Best golf cart coolers: sizes, brackets and where to mount them

A golf cart cooler has to do two things the one in your garage does not: fit a bracket or a bed about 20 by 14 inches, and stay put on a cart path. That makes 24 to 30 quarts the size to buy, puts the RTIC 20, the YETI Roadie 24 and the Igloo Marine 30 at the top of the list, and makes the strut bracket or the strap as important as the cooler. It is the cooler page in the seats and interior section.

Where it rides

The passenger-side front roof strut is where most coolers end up. A steel bracket clamps to the strut and holds the cooler beside the dash, below the passenger’s elbow and off the seat. It is the only mount that keeps the cooler fixed and within reach of a seated passenger. The bracket fits a cooler up to about 20 inches long, 14 inches wide and 15 or 16 inches tall; the lid has to open under the roof.

The rear seat bed is the next best spot if you have a flip kit. The bed is flat, 36 inches wide and has the grab bar and foot plate to strap to. The rear seat kit page covers the kits; some sellers offer a cooler bracket that bolts to the kit frame and sits the cooler under the flipped seat.

The bag well, behind the seat on a two-seater, takes a 30 quart cooler if you are not carrying clubs. It is out of reach while driving and the lowest spot on the cart, so it is the mount for a cart that goes to the beach rather than the course.

The floor, between the passenger’s feet and the dash, takes a tall cooler like the Roadie 24. It is in the way of a passenger and has nothing to strap to on most carts, so it is a short-trip answer.

Size: why 24 to 30 quarts

A 20 quart cooler is about 24 cans with ice, 30 quarts about 48. Either covers a round of golf or an afternoon. The footprint of both is around 20 by 14 inches, which is what the brackets and rear seat mounts were designed for in the Igloo era, and what the rotomolded makers now build their small coolers to. A 45 quart cooler is 26 inches long and 40 pounds empty; it rides on the rear bed or not at all.

Rotomolded or not

Rotomolded coolers (RTIC, YETI) are one thick piece of plastic with two or three inches of foam. They hold ice for days, take a fall off the cart without cracking, and weigh two to three times what an injection-molded cooler does. For a cart at a lake house that gets loaded on Friday and opened through Sunday, they earn the money.

Injection-molded coolers (Igloo Marine, Coleman) hold ice for a day in the sun, weigh a third as much, cost a quarter as much and crack if dropped loaded. For a cart that goes out for a round and comes back, the Igloo is the sensible buy, and the white UV-treated shell has been the golf cart cooler for forty years for a reason.

Soft coolers come off the cart and go in the house, do not sweat on vinyl seats, and hang from a grab bar. They hold ice for a day. Right for a cart that is not driven every day or a rider who uses club carts.

Strap it down

Every cooler on a cart gets strapped, including one in a bracket. A cam strap or two bungees through the handles to the grab bar, the bracket or the seat frame. A 40-pound cooler that leaves the cart at 15 mph takes the lid off itself and sometimes a passenger’s shin. On a rear bed, strap across the lid so it also stays shut on a bump.

Which one for your cart

Cart	Mount	Cooler	Note
Club Car Precedent, Onward, Tempo (2004 on)	Strut bracket, 1-inch square clamp	RTIC 20 or Igloo 30	Buy the bracket listed for the Precedent
Club Car DS (1982 to 2013)	Strut bracket, 1-inch square clamp	RTIC 20 or Igloo 30	Most brackets fit
EZGO TXT (1996 on)	Strut bracket, square clamp	RTIC 20 or Igloo 30	3/4-inch struts to 2013, 1-inch from 2014
EZGO RXV (2008 on)	Strut bracket, 1-inch square clamp	RTIC 20 or Igloo 30	Same strut size as Club Car
Yamaha Drive, Drive2 (2007 on)	Strut bracket or rear bed	RTIC 20 or Roadie 24 on the bed	1-inch square struts; buy the Yamaha bracket
Any cart with a flip seat	Rear bed, strapped	Any size up to 45 quarts	Strap across the lid

The fitment pages for Club Car, EZGO and Yamaha explain how to read the model year, and the fitment finder sorts the model from the year.

Install: ten minutes for a bracket

Measure the strut where the bracket will sit, usually about 18 inches above the floor on the passenger side, and compare to the bracket’s clamp range. Loosen the clamp bolts, fit the bracket, set it level, and tighten. Set the cooler in, run the strap through the handles and around the bracket, and open the lid to check it clears the roof. Recheck the clamp after a week; the rubber liner compresses.

If a cup holder shares the strut, mount the cooler first and put the holder where it clears; the cup holder page has the clamp sizes. If rear passengers need shade over the cooler and themselves, an extended top covers the rear bed.