Ice castle w bent axle?

[DIESELDAN]

Just bought my ice castle fish house last year. Got back from red lake sunday and noticed right side wheel looks like its bent in on top. Anyone else ever had this problem? If so what did you do? Who did you have fix it? Does ice castle have good coustmer service? Would like it fixed quickly. Any advice or comments would be helpfull. ps house is a 2009 8x16 thanx DIESEL DAN

[tonkapat]

Not just an ice castle problem but they are known for not being overbuilt. I built my own frame for that reason. One option would be to have someone replace the whole spindle and pivot arm assembly. If you plan on putting on a lot of miles you might consider another brand. Definately need to baby the ice castles on the lake and road. I was on rough ice/slush with my house last year and hit a frozen spot and launched the house way in the air and Broke a bead on one tire. My tires are still in perfect alignment. good luck

[Gator Slayer]

8x16 single axle....not the best of designs. Even though most manufacturers make them. Go weigh your house with all the stuff you had in it. I would not be surprised if it tips 4k lbs or more. I had a 8x16 single axle at one time and that's what it weighed. I'm back to a 6.5x14, when it's done I plan to weigh it. I'm hoping about 2300 lbs. We likely are using similar axle stubs and suspension design.

$0.02

[The_King48]

I have a 8x16 Ice Castle... Its 3 or 4 years old now but never had any problems with it yet.. But I do take it easy on the road and the lake... I wish I could make it a tandem axle but I don't think there is enough room in the wheel well for that. I also would like to put trailer brakes on it too. Does anybody have any info on what I could do...

[icethief66]

Have you called Bob out at Ice Castle? They may help you out. Just a thought.

[beer batter]

Are you certain the axle is bent? I just went through a similar situation where I thought my axle was bent, but it was actually the frame beam flexed outward. Not sure I'm explaining that correctly, but picture where the axle goes through the frame beam on the side of the fish house. That beam got flexed out to the side making it seem as though the axle was bent.

My fish house has a solid beam running down the center of the frame, and beams running down the side. Fix was to flex that side beam back down to it's original position and weld another beam between the center beam and side beam going right over the axle to hold the side beams in position. Sounds easier than it was to fix, but it's working fine now.

[Glockwinger]

I have a 8x16 with the 3' v ice castle. I needed trailer brakes, but the light duty axles could not accomodate them. I went to C W Welding in Vesta, MN. He is one of the Ice Castle frame builders. He builds the heavier duty ones. He cut off the old axles and welded on new axles with heavier duty crank arms and cables and put on trailer brakes. He did good work.

[blue_healer_guy]

Just an opinion, you buy a house that makes 100's a year, your asking for trouble.

[dewey1980]

mine did the same called ice castle and they reinforced the frame been good for two years

[hdspringer]

2010 Ice Castles are Tube steel now, instead of the angle the older ones had, Hopefully they got it figured out now.

[DIESELDAN]

Took my fish house in to crystal welding in maple grove to get repaired on thursday, no fish house till tuesday. Seemed to be good people there that have fixed quite a few ice castles. Called ice castle before bringing it there they told me to call the frame builder who said sure I'll fix it if you bring it to my shop in vesta, mn. I told him theres no way it will make it that far. To make a long story short crystal welding said they will fix it and deal with ice castle and the frame builder. And since its still under warranty it should'nt cost me anything. I should find out on tuesday.

[vister]

JUST MY OPINION here. build your own fishhouse. to me, it just seems rediculous to spend that kinda money on a fishhouse, when you could build two of them for the same money!! i am a carpenter, in high end remodeling, doing demo-trim. if ya ask me, the quality on the interior of "maufactured" houses is by far sup-par. if we did work that way on the job, we'd be fired!! now, back to the post, the biggest concern with these houses is the wheel systems. without a solid straight axle, you'll eventually have issues with the tires. i would think ice castle would have some kind of warranty if you were the original buyer, afterall, under the house is a trailer!