Looking to buy a Wheel House...HELP!!

[gonefishingagain]

Well I am looking to buy an Ice Castle. I am looking for some advice. What do you like, and what dont you like? I am looking for a brand new 8x16. There are a bunch of dealers out there selling these things. Dose anyone have any experiance with any of them? I also don't want to over pay for one eather. Hopefully someone can help me out!

[walleyewiz0212]

Go to Milaca Unclaimed Freight. They treat you pretty good. I went there last fall and picked one up. They priced matched any other dealer and threw in a Honda Generator EU 2000 also.

[gonefishingagain]

Good to know....What did you end up getting?

[walleyewiz0212]

I have a Lake of the Woods model 8x16. Cant really complain about it except the quality and the workmanship is not the best, in my opinion. I am actually in the process of ordering a new frame from a different manufacturer and building my own next summer.

[chewy630]

8x16 & 8x20s nice houses for the family but how much are you going to use that big heavy house on a year like this or last yr!!! 13000.00 to 16000.00 for heavy castle that rusts or a little more for lite weight aluminum that will outlast steel & no maintanance!!

[BartmanMN]

Yeah, there are some really nice fully finished Yetti's out there for around 16k

[brian6715]

I have a Lake of the Woods model 8x16. Cant really complain about it except the quality and the workmanship is not the best, in my opinion. I am actually in the process of ordering a new frame from a different manufacturer and building my own next summer.

Goose this post makes me laugh a bit... the workmanship and quality are bad, and you already have a frame to build your own. I think this tells a lot about the quality of ice castle

[gonefishingagain]

The only reason I am thinking Ice Castle is because of price. I may have to look into a Yetti, the more and more I look, it dosent seem that Ice Castle has a very good name.....hmmm...

[boxcar46]

Lodge Fish Houses

[gonefishingagain]

I like the Lodge, however they are just WAY more than even ice castle or yetti.....

[Fishnblood]

I picked up the 2013 8x17 RV Edition Ice Castle this past summer it has full air conditioning, fridge, microwave, full running water package. I have only taken it camping so far and it was easy to hook up, trailer, and work everything. Cranks up and down with no problem. So far what i don't like about it is the fact that I haven't had it out on the ice yet! Hence the reason I purchased the RV edition just incase. I picked mine up from milaca unclaimed freight, real easy going guys and easy to work with. No pressure. I ended up getting mine for 15k out the door. 2013

[DIESELDAN]

Ice castles don't have the greatest name but for what they cost you can't expect prefection. I'm on my 2nd one and I will agree the fit and finish inside isn't the greatest but they keep me warm and comfortable and spending more money isn't going to catch me more fish. I feel the biggest problem with most of the steel framed wheel houses is poor quality paint on the frames. That is a pretty easy fix just put some good paint on the frame in the off season. Other than that I'm not sure what is such a problem with the new Ice Castles. I actually would like to hear peoples real problems with Ice Castles I know some of the early models had frame problems but I think they fixed that problem. I just think spending a bunch more money just to have a little better materials and tighter miter joints on the trim and cabinets inside seems a little silly to me. My current one has the berkon hydrolic frame and I love it. They must be doing something right you see alot of them on the ice every year, and if they were soo bad I don't think they would still be selling oodles of them.

Diesel Dan

[gonefishingagain]

Well I am going to see for my self. I am going to Milaca tommorow morning to look at the Yetti's and the Ice Castle's across the street. Any idea how flexable these dealers are on price? Or is it pretty much set in stone?

[WARRIOR 2090]

Milaca unclaimed freight and Ice castle is owned by the same person. So that is were I bought mine last year. There are better finished houses out there but like dan said they work good. And when you take and finish one of the aluminum ones the weight gets up there and cost more money, I like mine it works great, and I have the Millacs addition 16 footer with full cedar interior so I don't have to put a finsh on it[the cedar wood] and it allways smells fresh instead of fishy I hope that helps

[cluelessfisherman]

I looked at a lot of different manufacturers last year before purchasing my 8x16 Lake of the Woods model Ice Castle. I ordered mine the wany I wanted it. I got it fully loaded with cedar, a/c, sat, even had extra plugs placed in the house - I would highly recommend this as you will only get 2 standard, and a cable plug on the back wall to run a camera by the bay window that runs up to the tv shelf to plug into the tv.

