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Wheel House Brands / Thoughts?


Cobber

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Good morning, all-

Not looking to start a 'bash session' to hammer any specific brands, or turn it into a thread for complaining-- with that said, the lady gave the go-ahead to start looking for a good, used wheel house.

Thinking of something in the 8-8.5, 15-18' V frame house.

Until this point, I have been looking at houses as I come across them- but primarily just window shopping. Now, I'm getting to the guts of them trying to make sure I don't regret an investment.

I'm wanting to make sure that I don't overlook any brands, since there seem to be additional brands emerging into the marketplace.

Any Brands that people have thoughts on, or some lesser known brands that I may want to direct some attention towards?

The ones that I'm currently aware of:

Yetti

Ice Castle

Firebrand

Big Bite

Salem Ice Cabin

Thanks all!

-Cobber

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I have a Yetti and like the fact it is aluminum frame, a lot lighter, I can tow it with my Ford Escape. It is only a six by 12 with a v. I haven't weighed it, but I am figuring about 2400 pounds finished.

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I have a 2014 Ice Castle RV Edition and love it. Makes it pretty easy to take the wife and kids fishing having an actual flushing toilet. We use it in the summer for camping too and the kids love it.

I was at the Ice Show in St. Paul this past December and was pretty impressed with the Big Bite houses that were there. Just wish they had more info on their HSOforum.

I think that IC has been the king of the wheel houses, but there are some new companies out there that are going to give them a run for their money in the next few years.

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Without question, if I were getting an 8x16 wheel house with a crank frame, I'd go Yetti. They are rock solid, all aluminum-lightweight, and have been heavily tested over the last few years. Some of the dealers do fantastic work on the interiors if you don't want to go the DIY route.

Bigger than 8x16, for sure do a tandem axle. Custom Cottage seems to build a good house. All aluminum. They use electric jacks, which I'm not personally a fan of, but the rest of the house is rock solid.

I know very little about Big Bite, but they looked good at the show. If I remember correctly, they had the option of doing an aluminum or steel frame. I think they were doing electric jacks, which again, I'm not a fan of.

If you want to go with a hydraulic frame, Berkon builds great frames in any size, and I believe they will still do a complete house. Valley also does hydraulic frames, and you can get them galvanized. My next frame will come from either Berkon or Valley.

You can get the Ice Castle on the Berkon or Valley frame, if you want a hydraulic frame and completed house.

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We were up on URL the last two days. While hooking up the house noticed a couple guys working on their new IC. They were replacing one of the hubs that had all the lugs sheer off flush. Said 1st trip with new house and glad it had double axles so they could limp it some place to fix it. He was not impressed. Said he even checked everything including the lugs before he left the TC. IC warranted the parts for him but this house hadn't even been on a lake yet. No matter what you buy there may be problems, but issues like this seem to follow IC. I looked at them all and decided on a 8X16 yetti. I liked the quality of their product and also that I could finish the house the way I wanted. Just my opinion.

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I would go with Big Bite I like the quality of their house with the spray foam insulation. I have a Lodge now and have had lots of brake issues due to design, other than the brakes they build a nice house too. Yeti owners do you have cold migration issues with the aluminum framing transferring frost to the paneling or interior wall covering? A crank system isn't too bad but electric or hydraulic would make it better for the wife to setup on her own. A sink is a nice option even if it only drains to a bucket.

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I love my 20ft v Ice castle, Id love any wheel house really have been in a caper huse conversion for 15 yrs. Ive no problems with mine, but soory to say sheering off lug bolts? Ive been pulling mine for two years now, grew up on a farm pulling hay racks loaded to hilt, combines, tractors and you name it ive pulled it on a farm. the one thing ive seen as far as break downs on the road or the ice just happens to be just plain miss use and abuse. sure there are those things that happen fro tiem to time, but lugs sheerd off, frame craked, ext ect on the major break downs. Ive watched huge tandems like mine fly by me at 75 mph, sorry but im gona see the person along side the road someday cusing at the manufacture cause of the break down when alls he has to do is slow down. heavy equipment is not mentfor high speeds on the roads we travel to ice fish. or the ice for that matter. for those that do it will catch up with ya. Sorry but im the y guy pis sing you off cause im going 50-55 mph on the number 2. to bad im getting there in one piece then ill fish. two more seasons im looking to trade off, looking at custom but might look at others.

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I love my 20ft v Ice castle, Id love any wheel house really have been in a caper huse conversion for 15 yrs. Ive no problems with mine, but soory to say sheering off lug bolts? Ive been pulling mine for two years now, grew up on a farm pulling hay racks loaded to hilt, combines, tractors and you name it ive pulled it on a farm. the one thing ive seen as far as break downs on the road or the ice just happens to be just plain miss use and abuse. sure there are those things that happen fro tiem to time, but lugs sheerd off, frame craked, ext ect on the major break downs. Ive watched huge tandems like mine fly by me at 75 mph, sorry but im gona see the person along side the road someday cusing at the manufacture cause of the break down when alls he has to do is slow down. heavy equipment is not mentfor high speeds on the roads we travel to ice fish. or the ice for that matter. for those that do it will catch up with ya. Sorry but im the y guy pis sing you off cause im going 50-55 mph on the number 2. to bad im getting there in one piece then ill fish. two more seasons im looking to trade off, looking at custom but might look at others.
Very well said!!! A majority of Minnesotans that pull trailers down the road have no clue how to drive, their trailers are overloaded, they are speeding and driving the entire time in the left lane. Ask the feller that sheared of his studs and I bet he has no idea on what his load weighs wink
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