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ice castle fish house quality

mrjigger

By mrjigger
in Ice Fishing

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mrjigger Rising Star

mrjigger

Posted
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I am looking at buying an ice castle fish house. It is just going to be a shell, inside unfinished.

I am sure this topic has been beat to death, but just wondering if anyone out there has ever had any problems with their ice castle?

It seems like I am getting a good deal, but maybe too good????

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Hazzard Enthusiast

Hazzard

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You get what you pay for. Last year on low it rained and we were out 8 miles the road was in bad shape and there were 8 or 9 houses broke down all were ice castles. The problem is there frame is made of angle iron not tube steel.

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bak2MN Proficient

bak2MN

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I have one the paint on the frame is bad should sray it right away with undercoating or soemthing. My cables and winches have rusted and dont hardly go up and down. With the inside unfinished you can use better quality paneling and trim bds. Overall its not to bad mine is only 1 1/2 years old.

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Moe Szyslak Rising Star

Moe Szyslak

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I have one the paint on the frame is bad should sray it right away with undercoating or soemthing. My cables and winches have rusted and dont hardly go up and down. With the inside unfinished you can use better quality paneling and trim bds. Overall its not to bad mine is only 1 1/2 years old.

Wow.

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GRAND DAD Community Regular

GRAND DAD

Posted
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I did just what your thinking about doing I bought a 8X24 with a 3 foot nose.Am going on my 5th year, I have had no problems with mine and I love the fact I got to do the inside, I would never do it any other way. Now mine is not made out of angle iron. I have had some problems just what was all ready brought up, the frames do get alot of surface rust quick, So not a bad idea right off the bat to do somthing about that, Make sure you keep up on greasing cables and winches and the Axles, and make sure you wash all the salt off at the end of the year.You do get what you pay for and to me they are your best bang for your BUCK. There are nicer ones out there but you pay for it.

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grpd Contributor

grpd

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Grand Dad, If you do mind could you tell me what you would expect to pay for an unfinished ice castle and where you would locate them, if you prefer not to say on open forum please let me know and i will give you my e mai address

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GRAND DAD Community Regular

GRAND DAD

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Well I bought mine at unclaimed frieght in Mora,MN ( I think thats where they are. They have Tons of them there, I can't tell you what your is worth I don't know the size, but am sure you could call unclaimed Frieght and get a Price list maybe even go on line and look, I paid 7,900 for mine that was with Trailer brakes and a couple extra windows, and that was also 5 years ago.

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kevfish1 Proficient

kevfish1

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I would never purchase a frame made out of angle iron. A friend of mine has a ice kastle and has had it in 3 times repairing the trailer. They aree probably fine if you just want to fish your local lake. But if you are going to pull it around the state and 10 miles across the ice then i would recomend a trailer with no angle iron. Most private people that build there own trailer use tubeing for this reason and build a better trailer than ice castle does. If you are gonna cut corners dont do it with the trailer or you will regret it for years to come

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mrjigger Rising Star

mrjigger

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Ice castle does make a frame made of tube steel. And if I decide to purchase one, it definitely will be the tube steel version.

I am pretty much set on the ice castle, simply because as one of the previous guys said, they are the most bang for the buck.

I think for the average guy, which I am, it will be just fine.

when it comes to ice fishing, I play it pretty safe. I hate to say it, but if its raining out, I won't be going.

thanks everyone.

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BartmanMN Grand Master

BartmanMN

Posted
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Well I bought mine at unclaimed frieght in Mora,MN ( I think thats where they are. They have Tons of them there, I can't tell you what your is worth I don't know the size, but am sure you could call unclaimed Frieght and get a Price list maybe even go on line and look, I paid 7,900 for mine that was with Trailer brakes and a couple extra windows, and that was also 5 years ago.

Unclaimed Freight is in Milaca and they have tons of Ice Castles on their lot right now. Many unfinished inside ones for pretty dang cheap. They do have a HSOforum as well.

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GrizzlyAdams Community Regular

GrizzlyAdams

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The unclaimed freight in Mora was recently purchased (in the past couple years) by Milaca unclaimed freight. Milaca is the place to go for Ice Castle fish houses. I know Dave who is in charge of the fish houses and he is a great guy to deal with. He also has rentals out on a couple large lakes in the state and they take great care of you there also. If you don't see something on the lot that you like come back in a week as most of the houses will have sold and been replaced. Or you can sit down with him and "design" what you are looking for and they will have it built the way you want it. I have had my 8' x 18' for 3 years now and love it. We make 1 - 3 trips a year up to Red Lake with it and have had no problems as of now. If you do go in and visit with Dave in Milaca be sure to give him a bunch of [PoorWordUsage], he won't skip a beat and give it right back. Fun and easy going guy to get a long with. Good luck

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B-man715 Mentor

B-man715

Posted
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Do any of you guys have problems with wearing out tires on your Ice Castle?

Two of my buddies have them and after a few trips up north the tires have worn horribly on the inside edge. It's like the tires on both trailers are leaning in causing uneven wear. I'm not very impressed with Ice Castles......

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brainard6 Enthusiast

brainard6

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I stopped into the Unclaim freight a coupe weeks ago and look the the houses they had. For what I have seen they are very poor workmen ship. I dont know if they get rejected house or what, but I wasnt impressed with what they had for the price they were asking for them.

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bak2MN Proficient

bak2MN

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My first house i bought was a 8x18 single axle and my tires did the same thing after about 1000 miles. I called the place I bought it from and they said they would fix it. They sent it back to the factory and after a dozen unanswered phone calls, three very nasty calls I placed, and 4 1/2 months later I had a brand new tandem axle 8x18 with brakes and a few more items. My $10,000 house went to a $15,000 house. And I didn't pay the difference. Squeeky wheel gets the grease. I called them about the paint on the frame and the rusted up cables but they wouldn't do anything about that.

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