Ice Castle Broken Cables and Siezed axle

[onlyice]

so this weekend me and some buddies went to Lake of the Woods and we sat down with a bit of trouble getting the driver side to lower and as we tried to raise the house the driver side cable broke and that became an adventure in itself I am looking for any assistance in trying to figure out how to remedy the axle and what knowledge you would give me on replacing the cables if I should go with stainless steel or try to find galvanized cables.

now to raise the castle we had to jack up Parkway and then block it up and then Jack additional and then we had to chill out the ice underneath the wheel and then under the house a little to get a little buddy heater under the axle to get some heat on it and then to get the actual wheel to lower we have a ratchet strap to lower the axel the wheel itself that was the only way to get the pin to the lineup fortunately for us the axle did not snap I don't know how to get that so it's not seized completely though.

I'm from the Saint Cloud area and I am wondering where to get the cables and where would be the best price and how to secure them back on again?

[Stan7600]

Recently I was looking to replace winches on my 12 yr. old Ultra Shack. The Ultra Shack Co. is no more. When I googled the company that made the winches they referred me Redneck Trailer Supplies in St. Cloud. 320-654-1972. Evidently they have some experience with fishhouses and maybe could help you. I didn't go thru them and never did talk to them. I ordered the winches from the manufacturer in Ken. I know you don't need winches but Ice Castle should have lots of experience with this problem. Stan C.

[MinnetonkaMan]

We have had the same issue. Im guessing that this is like a three to five year old house. IC knows that the greaser dosent actual send the grease where it needs to go. What we did Is had a local farmer heat it up with a torch and work it back and forth until it would go up and down with ease. Then we greased from the outside right where it pivots . The key is to keep it greased at all times. If the heating of the pivot point dosent work You can always take the wheel and mount off and sand everything down and regrease. The new ice castles now have a greaser channel in the actual pivot area so this issues dosent arise.

[muc33]

I have and have owned several crank downs. Home made and from builders. After a year or maybe 2, I always go to my local fleet farm type store and get stainless cables and replace all of mine. Having one break on the ice is pure headache!! Put on the stainless and take most of the worry away... it's a great investment!

[Farley]

You can get the cables at most hardware stores or the bigger stores like Mills. You'll probably want some new cable clamps we double up our cable clamps. But the trick with that is to make sure you have enough room to crank up the house the whole way, sometimes if you give yourself too much room with the cable clamps (meaning too big of a loop) the calbe clamp will act as a stop at the little pully wheel. You'll figure it out, its not hard even if you have to undo one and start over. Done it out on the ice many times.

[bak2MN]

I bought my stainless at macs and took my house to the store and had them come out in the parking lot and put the crimps on so not to have the bolted clamps wich suck.

[Farley]

If you go with crimps buy extras. if you break a cable out on the ice, which will most likley happen, you cant re-use crimps. Thats why the clamps are better.

[BLACKJACK]

The new ice castles now have a greaser channel in the actual pivot area so this issues dosent arise.

How do you tell by looking at the axel whether it has the greaser channel??

[onlyice]

Thanks all for advice, so how does one remove the axel? I have an Eliminator 6.5 X14' single axle, now is stainless or galvanized better?

[hooked79]

northern tool in st.cloud has ss cables and i would bet they would be way cheaper than redneck another place you could try would be midway iron mine is a 2008 and i think it has grease insearts on the piviot points mine is a 2 axel but i dont think it would be hard to install them just drill and tap

[onlyice]

so I went out to verify and my ice castle does not have any zerks on either axle wondering if it is something that ice castle forgot to put on or if it's 1 of their cheap ways to save money I don't know, how hard is it to put in grease zerks

[onlyice]

so I went out to verify and my ice castle does not have any zerks on either axle wondering if it is something that ice castle forgot to put on or if it's 1 of their cheap ways to save money I don't know, how hard is it to put in grease zerks

[fishadb]

Threaded zerks are the best but pound in ones will work. All you need is to stop at a hardware/auto parts store get some 1/4" zerks and a drill bit. Drill a hole in the outer shaft and pound in a grease zerk. Grease rotate repeat.

