Question for folks who own a wheelhouse

[Fishnblood]

Hey all, just a quick question. So I bought my first wheelhouse this past summer and I am just wondering what type of grease do y'all use when cranking down the house? Does it matter? Also, I thought I read somewhere, where you should spray down the steel cables with silicone? Do you guys grease your house before and after you crank her down?

thanks guys.

[Hawg]

Changing cables should be done yearly or at least really check them out closely. Even the stainless cables I've seen are only stainless coated so road salt and gunk eat them pretty fast. Be carefull with spray, it sure makes a mess out the winches and siding. As far as I know there's really not a grease you apply regularly. When I put on cables this year I ran them thru a greased up rag but I'm not sure how much good it'll do, can't hurt though. I've seen a couple people changing broken cables on the ice,in the cold. Didn't look fun.

[walleye34]

from a guy that learned the hard way to always grease the pivot points i am now using wheel bearing grease like you would put in your boat trailer hubs. I now keep a grease gun in my house and put grease into the zerts before each trip!! I thought greasing the pivot point before each season was enough, boy was I wrong!! My spindle got dry and rust formed and it locked up. The house went down just fine but would not crank back up and when I had to use a little force to get it back up it snapped a weld and my tire was leaning at a 20 degree angle. Crystal welding fixed it. did a great job $300 I think and it needed a new tire as well since it wore the tread off the inside getting it back home. Grease um often!!

[JakeJ_Mn]

I grease my cranking up down zerks everytime with marine synthetic wheel bearing grease. I also keep my bearing buddys greased. I spray my winches with white lithium grease(spray can)and put the same wheel bearing grease on my winch gear teeth. I also oil the moving winch parts everytime with oil(not WD 40)Helps, but not sure it's the answer. I have been experimenting with some waterproof winch bags for traveling. Cables should be sprayed with silicone.

[slammer]

Those that responded, What kind of houses do you have? Are most builders using the same type of setup? Are the alum. houses any different/better?

[JakeJ_Mn]

I have an Ice Castle. If I ever buy one again with a steel frame, I would want the frame coated with Herculiner. It doesn't take much traveling to beat up a powdered coated frame.

[larryz]

For cables the best thing to do is switch to stainless steel aircraft cable. The only coated cable that I have heard of is galvanized and personally I wouldn't put that on. Or try to protect your winches with covers.

[Hawg]

What spindle are you speaking of? The pivit where the shackle connects?

[walleye34]

the one the wheel rotates around to go up and down. There are greese zerts in front just below the fender. Crystal Welding told me they are constantly fixing all types of ice houses, not just ice castle when guys dont keep that greased. By the way I will put a plug in for them, they can fix any frame type issues you may have. I thought $300 was fair to fix my problem. They are in Maple Grove off of 81. he told me grease it everytime you put it up and down.

[walleye34]

has anybody tried that rope made for winches? I know last year I looked at a Lodge fish house at highbanks on Winnie and they had that instead of steel cables that rust.

[Hawg]

I looked at it online but I chickened out. It's made out of Dyneema(?) that lots of the braided fishing lines are made from isn't it? I'm going to rig up straps next year and be done with it.

[RiverChuckNorris]

Was greasing my Ice Castle pivot points this fall and would you believe the grease nipples popped out! Come to find out they're "tap-in" not screw in nipples....grrrr.

Going to have to address this spring, maybe I'll give Crystal welding a call to see if they can re-tap.

[Rube]

If you can, I would also recommend lowering the ice house and with slack in the cable, rotate the swing arm when you grease it. That seems to work the grease all the way around the shaft. Also the end spacer needs to be lubed. The shaft and arm for the "ice castle" design has a spacer on the outer end of the shaft and does "not" have a grease zerk.

After very little use of my wheeler the last couple of years, the spacer end ring actually rusted to the shaft. Had to use a torch / heat to break it loose.

Part of my scheduled maint. will be to make sure it gets lubed!

Good Luck Fishing