Dbl door in house or not ?

[WALLEYEDUDE2001]

In the process of making a 6.5 x 14 house, looking for upside to putting dbl door in rear of house. How many people actually use this. I see several houses w/two doors, one in side & dbl in rear.

[jerkbait]

I don't have one in my house, but there have been a few times that I wish I did have a double door. That being said, if I was to build another I would put the double door in next time.

[meatfish]

If you are going to be hauling a 4 wheeler or snowmobile in the back they are great.In my opinion I prefer a drop down type rear door,doubles as a ramp.Double doors always seem to have trouble sealing and lining up right when the house flexes.Either way you go it helps to use strapping band on you ceiling corner to corner to cut down on flex.A large door in the back also makes the house more desirable should you decide to sell the house down the road.

[Phred52]

Walleyedude2001, As per my local license bureau, If the house has double doors, it's considered a "toy hauler" and must be licensed as such. That's both a fish house and a trailer license that must be displayed. I'd be curious to see what the member LEOS have to say about this as they're the ones enforcing the laws. I do have the double doors, and I haul a wheeler inside. I like the accessability with the double doors but I would also consider installing a door on the side, just to access the front of the house when the wheeler is on-board. Phred52

[dirtking]

I guess one advantage to NOT having a double door is there are less areas for air to sneak in. When it is 20 + below you see anywhere air can get in! I also have 4 bunks in my house which would be awfuly hard with a double door. I have the back of my pickup to haul ATVs and such.

[sx2]

bad thing about dbl doors is. It is easy to overload the fish house.Thats when you see fish houses sitting on the side of the road with a broken axle.

[thirtysomething]

Our big house has the double doors, if nothing else it's nice to open it nice and wide when loading and unloading. There are mounts on the floor to fasten down a wheeler or whatever but we've never done that yet.

The one draw back to the double doors is without them adding bunks down the road would be easier if they weren't there.

I say go for it, with a group of guys, lots of equipment, or even when you need to air out the house, it's nice to open up the rear of the house.

[Phred52]

thirtysomething... I like how you stated that, "with a group of guys, lots of equipment, or even when you need to air out the house" (like after a good chili feed with the group of guys, it's NECESSARY to air out the house) But yea, The doors are good for that too!! Phred52

[MuleShack]

I wouldn't go with Double doors, I would go with one single large door that drops and doubles as a ramp. You dont have the sealing issue in the middle. Also the way my door is set up it makes an L shape around the entire outside of the entrance for a tight seal.

Go look at any of the Lodge houses that have the rear door on them to get an idea of what i'm talking about. The table sets up right by the back door and you cant feel any breeze what so ever with that design. Not to mention that it is sturdy and insulated.

$.02

[freezdried]

Well I can tell you that they will frost up and if you have bunks by them your bedding will freeze to the frame of the doors. I was really stoked about having the double doors in my new fish house but I have never used them for hauling an atv. I have used them to load portables and gear but I don't use them much. My bunks are in the back of my house and to use the doors in the rear the bunks have to be moved so that kinda made it a pain and like I said your bedding would freeze to the frame of the doors and that really sucked because if you could get it off the door frame it would then melt and leave you bedding wet. For me the doors just aren't worth it but thats just me I have since but some of that pink insulation board that is as big as the door and that has solved my problems but makes them kinda hard to use. I never had a draft problem just a frost problem on the door frame. Hope this helps

FD

[Phred52]

Walleyedude2001, I gather that you're in the process of setting up your house, correct?? I will tell you, all the responses about how everything will freeze at the back of the house are true. All my 'sleeping quarters' are to the front of the house. HOWEVER, when I have guests, I have computer fans that circulate the air quite nicely and they're positioned that they keep the doors and windows from frosting up and the house is heated evenly, front to back. I have a 6.5'X 16' house, with an Attwood forced air furnace. Phred52

[WALLEYEDUDE2001]

Correct. Have the frame ordered & looking for options/opinions on door/window placement & overall "conveniences" to put in. I don't need to get carried away but also plan on being comfortable & have a "user freindly" house.

[gvt]

Good points on having the bed close to the double doors. This my first wheel house(http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/ub...tio#Post1446625) and I'm a little concerned about the "toy hauler" bed being cold since it is next to the atv doors. My atv doors have a double gasket, but I sure they will still leak some. If it it too cold I'm considering having a canvas cover made that would snap onto the outside of the house over the doors. My thought would be to only use the cover when spending the night. The canvas could even be quilted to provide a little extra insulation, but I think just keeping the air leakage to a minimum would help.

[WALLEYEDUDE2001]

If you do have the dbl doors, do you actually use them much ?

[SomethingFishy*]

I have the rear ramp door and it gets used every time as I haul my wheeler in the house.

On the flip side the metal frame around the door gets super cold so we have been exploring options for a door cover when we are using the house to slepp 4 or 5. With 3 of us we lkeave the table up and nobody has to sleep next to the ramp.

[gvt]

SomethingFishy,

"On the flip side the metal frame around the door gets super cold so we have been exploring options for a door cover when we are using the house to slepp 4 or 5."

That's my fear, so I've been pondering the same thing. I think the cover needs to be on the outside to prevent excessive frost on the inside. With the cover on the outside the temperature of the frame on the inside will be warmer. Hopefully, warm enough to prevent frost/condensation and warm enough for comfortable sleeping.

My door frame has screws every 6" or so, I think those could be used for snaps. It looks like you could get screws/snaps around your door frame, what have you been pondering?

Someone out there must have tried something by now?

[SomethingFishy*]

I have been looking at installing an easy snap design and having something made to put over the door in the winter and figured we could use the same snaps in warm weather for a rear screened door when it's cooler out and doesn't require use of the AC unit. We bought the house with the idea of year around use as we can fit 2 atv's inside.

I have considered adding snaps to the outside and inside so it could be covered on both ends, but am also researching if it could be done to utilize the rear ramp door as an extended screen porch for warm weather use.

[jholland]

Chiming in as another guy with double doors on the wheeler.

We've gotten a good amount of use out of them. They're just two swinging doors, not a ramp like SomethingFishy's.

The original idea of the doors was so we could load the ATV inside the house and pull them together. Once we finally got everything loaded and on the road, we realized it was too heavy to pull them together. Took away one of the uses quickly, but make sure to think about this if you plan anything like it.

What we use it for mostly is just a 2nd door. One thing my Dad did was build the doors to compensate and allow his brother-in-law to come ice fishing with us whenever he wants. He screwed up his spine in high school, and has been in a motor chair for a few years now and his chair can't fit through a normal door, but the doubles work amazing. I thought it was pretty awesome that my Dad considered this before building the house.

Other then that? It's nice to be able to peak out the back of the house. Not something I usually think about, but looking back on the year I definitely did this a lot. It's just a huge convenience, I guess.