[boxcar46]

I pull my wheel assembly off the axle every year. I mix never seize and water proof grease and smear it on the axle. I've never had a problem. Mine does have Zerk's as well but seldom use them.

[onlyice]

ok boxcar what is there to pulling the whole axle I've never done it do I pull the wheel of first and then listen and bolt is it simple or a pain in the butt

[dougger222]

That's too bad to hear Ultra Shack shut down, they built nice fish houses. More than likely IC put them under...

[Stan7600]

They were leasing the building and the owner sold it. Frank had enough health issues it was time to retire. Stan C.

[bak2MN]

Only, remove the tire and the hub cap (if one) behind that there should be a cap with a big nut, it will have some sort of retainer (to hold nut from comeing loose) remove that and the nut and you should be able to slide off the hub from the shaft. If its got rust or whatever in it May need to heat it alittle or pound it off. if you look a little closer I bet you will find a hole on each axel where a zirk is either broke off or fell out. Hope this helps.

[2thepointsetters]

Threaded zerks are the best but pound in ones will work. All you need is to stop at a hardware/auto parts store get some 1/4" zerks and a drill bit. Drill a hole in the outer shaft and pound in a grease zerk. Grease rotate repeat.

Instead of drilling a 1/4 hole and pounding them it would be better to buy a 1/4 pipe thread tap and drill the proper size hole then thread the zerk in.

[mmartin]

don't do a 1/4" pipe thread, that would be huge. I think grease zerts are a straight standard thread.

[2thepointsetters]

don't do a 1/4" pipe thread, that would be huge. I think grease zerts are a straight standard thread.

Yes 1/4 is big you could get them in 1/8 for the axle. However most if not all grease zerks are pipe thread.

[boxcar46]

I'm not talking the wheel bearing hubs. Although you should repack them time to time also. I'm talking about the axles where it pivots to lower down on the ice. I have seen some that have a bead of weld that holds the assembly on. Mine I made sure it has a bolt through it. I just take the bolt out and slide it all off.

Believe me, I had both of them seized on my other shack and it was a dam getting them off. I used a porta power on them for a week. Spraying PB Blaster on them everyday. It finally loosened up enough to where I could start rotating them little by little to where it finally slid off. I will never have that happen again!!!

[onlyice]

Well tonight im going to try taking whole worls off, unfortunately its stinkjng cold outside.

Thanks for all advice. I will report back how things go.

[crappiekid]

I'm not talking the wheel bearing hubs. Although you should repack them time to time also. I'm talking about the axles where it pivots to lower down on the ice. I have seen some that have a bead of weld that holds the assembly on. Mine I made sure it has a bolt through it. I just take the bolt out and slide it all off.

Believe me, I had both of them seized on my other shack and it was a dam getting them off. I used a porta power on them for a week. Spraying PB Blaster on them everyday. It finally loosened up enough to where I could start rotating them little by little to where it finally slid off. I will never have that happen again!!! Pack your bearings inside and out as well...

Box Car 46 is spot on. Every year (your last trip) you should remove your entire wheel assy from the axel stub. Clean it and re-grease it. i skipped a year and paid the price. This will also help your cables last longer. spray wd40 or lps on them all winter.

[Rube]

I also had to use a torch and porta power to remove the pivots, I had faithfully greased them, but the grease was not getting all the way around the shaft. I now do the same as Boxcar46 and crappiekid. On mine there is a bolt/ nut and a 1" spacer that holds the pivot shaft on the axle. That too was frozen "rusted" to the main axle. Had a hard time removing the pivot arm- even after I got it to rotate.

I don't think my problem was with the type of grease (marine grade), it just wasn't getting all the way around the shaft or under the spacer.

This spring I may look at putting a grease groove in to help distribute the grease or maybe adding another zerk on the back side.

But I will still pull them off ,clean and grease them at the end of the season.

Good Luck with yours