skis on portable

[Dhow]

I have an eskimo quickflip 2 shanty and it is a real bear to pull that thing across the lake with all my gear in it. It's only gonna get worse with the new snow this christmas. I was thinking of raising it about 3" off the ice with some skis... is this a good idea or are there better ways to improve the pullability of my sled? Any pictures of you're setups would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all

[Bluegill1510]

If you can find someone who has old wooden water ski's I have found work the best..and then put 2x4 blocking underneath the sled and ontop of the water ski's (you can layer the blocking, but I would only do 1 or 2 pieces of 2x4). Also then find someone that has scrap tin or flexible sheet metal to facen to the botton of the skis so it glides better over the snow/ice. Thats what id do. I have heard of guys also having plexy glass cut to length and how wide they want it for their ski's and then attaching them to the bottom of their sled..but for you case you would want to add blocking to it to raise it from the ground.

[coombia21]

I wouldn't raise it off the ground that high because when you set the house up the bottom of the house wont touch the ground and you will have a nice draft coming the front of the house.

[tonkapat]

Get a hub style house and a plastic kids sled. when the snow is not to deep I have put my tub style house on a metal runner sled. Ratchet it down an go. Hub house are around 20 pounds plus lightweight chair 3 pounds and kids plastic toboggan and a couple more pounds. Much much easier than pulling a tub style house.

[gill man]

I am planning on making something with cross country skis to put my Fishtrap Guide on. I am planning on raising it up a lot more than 3 inches though - maybe closer to a foot off the ground to make sure that nothing but the skis touches snow. The frame/ski unit would ONLY be for pulling the shack. The Fishtrap would come off it to fish and back on for pulling.

I haven't built it yet, but there is a thread or two of guys that have done this on here. I think if you search for "shack rack" or something like that you will find a couple threads talking about this.

gill man

[3littlemonsters]

I made one using some old x-country ski's...initially made it using 1x4's, giving it about 2.5" clearance just to see how it would work.....It totally worked awesome before we got all this snow... it was low enough to easily slide my quickflip2 on and off. Now i plan on raising it up to 8-10", It's still work... but not like dragging and "plowing" with the sled alone.

[opsirc]

I wouldn't raise it off the ground that high because when you set the house up the bottom of the house wont touch the ground and you will have a nice draft coming the front of the house.

agree, raising it off the ice will only allow form cold and wind thru. would find some way to lighten the load or different sled system to pull it on.

[magicstix]

I'm also looking for other ideas or options for skis's. I couldn't tell you what is best but what I've tried and seen.

First I'd seen an older fella w/Fish trap that he'd taken elec. conduit bent in a rectangle, then it sat in the upper lip of tub and snapped in to clips on the bottom, it gave him about 10" clearance. when he got to a fishing spot he'd snap them out and they'd sit in the back of his shack tub. pretty slick. I tried this on my 2man Otter but in the trail run in the yard they kept coming off, back to the drawing board.

Next I tried the skis under a plywood w/ 2x4 spacer to give about 2.5" clearance. pull your shack on to sled and go. pros- easier, Cons- doesn't turn well, if you leave shack on sled, the skis wiggle back and forth and deeper snow = bad, really dragged bad on bottom of plywood.

Currently I'm mounting skis to my tub to give me 4" clearance. Original plan was to make them retractable but they'll be fixed for now till I can work out the bugs of retracting them. To keep the draft down I'm going to put some kind of rigid skirt from skis to tub for now.

Another setup I've seen frequently is folks will mount there skis right to the bottom of shack, but your only gaining 1" of clearance.

If anyone has seen or has any other ideas my ears and mind are open.

[Phred52]

Many years ago, I had an electrician bend 2 lengths of 1 1/2" conduit to a 45*, 3' back from the end. I then drilled holes in into those lengths that 3/4" conduit would fit into, and 1 1/4" on the top rail. The sled was 6 1/2' long, 3' wide and 16" high. It pulled over the top of the snow (most of the time), but even when it cut into the deeper snow, it still pulled pretty easily. That was hauling a 4'x8' plywood and canvas house, auger, 20# propane tank, the heater, a deep cycle battery, bucket of gear and oh ya, the beer. One trip we had to pull our spear house off the lake, there was 4" water on top the ice and the wind was howling in towards the landing. We lost control of the house, it and the sled took off for shore. Couldn't have worked out better! To the side of the ramp were cattails, the house plowed into them and stopped about 25' from the bottom of the access. Glad we didn't have to pull the house in the slop, we got wet enough as it was. I can look if I still have any pics of the sled if you like. I don't own it anymore, sold it with the house. Phred52

[pulleye16]

Like others have said, make a frame and mount some ski's to the bottom, at least 6 inches +. An important key to this is make the frame again at least 6+ inches wider then the fish house on each side for stability. On the sides you can even attach a 2x4 to the frame to keep it from sliding off the sides and attact bungies to keep the house from moving.Then of course attach a rope to the frame. C-list has sometimes free or very cheap ski's.

and just to clarify...the frame is not ATTACHED to the quick-flip. Tons of people use this set-up for suit case stlye fish houses.