new cooler brands to review. So imagine our joy when we stumbled upon this little gem of a brand. The Ozark Trail cooler brand is sold mostly in Walmart stores. Some people get lucky with the Ozark Trail soft coolers and they are great quality, work really well and never break. It wore out at the bottom from my dragging my groceries in when the bag was too heavy to lift and it was finally time to replace it. We are looking into this problem in more detail and may adjust this review accordingly once we get to the bottom of it. While these aren’t “budget” coolers, compared to their competition, Ozark Trail ice chests are a bargain. And many of them utilize essentially the same construction techniques, features, and ice life. As is typical of most other cooler brands, the smaller coolers will utilize an overhead carrying handle while the larger coolers will stick to traditional side rope handles. We will go into more detail about the specific features later in this review. The more full your cooler is, the longer it’s content will stay cold. Everything from their bucket to their cargo box to their coolers are made super tough and their soft sided coolers are no exception to this. The Ozark Trail Soft Cooler lineup is a solid contribution to this ever-growing company. There are enough size options and configurations to make most people happy. We’ve found that in cooler temperatures, it keeps things cool for about 4 days but there isn’t any ice left after 4 days. On hot summer days when you can’t get any shade or coverage for the cooler or the van you can count on about 48 hours where there’s still a little ice. (The less you open it, the longer it’ll last so keep the opening and closing to a minimum). All in all, it’s a pretty solid ice chest and a major upgrade from some of the stryofoam and even Rubbermaid coolers of yore. Truthfully if it breaks it's probably going to be cheaper for you to simply buy a brand new Ozark Trail cooler rather than to go through the trouble of getting it fixed. You might get lucky, save hundreds and your Ozark cooler will last you years. Or you might use it for 2 months and have something important like the zipper or shoulder strap break and then you're stuck with a broken cooler. As you can see the Yeti line of coolers are SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than the Ozark Trail line of coolers. Join to get special offers, free giveaways, and once-in-a-lifetime deals. If you would like to read about how not to pack a cooler click here to read about it. If you are lucky and receive a model that has the quality issues discussed above ironed out, Ozark Trail Coolers are one of the best bargains in the industry right now. Still, if you happen to get an ice chest that has these kinks ironed out, you will enjoy a solid competitor. These are IGBC certified and that certification isn’t possible without a tough product. It is also worth mentioning that all of the metal components you will find are comprised of quality stainless steel. This helps to minimize the change of corrosion or breaking, even after many years of use. On the contrary, the premium soft coolers and particularly their hard-sided coolers have more of the traditional features we look for when we think of long ice life. So you can expect them to allow for much longer ice retention. We enjoy the premium soft coolers and hard-sided coolers the most. Not to mention, it has a built-in bottle opener and four drink holders on the lid, so you can have a good time no matter the temperature. So there you have it, when looking at just the ability to keep ice cold over a period of 6 days the Pelican has just slightly won, but we are talking about decimal points. I have to say that I am very impressed with the performance of the Ozark Trail 45Q cooler. This cooler is not only smaller in its overall size but also a fraction of the price of the competition.