Is there anything you can do to the built ice chest that will make them hold ice better? I have a Skeeter and you can't keep ice in when it gets into the summer.

Try freezing a gallon ziplock bag of water and throw it in the middle. It works better in my Triton cooler which will melt in 30 minutes on a 60 degree day.

+1

or try filling a liter size coke bottle with water, freeze it, and throw it in there.

Yall can bad mouth Ranger all you want but their ice chests are great! Maybe you can line the sides with styrofoam?

I have had similiar experience with ice melting almost immediately.
I bet there is zero insulation in them.
I thought about insulating at least the lid. If there was easy access, I would insulate the whole box from from inside the hull.

put a bag cooler in it

I usually freeze 2 dixie cups of water and then run some water over the cup once they are frozen and the ice will fall out. It seems to make the bag ice last longer and seems to work better than frozen bottles of water

After putting drinks and ice in cooler. Take a clean large trash bag and shake bag to get some air inside bag. Put bag on top of contents and try to tuck down around the edges. The bag will take up the leftover space under lid when closed. Yes it will take 10 seconds more to get a drink when you need one but it will keep ice all day....It worked in my Stratos 289 and now on my Tx21 Triton.

bet you could freeze solid ice some kind of chunks or cubes would last longer, i have a yette and this ice you buy is hollow dont last long even in a yette buti can use ice out of shop frig ice maker its solid half moon it will last 4 or 5 days

Insulate the underside of the lid. I use ArmorFlex sheet insulation.

I just did some research on the Armorflex sheet insulation that Wayne P. mentioned. It looks awsome for this task!
It is not available to me locally.
Wayne, where do you get it?
If I find some, I will share the extra with anyone interested since I only need a small piece for my lid.

Not familiar with your Skeeter cooler but I had a Champion with the same problem. The cooler's surface was smooth gelcoat, I lined it with styrofoam insulation with the aluminum foil backing, just cut pieces to fit each wall of the cooler. The walls were fairly easy to fit, used some contact cement on the foil surface to hold it in place. Actually lined it twice before I sold that rig - the foam surface gets a little dingy after a couple of year of cans and bottles bouncin' around in it. But the foil surface and contact cement came off easy.......

Found after a quick google

http://under-the-ice.com/product_info.php?products_id=74

I may have to check this out a bit more

I have a skeeter boat also and wont hold the bags of ice to good....if you do use cube ice then you need to pack it to the top for it to hold some what....but i bought some plastic shoe boxes from Walmart and fill those up which will give you a good block of ice...several bottles of water and power aid and a lunchable and can fit two blocks of ice in mine...it will last....

Ice will last twice as long if you precool the drinks in the fridge. Room temp drinks will melt the ice fairly quick.