Setting up wheelhouse

[Ron Vroom]

This will be my first season with a wheelhouse, and I need some advice and suggestions. My concern is what precautions should be taken to prevent freezing the house into the ice. It will be on Upper Red and Lake of the Woods and it could be sitting there a couple weeks or more with nobody checking on it. Do you guys drop it down to the frame on the ice or keep it blocked up a bit? What distance do you generally have between the top of your floor and the ice? Amy suggestions will be appreciated.

[MuleShack]

I dont leave mine on the lake unattended.

With that said, if you are going to leave them on a smaller lake I would say to just block them up 6-8". Being you are talking about URL and LOW, I would reconsider your decision to leave the house on the lake. I would work with a resort to leave the house on shore or on resort property and pull back out when you get up there. There could be drifing issus where the plows might not be able to get back to your house and it could be stranded.

Just food for thought.

[TravP]

Drifting issues, thieves, ice heaves. My dad keeps his wheelhouse at a resort on the south end of red for a dollar a day storage fee.

[gurkster]

Agreed with the above posts. Store locally and then pull on to the lake each trip up.

[JeffB]

I agree with the above posts. I would pull mine off especcially if it were going to be more than a couple days between visits. Good luck and enjoy the new house.

[bak2MN]

Like the others said unless you have a truck and plow leave it on shore and take it out when you go up there. Rogers will charge $1 a day stoarage on shore and up at LOW you can leave it on the river by the access up by the wigwam.

If you do leave it up there block it up a little or if there is alot of snow set it down on top of the snow and should be fine. I dont leave mine for more than a week at a time but that is on local lakes where I can get to it quickly if there is trouble with the weather. Good Luck.

[JSK76]

I had a bad experience with leaving my fish house on Red. I was about 10 years back when the crappie were at there peak, and it warmed up really quick and I had to take time off work and run up to get it, when I got there the resorts had pulled most of the house to shore for people but mine and a few more where still way out, I think like 7 miles out. When I got to my house one corner was off the ice about 2 to 3 feet the other corner was going down a sink hole. I had to wrap a rope around it and pull it out with the 4 wheeler, good thing I had chains on the tires and a 220 pound buddy with for extra traction.

The worst part about it is laying in bed the nights before not knowing how bad it was going to be or if I could even get to it and what would happen if I could get it off. After that I will never leave my house on a lake thats not close to my house.

[MinnesotaMuskie]

I have to echo...do not leave it on the lake...if it isnot ripped off, vandelized, or drifted in...something else bad will get you.

Much easier and safer to store at a resort and drop near plowed roads.

[dfv87]

I have wheel house and routinely people ask me where I "leave" and my response is... "at my house, you see it has these wheels on the wheel house and it can come back and forth with me... (dripping with sarcasm)"

Really all kidding aside, the kind of money and time you have into a wheelhouse, use the wheels. set up takes so little time and that way you can stay on the bite easier. If you want to keep it there $1 a day sounds great, pay for a season road pass/season plowing a spot when you call up there and they may even let you keep it there free. Point is you could work out a deal maybe. TOO MUCH RISK leaving it on the lake for weeks. At the very least pay a resort operator to keep an eye on it on their rounds...

[tonkapat]

I leave my right on the lake with the heat on and the door unlocked. I have a removable tongue that I sometimes take home with me. Just as easy to steal it right out of my driveway as it is on the lake. If I leave it on the lake for long periods I pull it away from the old holes and put it on fresh ice and turn the heat off. I made my house for convenience, if I had to pull it to the lake everytime then back home the whole point is lost.

[Ron Vroom]

Your response is in-line with my thoughts. My "wheelhouse" is not the typical one. It is a 21' old Airstream that I have made into a fish house, and to make it work, I will either remove the wheels to get it down to the ice, making it more like a skid house, or I will leave the wheels on, skirt it, and then fish through sleeves down to the ice. All the other responses about taking it off the ice after each use are well intended, but their concerns would be applicable to skid houses as well, which certainly are not taken off the ice every time they are used. I certainly will be working with and paying the resort that maintains the ice road for plowing me a spot and keeping me advised of any developing situations. My conversion will not make it 100% vandal and thief proof, but it will be better than the majority of the skid houses I see sitting out there.