Transporting a sleeper/skid house (Probably a dumb question?)

[Dances with Walleye]

I've been thinking about building myself an ice house on Skids... But I'm wondering how in the heck do I get it off the trailer once I'm on the ice.

I mean say I build an 8 foot by 12 foot and I load it on via a comealong and some ramps... Drive it up to Mille Lacs (Or wherever) and I want to unload it...

Is it just that I put the ramp boards underneath it, block the tires, and pull it off with the truck?

Or do I need a special trailer? Or do I jack the tongue of the trailer to the sky?

Just a bunch of thoughts running through my head and figured I'd ask the questions rather than start coming up with wrong answers all by myself.

Thanks in advance!

[BoxMN]

DWW,

Hey, I might be able to help you out with an answer

We built a 6x10 on skids. We used 3 skids because of the building material we used (long story, but we did it cheap and it works great), with one under the middle for support.

We used my neighbors 2 place sled trailer. Worked great. Just need to make sure you have more weight forward of the axle, of course. We just pushed it up with a Bobcat, mainly because we had one available, but I think a few guys could have slid it up as well, maybe using small rollers (1/2" pipe, etc. under skids). We just strapped it down with big ratchet straps and off we went (we didn't go far though to close by lake).

It came off real easy, totally easy even - better than we expected. We just pushed it off. Trailer was a tilt trailer, so once we got it tilted up we slid it until it hit ice, and then just pulled the trailed (with the truck) out from under it. Had two guys holding the shack, but didn't have to hold too much.

Getting it up I could see might be tougher out on the ice, but if you have come along it would be easy. Key thing if you have tilt trailer is you need to make sure you have support to attach the cable to, and that it doesn't hit the tilted trailer front.

I made a big shed and used a car hauler to transport, and what we did was use sled "dollies" on the trailer to help slide it forward, worked great, then just took them out for transport.

Hope that gave some ideas anyway. I will be working on my proper thespian jigging act in that house later this year

[ice_it_06]

Dances with Walleye:

My friend has a flat bed he hauls his 8 X 14 on.

He has like three or four galvanized 7 1/2 ft pipes he runs across the bed width to pull the house up the ramps on, and pushes it off by hand very easily as it rolls on top of the pipes. Slick as heck really

He had a 2" receiver slot welded on the tongue of his trailer that he inserts a winch in to in order to pull it up.

To drop it he just unstraps the house and pushes it down the ramps. He has some type of hard plastic on the ramps as well that makes it slick as all he!! so it slides and pulls easily. Throw some light snow on it and its like ice.

Sometimes he only has to get the tail off the trailer and just pull ahead, no ramps even needed as the trailer sits pretty low anyway.

[Dances with Walleye]

See now I don't know that I can get a hold of a tilt sled trailer Best I could probably come up with would be jacking up the front end of a trailer to the max and then building a ramp for it to slide off of.

Transport however would be about 60 miles to start and finish the season.

[Dances with Walleye]

Quote:

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Dances with Walleye:

My friend has a flat bed he hauls his 8 X 14 on.

He has like three or four galvanized 7 1/2 ft pipes he runs across the bed width to pull the house up the ramps on, and pushes it off by hand very easily as it rolls on top of the pipes. Slick as heck really

He had a 2" receiver slot welded on the tongue of his trailer that he inserts a winch in to in order to pull it up.

To drop it he just unstraps the house and pushes it down the ramps. He has some type of hard plastic on the ramps as well that makes it slick as all he!! so it slides and pulls easily. Throw some light snow on it and its like ice.

Sometimes he only has to get the tail off the trailer and just pull ahead, no ramps even needed as the trailer sits pretty low anyway.

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What kind of angle are these ramps at?

I worry that if I slide it off like in this manner that part of the house is going to be level and part of it will be about to tip and slam down hill onto the ramps.

Thanks for the input guys!

[ice_it_06]

Dances with Walleye:

The ramp angle is rather suttle as I think they are 12 ft long and his trailer is about 2 ft off the ground. If your skid ends are tapered in cut its not a issue ever. His once you get to the center of gravity on the trailers end it just slowly slides itself down. If the snow is like 8" deep he dont even use the ramps. Just lets the tail silde off and slowly pulls out letting it drop the final few inches.

Slides easily but doesnt run itself crazy down the ramps or slam down.

He has double 2 X 8 X 20 treated skids on each side I believe that are cut to an angle from the toe of the board to just before the house frame. Has angle iron framed on each end as well with tow hooks and to cable up to in order to winch it up the trailer until it rolls itself on the pipes.

Takes far more beating pulling it around the lake then the few times he might do this even.

[nytelyter]

it is so hard to explain how i do mine. but i will give it a try. first off i will explain, i have a custom made trailer that i designed, specifically for my fishhouse. and i use one of them heavy dudty off road/ farm implement jacks. "hi-lifter" i got from FF. my trailer looks like a swather trailer. if you know what one of those look like. basically a triangle with a tongue and a 2" ball hitch and the wheels on the outer sides of the triangle. no bed to mess with.

so when i hit the ice. i take two cement blocks and put them under the rear runners. then i jack up the front of the fishhouse until the back side is planted on the blocks and the house has lifted off of the trailer and block the front side of the house and lower the jack and roll the trailer as far forward as possible then i jack up the front again and move the forawrd blocks to behind the trailer wheels. and again lower the house to the blocks. slide the trailer out from under the house and now the shack is sitting on the blocks alone. then i jack up the front and back and remove the blocks on either end. and now i am on the runners. after many seasons of use i accomplish this task in about 10-15 minutes. each way, off and on.

in the case of useing a flat bed trailer, or snomobile trailer. i would think that a couple of very sturdy planks could be used across the under side of the house that would extend past the outer edges of the trailer for getting it up in the air the same way as i do, kinda like the house movers do. i would like to add that this system was developed the year after we almost completely tore off a bumper trying to yank it off of the custom trailer. with another truck. quite a costly mistake. also i have done the come-a-long thing. and trust me on this. it is way easier to do this the way i have described, than with a come-a-long. i am a creature of the easy way out. i over-build and under-work when i want to play.

i hope this helps if you have any questions or would like to check out my set up. drop me an e-mail. i will get ya my cell # and maybe try to get into a bit more detail. ... paul