Fish House Ideas

[rocky]

I ams ure this is not the first time this has been posted but I want to get a head start on building a permanent fish house for next season.Probably 8 x 14 or 8 x 16. I want it to be able to sleep 4 people.I still want to build it light as I can. Does anyone have a good plan or suggestions on how to keep it light yet warm.Thanks

[mike morris]

How light do you want this house to be? I built an 8 x 16 v-front house on a metal frame trailer with cranks. Has knotty pine siding on the inside with two permanent bunks, two fold down. Use the v-front for cabinents, cookstove, TV, etc... 5-6 inches of solid ice is plenty to hold a house this size.

[chris63]

Go with 10 feet wide.Lots more room for "stuff" c63

[Big Dave2]

Quote:

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Go with 10 feet wide.Lots more room for "stuff"

c63

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Not if you want to be able to pull it down the road. 8'6" is the legal limit.

[chris63]

Not being a smart *ss here ,but the poster did say permanent house.C63

[Big Dave2]

Well, I guess my interpertation of a "permanant" house is different than yours. In my case, I could build myself a "permanant" house that stays on the lake all winter but I don't live on a lake so I would still have to haul it to a lake which would require me to drive down a road.

[bigtimeelectric]

mine is 10 feet wide you just got to take backroads and hope for no county mountys.or put a slow moving vehicle sign on it and tell em your a farmer, they let them pull anything down the road..no seriously build as wide as possible that is what makes a fishouse cumfy.. oh yeh u gotta have an 8 foot ceiling to accomodate a ceiling fan..good luck

[harvey lee]

I would agree with staying within the width limits of the law. If you have a accident, you will more than likely be liable for all damages as you were not legally on the road.

[Bryce]

For sake of argument, I'm going to throw out common sense like so many other drivers we share the roads with. Since an ice house is not required to be licensed, does it need to meet width requirements or even need lights for that matter? Pretty sure that once you have lights, they are required to work. I think we have a gray area here that someone with way more money than me will eventually go to court over. I myself have to pull through the metro and prefer to be lit up like a christmas tree.

[PierBridge]

I don't know where to start on this one....

I wouldn't suggest to anyone that 5 or 6"s of ice is enough ice to safely have an 8x16 Fish house on.

If you are pulling a Fish House on the Roads of our state legally you would need working lights and also have to be within the width limit of 8'6"s.

As far as a retractable wheel house goes I would not go wider then 6 1/2 or 7' they tow better and last longer then the 8 wides.

Permanents depending on where you are going to have/use it I would go 8' by 16-20.

The 10 wides are nice and the extra 2 feet is great but a lot of resorts won't take 10 wides anymore they are pain to move, store and they need wider plowed roads.

My 2 cents.

[Bryce]

Will play devil's advocate here. Can you show me a statute that requires an unlicensable trailer to comply with width and lighting laws? Sorry I haven't taken the time to navigate this site and know how to pull out quotes but the 6 1/2' vs 8' argument deserves a new topic. That would be me passing most of you in narrow houses in good driving conditions.

[love to hunt]

Bryce,

This has been a very hot topic on this forum.

I built fish houses and fish house trailers for many years, have done a lot of research on these subjects.

You will have some guys telling you not to worry about the rules, they don't apply to fish houses, or that the law dogs will not bother you towing a fish house. All of which are not true.

The facts are this: Anything being pulled behind a vehicle is required to comply with light, size and weight limits to include breaks. /it doesn't matter if you a pulling a cargo trailer, camper or fish house.

In a nut shell it says anything being towed behind an automobile, on public roads are required to comply with all (Contact Us Please) lighting, over 2999# gvw are required to have breaks capable of stopping and holding the trailer, be equipped with safety chains that meet or exceed the gvw of the trailer and must not exceed 102" in over all width.

MN State Statutes 2006 Chapter 169 covers this in great detail. Here is the web link.

http://ros.leg.mn/revisor/pages/statute/statute_chapter.php?year=2006&start=160&close=174A&history=&border=0

Take it for what it is worth.

Rocky,

I can help you with some ideas on a 4 man sleeper using a 7X16 and still be well under 3000#.

It would depend on several things. How much to you have to spend, how many bells and whistles do you want and if you plan to tow it a lot.

Let me know what your thoughts are. [email protected]

Later,

Ed