otter sled hitch

[smelloftrout]

Does anybody have pics or ideas how to modify the hitch on these sleds to beef them up a bit?

[Baetis62]

I asked the same thing last year and was told I wouldn't really need it so I ordered one on an end of season sale.  It seems pretty stout on my magnum but to be honest I've only been out a few times this year and Ive used neither the Otter Sled or hitch.  I used my old smaller/lighter jet sled on my smitty.   In comparison the Otter seems much stouter and heavier and I'd be surprised if it broke under normal use.  Are you using one that failed?

If you need a fix ...My old Jet Sled hitch failed the first day I used it many years ago but I'm tough on gear.  I ran cable through the conduit arms and snapped beaners into loops formed and secured with two cable clamps at the sled end of each arm. It hasn't failed me in 15 years since I did the rebuild. Having said that the Otter seems bulletproof too but unless I'm hauling out multiple folks on my Foreman the JS holds everything I need and it's lighter by a bunch. 

[Whopper Stopper]

Does anybody have pics or ideas how to modify the hitch on these sleds to beef them up a bit?

Why would you need it beefed up

        WS

[kasilofchrisn]

I have a jet sled not an otter but maybe this will help.
The only thing I have done to mine is add a spring to it so when I take off with my snowmachine it doesn't jerk things so badly.Hopefully this will make the sled and hitch last longer.

[Drifter_016]

On my Frabil sled I made my own hitch out of 3/4" electrical conduit held on to eye bolts anchored to the front of the sled.
I reinforced the front of the sled by sandwiching it between two sheets of 1/8" aluminium.







I'm just finishing up building a 9' Komatik freight sled and I welded up a tow bar for it with a swiveling 4 spring tongue.
Will be installing it tomorrow.

[akdube]

Looks great drifter. And I thought you were just a pencil pusher.

[kasilofchrisn]

Looks great drifter. And I thought you were just a pencil pusher.

Not a pencil pusher but more of a computer geek!

[Drifter_016]

Not a pencil pusher but more of a computer geek!

Yep, computer nerd.
But I have worn many hats over the years. 
Got it finished up today. 

[Whopper Stopper]

Nice Job Drifter! You going to use it for cabin building?

       WS

           

[Drifter_016]

Nice Job Drifter! You going to use it for cabin building?

       WS

         

Yep, I took it out to the lease today.   

[smelloftrout]

Why would you need it beefed up

        WS

I guess what Im getting at is when I bought my flip over shack they didn't have the hitches at cabelas.  The kid at cabelas told me they had a few returned because they break so I was thinking along the lines of building one.  Now I had an otter sled that I destroyed on the second trip around my 100 mile trapline due to a stump but not the sleds fault, but want things to be hell for stout on my otter flip over shack as at the end of my trapline there is a lake very rarely fished with a healthy population of lakers in it.  With that being said I plan to build a uhmw sled around my otter sled as well as the uhmw tongue that I already have done.  After wrecking the otter sled Ive bought two of the siglin style sleds and bent the pindle hitch on my widetrack before I broke the tongue that was flexed extremely hard on my trapping sled so Im sold on that material.  Ive been trapping in temps as cold as -42 f and plan for a worse case scenario if the weather turns them temps while Im out on a fishing trip.