Ice Castle tongue winch

[dj2quick35]

Has anyone converted the front tongue winch over to electric jack?

[bigwalleye30]

Are you thinking of doing this to bypass the drop down hitch?  Or are you meaning if someone has changed the manual winch to an electric winch?

[dj2quick35]

just seeing if a person could replace the tongue jack and winch with just a power jack.  I dont like when you put the house down the tongue down the jack is at a 45 angle and not straight up and down.  Plus i am not a fan of the cables and just wonder if you could use one of those electric power jacks.

[YettiStyle]

Your wording makes it very hard to comprehend what you're actually looking for.  I'm not very familiar with the Ice Castle tongues but if you have a jack you could probably swap it out with an electric one as long as the mount is the same. 

 

There is also a few other options to improve your current setup.  First would be getting some ICNuts and installing them on all your winches (2 side winches and 1 tongue winch).  http://winchdrivertools.com/products/icnuts-mega-kit.  I have the mega-kit on my Yetti and it makes picking up the shack 10 times faster and 1000 times easier.  $60 for the kit and a good drill. 

 

Another way you could cheaply do it is to cut off the handle a weld a nut onto your tongue jack.  Like in the picture below.  Takes 10 seconds to raise/lower the tongue and very little manual labor. 

[Hawg]

I screwed up and mounted my dish to the tongue of the house that makes it a hassle to use the winch. Never changed it because it works well, I can aim the dish very fast. I mounted a jack to the front of the tongue and use it all the time. You might have to cut of a wheel and mount a foot to get it low enough like I did. I am going to to alter the jack for ICNutz like in Yetti's picture. Those ICNuts are the best thing I added to the house for a long time. Too many people have had problems with electric jacks in the extreme conditions we use them in. Manual ones ALWAYS work.

Edited January 31, 2017 by Hawg

[Heft]

I've got an electric trailer jack mounted to the very back of the tongue where the V comes together. Wired it to the house battery. Works great, no effort but to hold the switch. Only negative is they are slow. I run it all the way up when traveling so takes a while to run from all the way up to all the way down enough to pull pin or take off truck, then reverse it again to all the way in so it drops to the ice. Maybe 3-4 minute process.

[dj2quick35]

1 hour ago, Heft said:

I've got an electric trailer jack mounted to the very back of the tongue where the V comes together. Wired it to the house battery. Works great, no effort but to hold the switch. Only negative is they are slow. I run it all the way up when traveling so takes a while to run from all the way up to all the way down enough to pull pin or take off truck, then reverse it again to all the way in so it drops to the ice. Maybe 3-4 minute process.

Do you have any pictures?  I dont mind the time it might take to run.  I just dont like where they have the tongue jack on their frames.  When you raise up off your truck the jack is straight up and down.  When you start to lower the house and the V section starts to separate the jack stand starts to move.  This seems like it will put a lot of stress on the holes the pin goes into for the jack stand.  I was on the Mille Lacs the other day and as i was raising the house the jack stand kept sliding on the ice because it was sitting at a 45 degree angle when the tongue is split in the down position

[Hawg]

Do you have a hydraulic frame? If not everything you just said works with the ICNutz and it's right outside where you are by the truck. It's nice to be able to see it go on correctly. . 

[YettiStyle]

49 minutes ago, dj2quick35 said:

Do you have any pictures?  I dont mind the time it might take to run.  I just dont like where they have the tongue jack on their frames.  When you raise up off your truck the jack is straight up and down.  When you start to lower the house and the V section starts to separate the jack stand starts to move.  This seems like it will put a lot of stress on the holes the pin goes into for the jack stand.  I was on the Mille Lacs the other day and as i was raising the house the jack stand kept sliding on the ice because it was sitting at a 45 degree angle when the tongue is split in the down position

 

From what I understand I think your problem is that you're not raising/lowering your shack correctly.  The front  winch is really only suppose to be used when your ice shack is still connected to your truck and the tongue jack is all the way up.  If you're raising your shack up off your truck with the jack and then lowering it to the ice with the winch you are doing it wrong. 

 

Here is a link to a video showing how to correctly raise/lower an ice castle.  http://winchdrivertools.com/products/side-axle-kit-a-better-tool-for-lifting-your-fish-house

 

If you don't want to have your shack connected to your truck then you have to raise it up off your truck with the jack and lower it to the ice with the jack, NOT the winch. 

 

[bigwalleye30]

1 hour ago, dj2quick35 said:

Do you have any pictures?  I dont mind the time it might take to run.  I just dont like where they have the tongue jack on their frames.  When you raise up off your truck the jack is straight up and down.  When you start to lower the house and the V section starts to separate the jack stand starts to move.  This seems like it will put a lot of stress on the holes the pin goes into for the jack stand.  I was on the Mille Lacs the other day and as i was raising the house the jack stand kept sliding on the ice because it was sitting at a 45 degree angle when the tongue is split in the down position

Yep it sounds like you aren't using it correctly.  The drop down hitch is made for when you are staying connected and/or lifting the front when when you are connected.  If your trying to raise the house without being hooked up to you vehicle, you would have to tighten the winch and put the pin in and then use your jack.  However I don't know why you would do that instead of just hooking up to it when its sitting at that 45 degree angle. 

