Yeti Tundra Haul

Whether it’s for camping, tailgating, a barbecue, or a day at the beach, a good cooler is an essential summer accessory. We love our favorite large cooler, the Yeti Tundra 45, priced at about $300, for its outstanding durability and cold retention (we also tested and recommend the Yeti Tundra 65, priced at about $350, which is larger). Our main complaint? The Tundra 45 weighs 25 pounds when empty, which makes it difficult for one person to lift or carry it when full.

Yeti seems to have come up with a solution: the Yeti Tundra Haul, priced at about $400. The Tundra Haul promises the same durability and insulation as Yeti’s other coolers but with better portability, thanks to wheels and a long hauling handle. 

We wanted to see how the Yeti Tundra Haul’s performance stacked up against the Yeti Tundra 45 and 65 and whether it was indeed easier to move around, so we subjected it to the same tests we put the large coolers through: tracking how long it could keep ice from melting and keep sodas cold, filling the cooler with food and pulling it across a variety of terrains, repeatedly lifting the cooler into and out of the trunk of a car, pushing it out of the back of an SUV, and operating all handles, latches, and hinges at least 100 times.

Comparing the Yeti Tundra Haul to the Yeti Tundra 45

Yeti Tundra Haul Portability

In our previous testing of large coolers, one of the issues we discovered with wheeled coolers is that the wheel wells often cut into the cooler’s storage space. However, we were pleased to find that the Yeti Tundra Haul is designed so that the wheel wells barely cut into its interior, which is almost perfectly rectangular with no oddly shaped corners. It accommodated a weekend’s worth of groceries for four with room to spare.

To test portability, we carried the fully loaded cooler up and down stairs, lifted it into and out of the trunk of a car, and wheeled it across concrete, gravel, dirt, and grass. The wheels and long handle made it much easier to move than the wheel-less Tundra 45, and it easily glided over whatever terrain we pulled it across. 

However, the Tu...