I had an old car top carrier so I used the bottom part of the shell to build my sled. It has a top frame made from furring strips to keep things from moving around.
The inside of the bottom is reinforced with furring strips running lengthwise. They fit into the grooves precast into the base.
Then four 1 X 4 are on the outside of the base width wise. These are screwed through into the inside furring strips. These four 1 X 4 set on top of the removable ski frame. I drilled slightly oversize holes for the metal studs that are on the ski frame. The studs are the type that are 1/2 lag bolt type thread and 1/2 machine screw thread. This allows me to use fender washers and wing nuts to lock the 4 studs to the top 1/2 of the sled.
The skis are sanded and marine epoxied to the bottom of the sled risers. Then bolted in place with 2 inch wide corner braces from Ace Hardware. The screws bolting the braces are cut so the do not come out of the bottom of the skis. The screws are also epoxied into the skis.
Making it in two sections makes it easier to place in my car. It is sized so the skies are against the interior sides of my SUV and the tips are touching the folded up seat back, and the edge of rear hatch molding.
This locks the sled in place. I have to unload the sled before removing it from my vehicle, but since every thing is cased or crated, this does not take much time at all.
It is amazing to pull. Once you give it a light tug to start it moving, it slides so easy that in testing, I could pull it with just 2 fingers.
The crates hold my flasher, tackle, tip ups and rods, and 100 feet of soft nylon anchor line attached to a float with a loop as a safety rope. The crate can be lifted from the sled, set and set on the ice. Then when the float is thrown, it self coils out of the crate.
I made a folding foam floor for my 2 man hub style shelter. It folds in half so it slides under the sled and rests on top of the frame attached to the skis.
The sled is elevated by a 2 x 6 and then 2 x 3. This prevents having to pull it through the snow as the skis allow it to keep on top of the snow.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2015, 10:07:09 PM by Fisnfool »
When fish are in schools, they sometimes take debate.