For the price, I am happy with what I have. I didn't get it out camping this year, but was used multiple times as a guest cabin when friends came up to fish this summer and the a/c was definately appreciated with the heat we had.

[FIRECAT]

I also have had 2 Ice Castles, Good resale value on the one i traded in. No major complants on either one. WARRIOR 2090: I put a High gloss clear on my cedar, it really shows off the grain in the wood plus it gives you more protection from moisture.

[RiverChuckNorris]

Bought a 8x16 ML edition Ice Castle last year (ordered at the St Paul Ice show and picked it up from ML unclaimed freight in Dec.). It's definitely a love-hate relationship as I love using it but the workmanship/materials is quite poor. The most frustrating thing is a lot of issues could be easily fixed by them if they'd just use a little more expensive materials. Examples include:

-I've spent hours replacing steel screws that were all rusted this fall. From all the screws inside in the floor used around the holes and table supports to all the exterior screws that hold the siding in place. Why not just use stainless!

-The frame is rusting despite the fact that I take it to the wash bay after every trip. From what I've heard, a good powder coat paint would resolve this

-The cables for the crank downs are all rusting despite me spraying silicone on them before and after every trip and aforementioned washing (again use a stainless cable!)

-Carpentry is shoddy of course resulting in needing to fix bunk bed supports etc

As I said however, we love having it and using it. If/when I get another, I'll probably spend a few extra grand and have the Ice Assault guys make one. I'm still not sold on the long term life of aluminum welds in extreme cold taking the kind of abuse a house does riding on ice roads.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I think the reason you see so many Ice Castles around is twofold:

1) Price-The cost of these is just barely above (and in some cases below) what it would cost to build yourself. They are able to do this because of production efficiency (when you build the same thing over and over, you get really fast at it), and really cutting corners with materials.

Their fiberglass insulation, plus the way they are doing their windows (no trim-tons of caulk) is a REALLY bad long term combination, in my opinion. It is, however, a huge cost saver. Even worse is the combination of carpet and cheap paneling on the inside of their lower end houses. Basically, your carpet is going to sponge water into the paneling, and then into the fiberglass. I've talked to 3 or 4 guys who have had really bad mold after only a year or two.

2) Name-Hands down they are the biggest manufacturer of fish houses. There's tons of these on the road. And looking at them on the outside, they look great. The average person hears "Ice Castle" and thinks "wow...these look great, and there's a ton of them on the road...they must be good".

I certainly don't mean to bash Ice Castle, but for similar $ the Yetti's are awesome.

[Redlineracer12]

I love my Yetti, if you buy unfinished and finish the inside yourself you can save a lot of money. Then you can also lay it out exactly the way you want it.

[gonefishingagain]

Broke down and bought a finnished 6.5x16 yetti. Couldent be happier. What a well built fish house!!! Worth the extra money for sure.

[rustysetter]

X2 on the Lodge.

[BartmanMN]

Nice. Let's see some pics of it.

[Benjy]

I bought an Ice Castle this summer - 8x16 Mille Lacs. I looked at Milaca and they were ok, but I wanted some custom things in the house and they weren't too eager to work with me on getting what I wanted. Ended up buying from Smokey Hills Outdoor Store in Park Rapids and they were more than happy to work with me on doing a custom order. I picked it up and they had everything done perfect. Even picked out the exact color and style of the graphics on the house. I know that is really picky but it shows they will do what it takes to get you just what you want.

[BJohn1879]

I was in the same boat as far as wanting a good fish house. Ice castles were out of the question as far as price goes. As someone stated the quality to price comparison on ice castles is crazy, so I started building my own wheel houses several years ago on the side while I usually get laid off in the winter time. Since i'm a builder, i figured I can build the houses twice as good at half the price and have had many happy customers. Let me know if I can help out with a good wheel house.