Water Skis or Snow Skis better for sleds

[hays47]

last snow storm of season (hopefully ) blew thru here. So took some pics of two empty sleds. The Otter has water skis and the Jet Sled has snow skis. As you can see by pics. The snow ski equipped jet Sled sinks deeper into the snow. Although the Jet Sled is way lighter than the Otter. earlier this season when we had our extremely short ice season in Ohio this year. The water
skis seemed to pull easier.

Without getting into all the scientific crap about surface tension of liquid versus solid. Or the viscosity of any given material. Remember aerodynamics states that bumblebees should not be able to fly.

Anyway thought this was my idea but wife ( damn her ) reminded me at garage sale of old timer seeing my jetsled. Mentioned using waterskis back in the old days for this purpose.





As plainly shown snoskis do sink deeper into snow so not my imagination. Both make the job of towing easier as opposed to bare tub. Course on bare ice everything pulls easy.  Since the water skis do present a smaller surface area than just the tub by itself it is far easier to pull when snow enters the equation.

[SirCranksalot]

The key is that skis are normally more slippery than whatever krap they make those tubs from. (Lower coefficient of friction if you can tolerate talking physics  . Other things being equal, the less the sled sinks, the better. But things are not equal if you compare a tub bottom to skis, whereas they are close to being equal  between water skis and snow skis. So going from good to better to best with skis is XC skis downhill skis, waterskis.

[hays47]

I think what makes the water skis better. Their greater width support more weight atop the snow. But if the width is carried to extreme say like the whole bottom of tub or perhaps four skis. Then friction on greater surface area overcomes that advantage and starts at some point to hinder rather than help.

Much like when when electrical engineers first amplified sound. Along with the wanted sound or signal noise, was also amplified If amplified too much noise either distorted signal or corrupted it.

So like anything else in life. Tradeoffs have to be made to accomplish the goal of whatever one is attempting.

[rlvb]

The key is that skis are normally more slippery than whatever krap they make those tubs from. (Lower coefficient of friction if you can tolerate talking physics  . Other things being equal, the less the sled sinks, the better. But things are not equal if you compare a tub bottom to skis, whereas they are close to being equal  between water skis and snow skis. So going from good to better to best with skis is XC skis downhill skis, waterskis.

. Are you pulling these from the tub itself or from the ski's??? Can you send views from the front??

[9huskies]

Downhill skis are made to slide on snow powered only by gravity. Waterskis are designed to plane on liquid water powered by a high power internal combustion engine. Properly waxed snow skis should slide easier than water skis. If you want more surface area to ride on top of deep snow, snowboards should be best.

[HardH20Fishin]

Should work...

[perchnut]

ive got a sled with snow skis and one with water skis....and properly waxed, etc, they both do well.  the water skis do ride a little higher for sure.  but I would say over all its kind of mix mox as to which is better.....im just happy to be out there fishing!

[IFF]

For me snow skies, less drag, than a snowboard or water skies.