Customizing your portable shelter

[Jig stick]

Lets here how some have customized there portables,lights, seats,and such.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I have a frabill XLTwin, love it.. love how fast it sets up.. the fact that its black for sight fishing.. ect...

Now what have I done... Under the seats I have PVC pipes that run back at an angle with groves cut in them... I can rig 4 poles with reels and have them on the ready and totally safe from getting broke...I have mesh pockets that my wife made for holding the metal ice fly containers hanging from the seat, so they are ready to get at... I rigged a piece of wood in the house to hold the ice auger while trasporting, and then have a place to set the heater in the sled during fishing if its a warm day or I can put it in front of me on a cooler day... I have one of them Buddie heaters. Works like a charm for me.. am excited to hear what others have done!

[Seabass77]

My wife is helping me with what I can a rod and tackle station. I picked up a couple of linear yards of cordura type fabric, which we will sew into a 3’ x 5’ rectangle. On the 3’ side, I am putting snaps or Velcro (haven’t decided yet), which will hang on the inside of my voyageur on the back horizontal pole. Starting from the top down, there are four sleeves that will hold 1.5” diameter PVC tubes that I cut 5” L shapes out of to hold my rods. Below these rod sleeves, I am going to put two pockets, 10” x 12”, on top of each other. On the other side, I am going to attach two more snaps or Velcro to attach my little Sony radio to. Actually, now that I think about it, it might make more sense to have the bulk of the weight on the bottom, so I might put the PVC on the bottom and the pockets on top, anyway, you get the idea.

[Gissert]

I have an older otter set up. I made some cutsom seats out of cedar. I also have a three element LED light array that can be placed on velcro strips around the inside of the canvas. This light is wired to an aircraft ELT battery, and is controlled by a toggle switch.

I made a rig to pull it with out of chain an one inch PVC. The PVC is rigid enough to keep the tub from banging into my quad or snomobile when pulling, but is flexible enough to flop the whole works back on top of the tub when stowed.

I have also made some mods to my quad in conjunction with my fish house. The front rack has a rack I made out of inch and a half PVC that will snugly hold three five gallon buckets.

The back rack will soon get a rack extender/assembly that will hold the tub securely. This way, I can have everything loaded on the quad, and when I roll it off the back of the truck, there will be no messing around with gear.

[Guest]

I have a Fish Trap II that I've modified a bit. I built a better and more comfortable seating system. Built out of wood that is detachable for easy transport. Seat/bench has thick carpet on it to provide comfort. I also attached some rod holders that can come off. I added carpet to the bottom of the inside of the house as well. I plan on adding a lighting system soon as well. Last year I rigged up a mount for my Vexilar that will attach directly to the ice house so there is no porblem with it getting in the way. I put it below me so I can still pay attention to the hole and see the screen at the same time.

Whenever I'm bored I'll mess around with the portable. Maybe I'll get to it agian soon.

Good Fishin, Matt.

[Jig stick]

I put in portable lighting,I Bought a VECTOR COMPACT-PRO 12 volt power supply.And a 12 volt floresent shop light that will run for 15 to 18 hours.This model did not come with buit in inverter.So I got a 200 watt Coleman inverter and velcrowed it to the front of the vector to make it AC-DC to hook up potable radio or TV to watch football game. Then I took a plastic stadium seat that folds down and mounted that to a piece of plywood cut to fit on the lid to a six gallon bucket.Then screwed the seat to the plywood, then that to the lid of the bucket. that made it removeable to store equipment.And took 3 pieces of 18 by 18 carpet tile on the floor witch you can remove a piece to put under your feet to make you extra cozy.I'll think of something else but I dont want to over do it. Later on this Jig Stick! By the way this was done to my small OTTER DEN.

[This message has been edited by Jig stick (edited 10-22-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Jig stick (edited 10-26-2002).]

[Jig stick]

Has anyone else customized there shelter? Would like to here more stories.I just bought a Coleman one burner stove to heat up pot of chilli or what ever I need to heat up to eat.And it stores well in the purple propane lantern case minus the 1-lb bottle.
That way it does not get damaged.The 12 volt lighting system that I talked about in my first reply works sooooooooooo good you would love to have it! Real simple idea. Later Jig Stick

[Steve Foss]

Only customizing I've done on my Trap II is to mount old downhill skis underneath on the raised runner sections.

Got em for $3 at an estate sale, drilled holes from the bottom of the skis up through the bottom of the Trap. Then drilled out holes part way through the skis so bolt heads wouldn't stick out. Then just tightened down the nuts and bolts.

We'll see how she goes, just got that done couple weeks ago. Trap II does just fine without them, but that plastic isn't nearly as slick as ski bottoms. And the plastic ends up with grooves and scratches, which makes it harder to pull and wears it out faster.

Oh, I also used sheet metal screws about every 4 to 6 inches to hold the slip-on canvas anchor in place, the strip that keeps the canvas attached to the bottom's back and sides.

[Jig stick]

stfcatfish,I thought about doing that with the otter sled, but I just went ahead and ordered the hyfax runners.Worked out fine. Now I've got one mean machine.Its supposed to make it glide better in the snow.Its amazing what you can do to make it a little more comfortable out in the elements. ><sUMo>----------------><> Jig Stick