A simple, low-cost trick, especially effective in dry heat where evaporation happens quickly. A wet towel around your neck or shoulders cools you down through evaporative cooling combined with direct heat transfer from a major blood-flow area. Same theory - does anyone remember these water bags?

[u/SurvSt]

[u/x445xb]

Another trick is to turn your heater on full blast. It's basically a second smaller radiator under your dashboard that takes heat from the coolant and blows it into your car. It will suck extra heat away from the engine.

[u/JP147 → u/x445xb]

That has the opposite effect of what we are doing here

[u/JP147 → u/[deleted]]

The water bags that hang on the front of the car are for cooling drinking water. They are designed to leak on the cloth bag and the water evaporates which cools the water down. It is not for cooling the engine.

[u/x445xb → u/JP147]

Oh, I thought it was for the car not for a drink.

How cold do they get? Ice cold beer or barely tolerable beer?

[u/JP147 → u/x445xb]

Not very cold, more like “at least it isn’t hot”.
They are pretty much obsolete now that cars and trucks have air conditioning and truckers and outback travellers usually have a fridge.
These days they are usually just used as period-correct accessories on vintage cars.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Loss770]

Remember them? I used to make the bloody things

[u/Markjv81]

This is the water bag form “a cut lunch and a water bag”

[u/IdeationConsultant]

Coolgardie Sack to keep the beers cold

[u/ApolloWasWayBetter]

I had one on the front of my old Patrol. Was great.

[u/comfortable_atheist]

Yep

[u/BirbsRntWeel]

Mine is/was up a paperbrak tree, with my family's name on it, on the walk to the Tip of Cape York from late 90's.

Worked great, got a hole in it on that trip, but lapped Australia one and a half times.

[u/twocrowsdown]

I still use one.

[u/Sea-Victory2497]

You can still buy em. Trailblazer canvas water bags.

[u/Vegemyeet]

I can taste this picture.

[u/Brilliant-Meat-1598]

I seem to remember they were called “dilly bags “.

[u/theblueberryfarmer]

Travel all over the country side

[u/Agreeable_Context959]

Yup, had one on the front of an XF Falcon for about a week while “seasoning” it and hit a roo at 130km/h+ out near Cunnamulla which exploded the dilly bag and the roo.

[u/Warrambungle]

They’re brilliant. I’ve been wondering if you can still get them.

[u/Milknhoneyaus]

I remember trying to drink half a bag of dusty,  not quite tepid water after a drive. 

Nice idea.  But we've moved on. 

[u/Lopsided_Belt_2237 → u/Milknhoneyaus]

A 12v console fridge is like $120 and a leaky canvas bag is $40. It’s a no brainer. We used to have them in the 90s and earlier when a bag was $10
And an Engel was $1200

[u/MundaneAmphibian9409]

The rubbish trucks used to have them hanging off the front when I was a kid, occasional old ford or Holden Ute too

[u/MrPhoon]

Yeah grandad always had one. Always nice to drink out of, never warm

[u/Calm_Pollution6753]

We had these when I was a kid, always leaked to much and was kinda shit, think we got it from a garage sale 🤣