 

Also instead of the icenutz, you can go with the socket a different company is selling.  That's what we use and works really slick.  Once I got that my days of cranking up the house are over!

1 hour ago, dj2quick35 said:

Do you have any pictures?  I dont mind the time it might take to run.  I just dont like where they have the tongue jack on their frames.  When you raise up off your truck the jack is straight up and down.  When you start to lower the house and the V section starts to separate the jack stand starts to move.  This seems like it will put a lot of stress on the holes the pin goes into for the jack stand.  I was on the Mille Lacs the other day and as i was raising the house the jack stand kept sliding on the ice because it was sitting at a 45 degree angle when the tongue is split in the down position

Yep it sounds like you aren't using it correctly.  The drop down hitch is made for when you are staying connected and/or lifting the front when when you are connected.  If your trying to raise the house without being hooked up to you vehicle, you would have to tighten the winch and put the pin in and then use your jack.  However I don't know why you would do that instead of just hooking up to it when its sitting at that 45 degree angle. 

 

Also instead of the icenutz, you can go with the socket a different company is selling.  That's what we use and works really slick.  Once I got that my days of cranking up the house are over!

[dj2quick35]

47 minutes ago, YettiStyle said:

 

From what I understand I think your problem is that you're not raising/lowering your shack correctly.  The front  winch is really only suppose to be used when your ice shack is still connected to your truck and the tongue jack is all the way up.  If you're raising your shack up off your truck with the jack and then lowering it to the ice with the winch you are doing it wrong. 

 

Here is a link to a video showing how to correctly raise/lower an ice castle.  http://winchdrivertools.com/products/side-axle-kit-a-better-tool-for-lifting-your-fish-house

 

If you don't want to have your shack connected to your truck then you have to raise it up off your truck with the jack and lower it to the ice with the jack, NOT the winch. 

 

im sure i have been doing it wrong.  the dealer that i got it from really didnt help/show me how to do it so i just did it a way to get it done.  The link you supplied goes to the ICNUTS site.  should i look for the video on their site?  i tried to google and couldnt find anything that really showed it

[YettiStyle]

Whoops sorry, wrong link.  Here is how to lower your shack.  The second one is how to raise it back up. 

Link 1:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf88DKWkh0Q

Link 2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZWjXGyJ-iM

 

If you want to be disconnected from your truck then you will need to raise your shack up off your truck with the jack and lower it with the jack, no winch. 

[EJ]

Thanks for the video.  He doesn't show disconnecting house from vehicle. It can be difficult. There are many variables including how high you block it as well as your hitch height. These can affect your ability to disconnect the vehicle.

One "trick" I have found useful  to disconnect vehicle from house is to pull pin on my receiver hitch and drive the hitch out from the house after lowering everything. You may need to use jack to get tongue weight off of receiver to have it loose enough.  Just something I have found useful when lowering without blocking up.  You could also go to a drop tongue hitch but then I would have issues with my driveway grade at home.

 

Edited February 1, 2017 by EJ

[Agronomist_at_IA]

ICNuts are a thing of the past.

 

Look at the easy crank large.

http://goicefish.com/easy-crank-winch-socket/

 

Another is the EZ up Adaptor.

http://goicefish.com/ez-up-adapter-black-n-green-30205/

 

 

Use a milwaukee brushless drill and you'll be happy has heck. You'll have the house up and down fast.

 

 

 

 

[Hawg]

When I was looking at both the Nutz and the socket the socket guy never answered his phone or returned several emails to ask questions. ICNutz answered on the first or second ring and was great to talk to, shipped the same day, and his product works perfectly. Regardless of what the socket guy shows in the video, drill chucks are not made to carry that much weight in reverse. I'm a loyal Nutz guy. and would recommend them to anyone. 

[bigwalleye30]

I wouldn't recommend using either product when lowering the house.  It can give way and the house just falls.  Use the cracks to lower it as there isn't much work there by hand.  Raising it I use the easier gear on the winch and have to have the drill in reverse, but works amazing and there is very minimal torque on when doing it that way.  If you use the harder gear then you'll get quite a bit of torque, but its manageable if you're holding on tight.

[Hawg]

I had the same thing, you might have your winches on the wrong sides and upside down. Yes, there is a left and right winch as I found out after finding out the same thing as BW. After swearing for longer than it took to switch them I'm fine now.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

8 hours ago, Hawg said:

When I was looking at both the Nutz and the socket the socket guy never answered his phone or returned several emails to ask questions. ICNutz answered on the first or second ring and was great to talk to, shipped the same day, and his product works perfectly. Regardless of what the socket guy shows in the video, drill chucks are not made to carry that much weight in reverse. I'm a loyal Nutz guy. and would recommend them to anyone. 

 

What was there to call or talk about.....put it in the cart check out ships and here in a day. Maybe the chucks on a cheap POS drill can't handle it. I havent had any problems with the milwaukee brushless 2604 and 2704 hammer drills. A guy just needs to slow down when towards the end with them. otherwise they will break your wrist.