New owner of a fish trap voyager!!!!!

[Snake River King]

I went to thorne bros yesturday and pick up a new fish trap voyager fish house, also bought the cover, towbar, and hyfax, I started putting it togather last night and just got the hyfax on and the towbar on. I cant what for ICE!!!

[livintofish]

You will love this trap, I bought one and last year was my first season with it and it was great. I got the tow bar as well to pull behind the wheeler and that is great! It is good you got the hyfax though cause mine didn't track very well on that bare ice last year and they are supposed to help. quick ? about that how does that hyfax mount? is it addhesive or does it bolt on somehow? Now I know its tough but try to limit the time you spend sitting in that trap in the garage with a jiggin stick, its only gonna make things worse . Have fun with your trap.

[DEADhead]

Snake River King, congrats on your purchase, but like any of the grande sized portables, the voyager can be a bear to pull in the snow by hand. seeing as how you got the tow bar, you've probably have other ideas on moving the house around on the ice. I wasn't happy on how the OEM tow bar for my portable connected to my snowmobile hitch. My sled has the newer pintle style hitches, not the older pin style hitch.

As a result, the tow bar wasn't exactly designed for my style hitch. On the tow bar's maiden voyage, on the first ice heave I crossed, I busted the hitch pin that attaches the tow bar to the hitch. worthless. the weight of the sled pushed the hitch pin against the hitch and bent it silly. Of course, I didn't have any extra pins along, so I had to tow my sled out by the rope. When I got back home, I found a small 3/8" clevis hook at the local farm and fleet store and connected a better quality hitch pin through the clevis and the end of the tow bar.

now the clevis will slip over the pintle hitch, and allow for 180 degree pivoting of the sled behind it. The tow bar works way better now, and still has the feature of the hitch pin acting as a shear bolt.

jesse, the hyfax ( I think it's actually UHMW polyethylene) bolts into the runners on the bottom of the sled. if you're looking to put it on your sled now, you'll probably have to disassemble the house down to the bare sled. For me, it took some strong arming and a little "gentle forcing" due to the sled being cumbersome, but once it's on, you won't have to worry about it ever again. It may go easier if you have a helper. Also, be sure to use a hair drier or a paint heat gun to heat the hyfax up enough so that it will be pliable to bend around the edge of the sled. the drilling gets tedious. Definitely worth the effort.

[Snake River King]

thanks guys I dont have it totally built yet cuz I went atving today but tomorrow it is going to rain so I will get it done, but ya those hyfax sure were a pain! but Im glad I did it when I was working with a bare sled, Ya I have a 4 wheeler to tow it with and a snowmobile so Im golden there.

[Jim Hudson]

Deadhead

Good mod to the tow hitch.. On my BearCat I also have that type of hitch, where I modified my hitches as well.. I swapped out the long bolt with one of the biggest eye bolts I could find.. Works slick, just pop the eye bolt over the hitch and your on your way...

[thirtysomething]

Throw some extra pins on your sled, wheeler, or whatever. I ran into the same problem as Deadhead, bent mine and would have been SOL but my buddy keeps a half dozen on his sled. Seemed silly till I needed one. Now I do too, you never know when they'll break, bend or you'll drop in in really deep snow and not find it!!

[DEADhead]

Quote:

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you never know when they'll break, bend or you'll drop in in really deep snow and not find it!!

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no doubt. good advice. a sure fire way to not forget to bring the extra pins is to either duct tape some to the inside of your sled tub, or ring them around a support pole/tube.

[livintofish]

Hey thanks JP, nice to know that its gonna be a little more work than I thought and I should get going on that before it gets cold, man for the price of these portables you would think theyd have runners on them stock. Hope to see ya out on the ice before too long. gotta stop thinking about the time too long