Would the otter float?

[Swill]

Just wondering....if you were to fall through the ice while holding onto the rope that is attached to the otter icehouse would that thing sink like a rock or would it float?
I have the otter lodge and it seems like I might have a fighting chance if I were to hold onto that thing until i could get my ice grippers?

What does everyone else think?

[Crawlerman]

I just had an idea... remeber all those permenant ice houses falling through the ice this winter? What if someone were to put pontoon floats on the bottom of them? They'd double as skis pulling it across the ice as well.

And then when the ice melts you could slap an outboard to the back of the thing and drive it home yourself?

[Jeff.J]

Last year my buddy was pulling our Fish Trap Voyager with a snowmobile connected by a rope. He went in some open water in a spot where the water depth was only three feet. The Fishtrap floated like a boat, all we had to do pull it to safe ice, but the snowmobile was a different story.

[Surface Tension]

The otter would float if the weight was distributed evenly. If you were to try and hang onto or pull yourself in Im sure you would flip it over.

I insulate the floors of all the shacks I build with foam. Two springs ago the water flooded my buddies cabin. The water was high enough to lift the shack off its blocks and the wind then blew the house across the lake to where it beached on shore.
Guess how we got it back to the cabin?
Took the boat out and towed her back in.
Not only do we store it on blocks in the summer but we tie her up too.

[This message has been edited by Surface Tension (edited 01-27-2003).]

[Fisher Dave]

I have an otter sled (2nd from largest size) and it will float alot of weight. I use the sled during the duck hunting season also when I'm hunting WMA's with a small boat and room is an issue with the decoys, dog, and another hunter.

My otter will easily float 100+ decoys all strung with weights, etc... I dont know how much it weighs, but its well over 100 pounds. Its pulls with minimal effort behind the boat because its still floating high.

We also used my otter to float a friend across open water during late ice ( no plank and he didnt have waders ) .. he weighed about 130 and we pulled him from shore onto the ice without a problem .. the sled would have held more.

[Guest]

They will float alot of weight.

One of the guys from Diedrich's Bait on Rush dropped his 4-wheeler through MilleLacs earlier this year and it floated his wheeler until they could pull it back up onto the ice. He had to go back into the water and help push it back up!!!!

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

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Paul
[email protected]