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Info on adding Trailer Brakes for wheelhouses


Glockwinger

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Well, I brought my 8 x 16 Ice Pro (Made by Ice Castle) to the certified scale near me and was quite disappointed to find that it weighed 3920 lbs without all my fishing gear. So...I now know that I need trailer brakes. "No problem" I think to myself, I'll just get the kit from somewhere and install them in an afternoon. WRONG! The hubs on these frames do NOT have flanges to bolt the brake housing to. So I called the manufactuer and asked what they have been doing to rectify all the people who have their product that need brakes. They gave me the number the the guy that makes the frames. I called him (Neil) and told him my dilema. He responded that he had added brakes to about 20 so far and was getting calls regularly. Apparently, you have to weld the brake housing directly to the axel housing somehow in order to maintain tolerances for the wheel. He said if I did the wiring and he just installed the brakes, it would be $500 - $600 and I need to bring it out near Redwood falls to his shop to do it. Add a hundo or more if he wires it. Estimated time to complete is 2 - 3 weeks because of the other ones in the yard as well as the frames being made for Ice Castle.

Knowing what I know now, I would not have bought the house from the guy I bought if from unless I got a better deal. I will have ended up putting over $1000 into this thing after the purchase price to make it road legal. Live and learn I guess. So if anyone else has flangless hubs that need brakes on wheelhouses made by Ice Castle or Ice Pro, you may have to get in line.

YMMV

-G

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My floor is plenty warm, (holes never freeze and I can wear flip flops.) The wife loves ice fishing now since she can sit in shorts and a tank top all day.... Also the only place were the floor is wet is next to the door from the snow... I guess there must be a magical carpet or plywood that other manufactures have that Ice Castle doesn't.....

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My floor is plenty warm, (holes never freeze and I can wear flip flops.) The wife loves ice fishing now since she can sit in shorts and a tank top all day.... Also the only place were the floor is wet is next to the door from the snow... I guess there must be a magical carpet or plywood that other manufactures have that Ice Castle doesn't.....

Can I ask what you all have in it??? I was told around 2800 lbs. on my 8x 16, but I have a hard time believing that...I have Knotty Pine, stove, 2 bunks, dinette, and a couple of cabinets....

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If your house weighs almost 4,000 lbs, what are your tires rated for? Our house weighs about 3,600lbs and we looked for the max tire rating we could and found some pretty decent sized SUV tires on it and they are rated for 1,800 lbs a peice. We wanted something a little bit more.

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If your house weighs almost 4,000 lbs, what are your tires rated for? Our house weighs about 3,600lbs and we looked for the max tire rating we could and found some pretty decent sized SUV tires on it and they are rated for 1,800 lbs a peice. We wanted something a little bit more.

My tires are rated for 1850 lbs each. I brought my wheelhouse to a trailer company(not fish house related) and asked him about that. He said that the distributed weight to the hitch is taken into account. My hitch weight is easily a few hundred pounds. I had him look at the trailer while it was in his lot and he said it appeared balanced and that it didn't look like there was undue stress on the tires. He did tell me that if they would fit, a non-radial 225 70R15 instead of my 205's would support more weight.

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It would depend on your axle as to what is possible, if flanges are on the axle such as on a torsion than disc brakes can be added with a surge coupler. I had both systems on 2 Warrior Trail trailer(s) and a company that I would check out in updating your trailer is Axle Inc. in Elkart, IN. Good people and only open during the week they have a HSOforum online so just google it. The parts guy is real good.

Gluck

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I brought the wheel house out to the welder that made the frame and he is going to cut off the old wheel assemblies and put all new heavier duty ones on with larger tires and electric brakes. I should have it back in about 3 weeks. He showed me the ones he is using now vs when mine were made and they are MUCH better. Yeah, it is costing me some jing, but then I have no worries about the strength of the axel.

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