Do it yourself tow bar for portable?

[HondaRider07]

I have a Fish Trap X2 portable house, and was wondering if anyone has any hints or tips on making a tow bar for hauling it behind my atv? I've seen the ones the stores have and they're $60+. I've been looking at some iron at Home Depot or Menards, and was wondering how hard it is to just weld something up in the shape of a V and put some angle iron on the front of the house for mounts? Any tips or ideas you guys have used would be great! I've just been hooking the rope around the rear rack so far this winter....

[croixflats]

A quick cheap and simple, Thread your tow rope through a thick walled pvc pipe.

[Dave S]

You're only limited by your own creativity. One thing I would suggest is to make sure that you have a backer plate that spans the entire width of your hitch on the sled to reduce the amount of stress.

If you see another sled out on the lake with a rigid hitch, ask to check it out. It wouldn't be hard to duplicate or come up with something better.

[Roofer]

A quick cheap and simple, Thread your tow rope through a thick walled pvc pipe.

That's a pretty good idea. I would've never thought of that.

[iafish4fun]

Originally Posted By: croixflats

A quick cheap and simple, Thread your tow rope through a thick walled pvc pipe.

That's a pretty good idea. I would've never thought of that.

I second that. I don't have a 4 wheeler, but if I ever fished with someone that had one, this would be a great idea.

[HondaRider07]

Do any of you have any ideas that don't involve welding? I have the hitch off my mom's bf's sled, but it was welded near where it connects to the atv(I'm using it as a model to make my own). I was wondering if anyone had anything they were able to make without welding? I'm hoping over christmas I can make something up and then weld it at work over the weekend. A picture would be great too, so I have something to base my model on.

[Johnsonator]

I use the PVC method but instead of PVC I use the grey conduit pipe because it is a little more flexible and not quite as brittle in the cold weather. All you have to do is put the rope through it and tie a loop that will go over a ball hitch or use a clevis to attach it to a standard hitch. Works great and the best thing is you can take it on and off fairly easy.

[croixflats]

Grey conduit here I come! Thanks Johnsonator, I have to go to Fleet to buy more jigs anyways, hopefully I can get out of there spending less than $100.

[icehousebob]

I use the pvc pipe method. I have two equal lengths of it strung on the tow rope with enough free rope between them to do a couple of wraps around the ball hitch. Quick and cheap and easily removeable if needed.

[Sandmannd]

Grey conduit here I come! Thanks Johnsonator, I have to go to Fleet to buy more jigs anyways, hopefully I can get out of there spending less than $100.

Good luck to you, don't know that I ever walk out of there for under a hundy.

[Meat-Run]

Great post! I was just thinking about this last night on how to make a hitch for a smaller utility sled that I have. Conduit and thick rope, FF here I come too.

mr

[Neiko]

I had a Jet Sled hitch from Shappel from my old fishouse and use that on my X2. Haven't used it much but it works so far. They only run $20.

[Johnsonator]

The conduit will only cost a couple dollars. I made mine about 4' long to get the sled away from the wheeler some. I also bought some rubber washers that I put rope first that went between the sled and the conduit to protect the sled from being scratched up from the pipe although I doubt this would happen. I also bought new rope so I could reuse the factory rope if I ever wanted to use it again. Size of rope does not matter, I used strong, smaller diameter rope so it fit throught the conduit very easily. By doing this I had to tie the rope to something on the other side of the sled to prevent the knot from being pulled through the hole. I think I used a bolt so it would go in but wouldn't be pulled out, you could use a fender washer or pretty much anything. Hope this helps, it is a very quick way to get a nice functioning hitch that beats pulling the sled with a rope and tipping it over or having it hit the tires of your atv causing damage to the sled.

[titelines]

I also use the PVC method. Just two pieces of equal length PVC (probably about 4'), one on each side. A little bit of open rope in the middle, and I picked up a simple (but sturdy) carbiner at k. Depot that it big enough to hook to my ATV hitch and the rear bar on the snowmobile. Very cheap and easy. By using the rope that came with my Yukon, it cost less than $15. On the inside of the sled, just tie a quick hitch, and burn the knot and frayed ends...it won't unravel or come off.

[1lkstage]

I just used 1" square tubing and a few double nutted bolts.

On the Voyager sled, I cut 4 pcs of angle iron as bracket with a 1/4" plate running the width of the sled. I made this all out of alum. Quick on and off, and folds right up.

Lonnie

[hondarider550]

Your hitch looks great 1lkstage!! Very professional looking and it looks like it is very handy for storage...

[Dave S]

Your hitch looks great 1lkstage!! Very professional looking and it looks like it is very handy for storage...

No kidding.

1lk,

you work in metal fab in the kato area?

[1lkstage]

Work?? If thats what you want to call it. EMC, Machine shop not fab.

Thanks for the comments guys.

Lonnie

[Dave S]

By looking at your hitch, I figured you had to be in a metal trade of some sort.

The hitch looked like it was possibly laser cut, machined or cut on a wire EDM.

[1lkstage]

Hand ground

[Johnsonator]

Looks great, I don't think my metal working skills are up to that.

[Carpenter]

i had rigged one up using metal conduit bolted together to form a "V". The point hooked up to the wheeler and the ends hooked up to the sled. this worked well and I could even back up the sled into the garage. BUT one of the attachments on the sled broke this weekend (i was stuck) and now I'm going to use the conduit/rope method. should work better and will be easier to hook up no matter what wheeler is used. thanks for the info!!!

[Stradic]

Do you use 2 pieces of PVC or one? Do you cut it just so that there's only a few inches of rope protruding through the pipe to attach to your wheeler and the PVC is tight against your sled? Sorry for the questions but I'm just trying to picture this. Does anyone have a pic they could post???

Thanks

[titelines]

I use two pieces of PVC, equal lengths on each side. I have about 2-3 inches of open space between them for the carbiner, which hooks to the ATV or sled.

[Chode2235]

The carabiner is a great idea. I hate dealing with that pin and key at the end of the day when everything is all frozen up.