Skidoo hitches

[Bigbartguy]

hi folks

I've been trying to find a way to drag my fish house w/ my sleds. I have (2) 1999 Skidoos w/ a rear bumper on each.

I ordered some generic clamp-on hitches from Dennis Kirk, but they didnt fit around the Skidoo bumper (too small)> after searching on the internet, I'm not finding any that look like they will work, they all appear to be made by the same place/same size.

The Skidoo dealer wanted me to buy these kits for $40 each, consisting of a bumper and hitch. Of course I don’t want to spend $80 to equip my sleds for this, especially since my sleds ALREADY have bumpers!!!

Has anyone dealt w/ this yet? Any ideas? I could use some zip ties to tie these smaller generic ones around my bumper, but that doesnt seem like the best option. I dont plan on using these often - one trip to NW Angle per year.

Thanks!

[Uncle Bill]

Do a search for shade tree power sports.

They have a universal hitch that may work for you. ($10.99)

[Gus]

And if that doesn't work, buy yourself a couple of hinges at your favorite hardware store. The kind where one half of the hinge is rectangle an the other half is triangle. Take a couple of bolts or U bolts and mount it to your bumper. If you use U bolts it could even be temporary. One of my sleds came with this done to it and the other one I had a factory hitch on. Both work just as well as the other.

[hanson]

Even though you may not use it much, I would spend a little extra and get a good, solid hitch that bolts directly to the tunnel of the sled. I've seen the hitches that clamp on to the bumper and even though they may work well, I don't know if I could trust one to pull what I pull. For me, an Otter Lodge loaded down with ice fishing gear pulled through deep snow puts quite the load on the hitch. You need something that can handle this or you may end up losing your gear somewhere.

My hitch is kind of hard to see in this photo as I wasn't specifically taking a picture of the hitch. You can see the round steel bar that wraps around the back and bolts to the side of the tunnel in a couple locations using stock holes. My hitch is an AC hitch and is made specific to the sled, however I do think I've seen some universal hitches that are made in this fashion.

This is the direction I would seriously look at heading if you plan to pull anything heavy. If you are only pulling a 1 man house with minimal gear, this might be overkill.

[Gus]

Hanson does speak the truth about strength. The bumpers on my older polaris' are pretty dang hearty though.

[hanson]

Would agree with you there Gus. My 89 500 had a good strong bumper as well. I probably wouldn't hesitate to attach a good hitch to that.

[trackerbrent]

I use an I-bolt. Just drilled through the bumpers on each of my machines and bolted them on. Cost about 3 bucks a machine. Does not have to swivel up and down because most bars that go to the ice fishing sled or portable goes up and down anyways. Has worked to pull anything I have had to pull. Just my thought.