Pictures of your shack.

[SalmonSlayer]

My friend and I are planning out our 2011-2012 ice house and are looking for ideas. We're thinking a 7x12 skid house. If you were to do yours over, what would you make sure to include or exclude. Any pictures showing your floor plan/great ideas would be appreciated. Also, and insight on how to build the floor would be appreciated.

[ItsaCrappieLife]

Number one do-over would be wheels. Not fun trying to load the thing on a trailer.

[SalmonSlayer]

Haha, unfortunately, wheels aren't in the budget.

[tonykummrow]

A buddy and I built our shack before last winter. 8x10 skid house. it probably weighs about 7-800 lbs so its fairly light and easy to move untill you get a foot of fresh stuff on the lake. they plow snow real well. one of the only things we would like to change would be wheels. It is a pain to get it on the trailer, even with a tilt bed sled trailer. and is a lot of work. and make sure you have lots of shelves and cupboards. and dont put your bunks up to high. you need a friends hand to get on and off our top bunk. Not convienient when the bells or rattle reel are going off in the middle of the night. and make some nice latching hole covers if making a skidder. they will open up and pile the house with snow after a long haul across the lake if they dont latch. Good luck

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I've been down the skid-house road before (2 years ago), and my advice is "don't". Even the cheapest, all angle iron crank down frame will be worlds better than trying to crank a 7x12 on a snowmobile trailer. Realistically, you can find someone to build you a frame for that house for $1200-1500. It will be money VERY well spent.

[mskyfshntchr]

I definitely agree with the other posters and say that wheels is the only way to go, but since it isn't in the budget- here are a few of my thoughts.

If I were doing a skid house- I would make sure it is a steel bottom frame and skids. NO WAY would I do wood. Wood freezes in to easily and with steel skids, even if they freeze in, they pop out easily when chipped out. Just channel iron about 3-4" below the main frame will work for the skids. If you can go steel for the entire frame- it will be much lighter than wood as you can go with 1x2 steel tubing for the walls and roof.

One thing with the steel frame- if in the future wheels are possible, you would have the frame and just would need someone to add them to your current shack. That is something that may be possible.

Floor layout? I really like having the holes along the walls. I usually make the doors for them 3' long and about 16" wide. I space them about 6" from the wall. This way you can drill 2-3 holes in there and fish easily. Makes it very user friendly for fishing. Also, very easy to drill and redrill your holes.

Good luck.

[SalmonSlayer]

Thanks for all the input guys. For anyone that does have a skid house, think we could see some pictures?

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Here are some pics of my house from last year:

This was an 8x12 skid house. Skids were treated 2x10s (I think) with a metal runner/ski on the bottom. Pro Rib siding (from Menards), rubber roof.

Inside were the 2 bunks on the back wall

And the door side

I used roll on bedliner for the floor

And here was the outside finished, and on the lake

This was a GREAT(!) house, but it sure was heavy, and tough to move. I used 1 1/2" pink foam in the walls, 4" in the floor, and R13 fiberglass in the ceiling. I could have the heat at 85 degrees, and a 20# propane tank would last around 5 days. All LED interior lights + radio would last about 4 days on a deep cycle. Total cost was somewhere around $3500.

I liked this house so much, that I replicated my current house 2010 Fish House Build after it.

[sweatervest76]

Here is a pic of my house, I know it's smaller than you are requesting, but it may be useful to others. I bought it for $100 last spring. Very simple, framed with 1x1s and it bolts together. It's a total of 8 pieces that I can take apart and stack in the corner of the shop to save space. Very lightweight, heats up quick with a buddy heater. It's a cheap way to have a hard sided house that you can leave on the lake or load into a small trailer or the back of a truck quickly and it can be towed around the lake with a wheeler or snowmobile to get your house on the lake before trucks can get on. With a different floor, it would also make a great spearing house.

[fishtrap3]

Nice looking shack....

[SalmonSlayer]

Thanks for the pictures! They are very helpful. Lip_Rip, how many holes did you end up putting in it?

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

It was 6 holes. We fished 6 out of there a couple times. It was "cozy", but it worked.

For what the house was (a skid house), I loved it. There was no problems moving it until there was over 6" of snow on the lake. We actually had it out on 5" of ice, and the ice didn't even sag (I don't recommend that, btw).

[JakeJ_Mn]

I sold my 8 x 10 skid house at the end of last season. I now have a 8 x 16 wheelhouse. World of difference in the moving part.

To get it on the tilt snowmobile trailer, I installed a 12 volt ATV winch on the tongue using a raised stand so the cable didn't rub and made simple rollers out of 2 inch scrap pipe. Still a job, but I could do it myself.

[MOSSY]

I built an 8 x 10 this year I did not put skids on it. I dont like it that for off the ice.I just block it up as needed.I have a skid I slide under it when I move it made out of 2 x 6 runners tapered on both ends with 1 x 6 cross pieces dadoed and screwed in place.I made a bracket on each corner out of angle iron with a bottom plate on it to sit under the corner and welded a 4" long pc of square tubing on the outside and fastened that to each corner. when I want to move it I jack up each corner with a farm jack and slide my sled under let it down and away I go.very easy to do by myself and I don't have to sit over the hole to see my bobber

[St_Croix_Banks]

Number one do-over would be wheels. Not fun trying to load the thing on a trailer.

+1

[Moose]

Sweatervest, how big is your shack? will it fit into a 4x6 pickup bed when disassembled? I am looking for something to replace my Voyager. I cant sit in the snow and slush with my bad knee anymore.

[sweatervest76]

It's a 4x8, very lightweight. The tailgate would have to be down, but I'm sure it would fit.

[Genofish]

What is the brown piece over the roof. Is that a tarp or is the wood painted brown?