Permanent House - skid questions

[BoxMN]

Neighbors and myself are building a 6x8 perm house, but using some unconventional material Actually some scrap but solid wood. We need three runners/skis, one on each side and one down the middle, to help support the middle as the floor is not all one solid piece.

Would three treated 4x4's be sufficient for the runners? Countersinking lag bolts and attaching to the floor from the bottom? The floor is basically set up like pallets, with a premade 3.5" drop from inside the floor to where the 4x4's would be attached.

Thanks for any info or suggestions!

-Box

(now have portable and auger AND soon to be permanent house... man, I am getting into this stuff

[Farley]

As long as the planks on the bottom of the "pallet" (the boards you are bolting to) are thick enough to hold the weight when pulling they should be fine. I'm guessing you'll need at least 3/4 inch thick planks to bolt to. Where are you planning on hooking up to the house when pulling, on the skids or on the house?

I think what I would do is take a piece of steel tubing and bolt it on top of the 3 skids in the front of the house, countersink the holes and run a bolt up like you did the floor, and bolt that tubing in place so you can hook to that to pull. That way you arent pulling the house off the frame, you are pulling the frame and the house along with it. If it ends up freezing down at all, this will help a lot.

Honestly, I think 4X4's seem a little small for a 6X8. You may end up pushing a little snow being that low but it should work anyway.

[BoxMN]

Thanks for quick reply Farley.

Yes, we will be bolting the 4x4's to 4x4 blocks that are securely attached to the floor. And each 4x4 ski will be bolted in to 6 of these.

""Honestly, I think 4X4's seem a little small for a 6X8. You may end up pushing a little snow being that low but it should work anyway. ""

Do you think it would help if we put three 2x6's under the floor frame, and then put the 4x4's under that? I have treated 2x6's laying around.

And yes, we plan to hook up to the skis not the house itself. I was planning on tying the 3 skis together like you mentioned, but with some 2x6's I have. Maybe will see if my neighbor has some steel. But I do follow in that we should have all 3 tied together with more than just the house.

The nice thing is that for this whole house, the only cost we have ito it is the 4x4's and some 1x6 pine for trim, etc. So if it doesn't work out, we will burn it this summer and start again with modified plans, but we will keep the skis and door and other stuff that can be reused. It actually is VERY stable so far and we could take it down modularly in about 10 minutes if we had to.

The roof is something we are still deciding on. We have roof, but not watertight at this point. Maybe just cover with tight and tough tarp this winter and see how she goes.

Thanks for your help!

[Farley]

Maybee someone else who has built one (mine is on wheels) will chime in but I would think you'd want the 6" as the ski, then the 4X4 for clearance. You only gain 2" from where you are at now, but the wider ski (more surface area) should help the house float on top of the snow. Granted, it seems like we dont get much snow anymore but when that 1-2 foot snowstorm comes by and you want to get your house off the lake, it saves a lot of messin around.

[john.wells]

You might not want to put a runner in the middle unless you plan on blocking the thing up, as it will freeze in like the outside ones, with no way to chip it free.

[stmichael]

You should be allright with the 4x4 runners. Just make sure that you are pulling from the runners. I have had experiences with a 6x8 fish house, it had 3 runners eye bolts on either side of the house for pulling. The problem with these I encountered, when you are pulling the house across the lake if you hit any bumps or hit some snow the eye bolts did not take a lot of force to open up.

Now, on the new fish house it is a 8x12 with runners, I decided to go with a 1" steel Bar with a 1/4" wall, and ran it through all three of the runners, leaving about 4" exposed on the ends. This way the load is spread evenly across the runners. The only problem I had was getting the holes to line up, I had an after thought of making a jig for exact hole placement, hindsight sucks!!

These are my experiences and so far the fish house has been pulled up onto a trailer 3 times and no problems with the bar. This maybe obvious information, but, make sure you cut angles in the front of your runners, it will help in pulling your house.

Good luck!

It has been mentioned, but, I will say it again:

Make sure you block the house, under all runners. You do not want to leave one behind. it will be a pain in the arse to get the center one free. I would say three spots on the outside runners; front, middle, back, and two for the center front and back, should do just fine. Or two on each runner depends on what you prefer. IMO.

[ice_it_06]

The more skid clearance obviously the better when snow is a issue.

ANY skid house I have had I always coated the skids "heavily" with a deck/wood sealer like Thompsons or such.Like two coats minimum and I have NEVER at any time had a house skid freeze me in to where a simple pry under the front corners wth the big daddy chisel didnt pop it loose easily. The 8 X 8 I had years ago I actually painted the skids and bottom foot of the house "black" as well which helped.

Pulling my former 6 X 8 I had a 20' tow strap that I would feed through my two front holes come out under the front frame and put one end through the loop and on to the ball of the truck. Worked like a charm and you cant get any more balanced of a pull and a slight front lift at the same time.

I had a tow bar on the front of my heavy 8 X 8 as well but found the hole method easier on that house as well.