That Darn Heavy Sled

[oldbird]

Love this idea, anybody tried it with a bigger shack like a yukon?

[MikeG3Boat]

Natureboy, can you provide a picture or sketch of those compound angles? Is there any crossmembers between the skis? I just can't get a picture of it in my head.

[Naturboy]

If you zoom in on the clipboard you can see how the sections of 2 x 4s are designed to be held in place just by the angle of the cuts.

To make those cuts on a table saw you simply set your blade to 45 degrees and then set your miter gauge to 45 degrees. The only thing you need to change between the front and back legs is the miter gauge.

There is no cross pieces, the little sections are mounted to the sled and the longer pieces attach to the skis. I did put an eye hook on each leg to keep them together when going over ruff ground. I should say also that you don't want to pull any ski or sled set up over gravel or black top roads or you'll need to replace them every year.

[oldbird]

Thanks for the compound angle explanation. Could you show your eye hook setup pls?

[Chad Holst]

Quote:

Could you show your eye hook setup pls?

is this what you are looking for?

[Slabasaurus]

is this what you are looking for?

aaand that's why I tie all my flies barbless...

on topic... lots o good ideas here, might have to check out the thrift shop for some cheap skis. One mans trash is another man's come up!

[NKLCOLT1911]

I have. But I travel light so this may not fit most folks.

i was more thinking of something that mounts across the back

[Naturboy]

Ok, 2 photos, first is the little piece of wood that helps the rear heavy tub from sliding down the 45 degree angle. These are just added to the rear leg of each ski.

The second photo shows the eye hooks which I've not had to even use yet.

[oldbird]

Thanks Naturboy I'm working on it!

[3littlemonsters]

I made one for my 2 man eskimo when I first got it and yes it made a world of difference, mine was only roughly 4-5" tall, and i did (after a number of trips) strip the flipover down and got rid of those heavy seats in favor of buckets. I haven't used it since buying a 1 man otter and only take the 2 man out after the ice is drivable. I also fabricated a tow hitch last year for the 2 man for the 4 wheeler, so then again I haven't used it. Its well worth the time and effort thou, to save you some time and effort!

[BassKnuckles]

I have a miter saw I'm guessing I need a miter gage to make these cuts? I've been starring at this wood and saw for awhile now and can't figure it out.

[CaptainMusky]

I don't think you can execute this cut on a miter saw. Table saw is what naturboy used. I don't think my compound miter would do this cut

[BassKnuckles]

To late to ask for a table saw for Xmas

[CaptainMusky]

Santa doesn't come for another day. ;-). I hear ya. I wouldnt attempt this cut with my pos table saw.

[Naturboy]

If you has a compound miter saw that would do it. Or if some one would drop off a 2 x 4 I could do it for you. Send a pm

[centralmnguy]

I watched a video the other day on youtube by Mr. Bluegill...he has a drop down ski system attached directly to his eskimo flipover tub...just pull a few pins drops right to the ice...what will they think of next!

I believe it was called a lake runner sled

[BassKnuckles]

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up some PVC and screw some PVC caps to the sled and skies. Then I figure I can just attach a PVC pipe between the 2 caps.

Any thoughts or concerns of issues I might come across doing this? Basically it's the same thing people have stated before but with the PVC.

[Scott M]

[PurpleFloyd]

I watched a video the other day on youtube by Mr. Bluegill...he has a drop down ski system attached directly to his eskimo flipover tub...just pull a few pins drops right to the ice...what will they think of next!

I believe it was called a lake runner sled

Eskimo has a sled that the flipover fits in with skis and it looks darn cool but then I saw that they want 600 clams for it and thought the old smitty sled idea sounded better.

[BassKnuckles]

">

[swamptiger]

Quote:

How is this when you pulling through some deeper snow?

I'm thinking it would work great if the snow is not deep enough so it would prevent the skis from making contact with the ice, or if there was enough of a crust on top to support the skis. With the 16 or 18 inches of soft, fluffy snow we have up north right now, probably not so good.

[Naturboy]

I've found that in deep fluffy snow the skis may not hold the tub completely up out of the snow but it is still much better than no skis and completely plowing all the snow with the tub. I have a small sled that I use with a pop up on that sled I mount 2 pairs of skis when we get that much snow to keep the sled on top of the snow because the skis are shorter so I can fit it in the back of my van.

[zppeterson]

After seeing this thread a few weeks ago I found a set of skis and built a smitty sled for my new Otter Lodge XT650..... What a difference!

[BassKnuckles]

Another problem with the PVC was that when removing the skis from the sled could be a challenge because the weight of the sled would make the PVC tube and cap fit very snug.

I'd rather not drill more holes than I already have in my sled but I might have to just to see if mounting these skis directly to the sled would be a good solution.

Great idea about adding the handle to the sled.