Lift off fish house

[Professional Edge]

Has anybody ever designed or built a lift off the trailer fish house? I have a 6.5 X 14 V front trailer coming this weekend and it is my intent to build a house that can be taken off the trailer during the summer so I can use the trailer frame for other things. Same idea as a pickup camper.

I purchased the camper jacks and have a general idea how it is going to be built but there are so many good ideas on this site that I wanted to see if it has been tried before.

[38bill]

I was thinking about something similar but decided that it just wasn't worth the extra work involved. The LP system would have to be removable or contained within the fish house and you would have to beef up the fish house itself so it could stand alone. 14' + V is getting pretty long compared to a pickup camper. You probably will also have to build a trailer deck to stiffen the trailer frame depending on what you plan to use it for when not a wheel house. You will also have to engineer the lighting because most wheel houses have the running lights up higher on the house. If the lights are down on the trailer frame I think you could end up with problems with them sitting in the ice and snow.

[20lbSloughShark]

If you design the fish house as a skid house, it should be removable. Maybe just attach it to the frame by a few bolts. At the size you are talking, it would be extremely difficult to pickup, and take off. It will also be almost 500 pounds heavier due to the extra structure required. Having a separate utility trailer would probably be better. Not to mention the work you would need to do to the trailer to make it useful to haul things on.

[McGurk]

I too have thought about this, but on a much smaller scale. My idea would have a smaller standard trailer that would sit off the ice and be sleeved down for each hole with tubes. I'd make the walls and ceiling in 2" thick 4'x8' sections that would bolt together, along the lines of "Moosehunters Green Fishhouse". It would leave you with a trailer that you could use year round, a stack of panels to store in the off season, and a lightweight, semi-permanent fishhouse that could be assembled at the lake and towed at low speeds. I think a 7x8 trailer would be about optimum with the tires outside of the flat floor to keep your floor height as low as possible.

Northlander fishhouses made an ATT (all terrain trailer) which was a collapsable portable shell fixed onto a trailer that could be lowered. I always thought that it would be the cat's meow, but I couldn't justify the price personally.

[Professional Edge]

You are all very right. I have designed it over and over and over in my head and on paper. I think I have most of the shortcomings figured out but was wondering if it has ever been tried. If not I will be the test dummy and will post pictures as I go.

It is easier for me to swallow the price of building a house if the trailer is multipurpose. I am busy like most parents and my chances of getting out ice fishing are short but I hate renting. I hate having to sit in one place that somebody else determines even if the fish aren’t biting! If it doesn’t work I will just keep it screwed down on the frame.

[bak2MN]

I think you would be better with a skid type bolted to the frame that is what I am doing with my 2 place and 4 place trailers.

[fishkins]

Take a look at Soderblooms Ice Lite houses.