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Busted Otter Sled...How to fix it?


Mike Stark

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So I managed to crack my Otter sled the other day. I slammed it down on the ground trying to break the ice/snow out of the inside of the shelter. It was cold and I must have hit it just right and used a little too much force. frown

What would be the best way to repair it? It is in a tricky spot for patching.

The top and bottom crack are all the way through. The crack going to the left is not quite all the way through.

Thanks.

P1010657_zps2e1926de.jpg

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one of my dogs crates cracked in a corner. I was going to get a new one and for the heck of it I mixed up some JB Weld and put it on it. It worked like a charm and that was three years ago. I'm sure there's more stress on that sled than a crate but for $5 bucks it's worth a try. It seems really solid.

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I broke one once big time, it was froze to the ground upside down and I gave it a good kick and cracked it in a V shape in the middle of the side, about the size if my ice kings. I used a soldering gun and melted it back together.it held up the rest of the time I owned it. A body shop could fix it good for you too but it would probably cost more then a new sled but you could try.

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Good ideas so far. You might even want to try a combination of the JB Weld and the metal L bracket. Patch the cracks as well as you can and maybee a combination of the JB and a couple small bolts to hold the L bracket to the corner until it cures. The most you'll be out is less than $10 so it's worth a try. Good luck.

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Well I went with the jb weld and L brackets. I just put the jb weld on and plan on letting it harden up before i put the L brackets on. all the cracks were 95% together already. i dont want to separate the cracks before it hardens.

how thick of layer of jb weld do you need to make a good bond? i did both sides of the sled and plan on putting a L bracket on both sides as well.

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I would have used some 36 grit sandpaper and sanded about 2" past each direction of the crack. Then put a good layer of JB and push your L bracket into it. You could also push some of that fiberglass Sheetrock tape into the JB for more strength.

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I would give some thought to calling Otter and asking what sort of plastic it is made out of. You may be able to find some of that material and patch it using some heat to melt a layer over it. My kid had a kayak that had a problem and he did that and it worked great. I would think that JB Weld might not adhere to the plastic and if it didn't it would mess things up. Thing is that there are many different types of material and so you have to know what to use for a heat seal repair.

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i ended up putting the L brackets on before it hardened. it moved the cracks a bit so i had to apply some more jb weld. hopefully it sets up nice and strong.

i wont be able to get out and use it till the end of next week. not sure if it will be able to take the beating off bouncing around on the trails and lakes.

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For future use, I would have drilled a small hole at the end of all the cracks. That will help the crack stop from continuing to go on and on.

I would also as suggested above, rough up the surface with sandpaper to give the adheasive u use something to adhere to much better.

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I have two otter sleds, one for the otter fish house and one the kids pull behind the snowmobile. The kids sled completely broke in two halves after years of abuse from the kids jumping in and out of the sled. We have a HDMP welder at work which I used to weld the sled back together. That was probably about five years ago and since then it has been used by the kids and pulled behind my large otter when in Canada ice fishing. I would try finding someone who can weld plastic and give that a try before you try any other method.

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As some others have said you need to know what kind of plastic. i think i would have did the L brackets and riveted a small piece of sheetmetal across the crack. Also check with welding supply shops some sell better stuff than JB weld, 3M sells a plastic weld kit but It might cost as much as $25. I've also seen some plastic epoxys that are pretty impressive in strength.

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I don't have much experience with it but my first thought was the same as redtrucks. I would see if you have any plastic welders in your area and what they might charge to weld it back together. I tried it way back in high school once in shop class. I seem to remember it was similar to brazing where you heated up the seam then used a plastic rod and added the rod to the crack.

I've used JB weld some and it is good in some applications but I'm not sure it will hold up to the flexing the sled will need to do, especially under cold conditions. Your L bracket might hold things together well enough though.

If it does come apart, I would call Otter and see what they have to say. If they don't have any ideas I'd look up a plastic welder.

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Well i got a chance to test out the fix yesterday on Burntside Lake here in Ely. Good and bad news. Bad news was that some of the jb weld did crack off. Good news is that fix still seems solid and did not effect how the sled pulled. The otter took a beating yesterday. It was -2 on the ride out and around 40 on the way in. There are some big drifts on Burntside and i am not the best at going slow. smile

So as of right now I am happy with the fix.

Thanks for the all the ideas.

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I worked in plastics for about 20 years and I have posted this before on another cracked sled thread. But there is no glues that will stick to this type of thermoformed plastic. The best way to fix it as someone else posted is by plastic welding or re-melting it together. I have fixed a few of them and what I use is a heavy soldering iron to re-melt the crack together. Don't be afraid to really stick the soldering iron deep into the crack as you can always re-smoothen the patch out later with the iron, the deeper the better as you are melting more material surface back together. The other thing that works well that I have used is to cut a piece of plastic off one of the plastic barrels, black if you can find one and use that as a over-patch once you melted the crack together. A lot of it has to do where the crack is and if you can get some kind of metal bracket on it or not and it looks like the bracket would work in this area well. Glad you got it back on the lake Mike. wink

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