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Hooking up Otters together


fishinalot

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I have seen a few otter commercials with 2 or more otter fish houses hooked up behind snomobiles with the tow bars. We have 3 otters and would like to hook at least 2 together so I can pull them behind a 4-wheeler. Anyone with a good plan or pictures ?

Thanks

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You can use anything that the hitch will lock onto on the back of the sled. I just ran a u bolt through my old house and made sure to put a aluminum backer on the inside. That will help distribute the weight and stress across the whole back of the sled.

Make sure you have a good hitch pin. I use a long shank padlock. Nothing worse than a pin popping off in the snow and you not knowing your house isnt with you. Another thing is I always have extra pins with me. Someone always seems to lose 1 on a trip.

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Make sure you put a reinforcement plate on the inside of your pulling tub. I've actually had a 3/8 eye bolt snap in half after a few long trips on LOW. Always have extra everything. I also use a double spring loaded tow bar, springing both forward and back. It's amazing how much abuse those things take, even at 10-15 mph. It can be done however, been doing it for years.

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I'll agree with whats mentioned above.

I actually have a big old eyebolt on the back of my Lodge tub with a piece of 1/2" plywood about 6" high by the width of the interior of the tub. I have LARGE fender washers behind the nut as well.

If you have access to a welder, welding the eyebolt shut would be a great idea so it doesn't come apart on ya.

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fishinalot- the tow bar I use is home made (welded). 3/8 should be sufficient, but if you have access to larger, but not too heavy, why not? I'll try to get some pictures of mine but it's mimicking what otter makes, with the spring action being very important IMO. I also have a detachable "Head" on my tow bar. One set up for my wheeler, which has a ball, and the other for the snow cat, which has the hitch. One pull on a pin and I can switch them out at the head, without having to have multiple bars. It's one of the slickest things ever. On the one I have for the ball set up, I simply welded a big "O" ring with a spacer tacked on, that way the O-ring slips over the ball and kinda snaps on, without the weight of the full ball mechanism you would have on a trailer. Again I'll try to send some pictures. As far as how much backing do you need, I would error on the side of too much rather than too little. If you are going to be pulling a lot of stuff in that 2nd tub, she's gonna have some pull. Just like being in the last car of a roller coaster.

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Quote:

Hey Chris, how many bolts did you put in you plywood backer?


You wouldn't even need to install more than the eyebolt itself. All the backer does is distribute the load from 1 single point (eyebolt) to the rest of the sled. You could bolt it in if you wanted, in which I would probably use a 1/4:20 on each corner of the plywood with a nylock nut. I like hex head bolts and nylock nuts for most applications.

What I think is more important than attaching the backer to the sled is a fender washer between the nut (holding the eyebolt or U-bolt on) and the backer plate. That is the first component that disperses the load out.

Let me know if I'm not making any sense and I'll try and come up with a better explanation (graphic if reguired).

A couple other previous posters are dead on the money with the kind of loads these sleds experience. When a loaded shack is towed, there is a ton of pressure put on the hitch and the hitch pins, those will be the 1st points of failure. A secondary hitch on a secondary sled will definitely be another point of failure.

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