cover for new portable ice shanty

[dickie]

I am presently building a new ice shanty and (The house mother says that this had better be the last one!) I have several questions.
It will be 6ft long by 5ft wide and the ends are like inverted u's.
What makes a good,lightweight,durable and inexpensive cover?
If I fasten the cover on permanently do I have to make the end height shorter than the floor length so that when I fold the ends down on top of one another I will have enough slack in the length so as not to rip the cover off of one of the ends?
At the point where the ends hinge and fasten to the base and where the covering will be fastened on both the side of the ends and the side of the base what do I do to keep the cover from ripping when the ends are folded down?
I hope that I have made this clear enough and I appreciate any help you brothers can offer.
I am a Pennsylvania resident and really enjoy
reading the tips etc. on this forum.

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[Guest]

I would suggest using construction poly thatn is sold at Mennards or any home building store, make sure to get the strongest Mils avaiable. Secondly you would wan't to use a 2x2" on one end of your house with a 2x4 on the other so one side has room to fold into the other.
Thirdley, When you get down to your hinged floor allow 2" of extra fabric divided at the hinge for the folding allowance. I have built many of these over the years.

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[rod bender]

Perchsearches has it right. I too have made a few of these. One thing that I used on my last one that I sure wish I would have used on the others was PVC runners. I used three of them for a 4' wide shack. One on each end and one down the edge of the open window in the floor. I used bolts from the inside floor of the shack and only drilled through the top of the PVC so it wouldn't drag on the ice. I then used a yard stick with duct tape to hold the lock washer and nut and extended it into the PVC and had another person turn the bolt on the floor of the shack. I also used a 45 degree elbow in the front of the shack with caps on it so snow and water didn't get in the PVC. This thing almost ran me over a few times it pulled so nice. Much better than 2X4 runners. As for the cover, I went to a swimming pool store and bought an old swimming pool liner for next to nothing. Worked great.

Good luck!!

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Rodbender