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Are you all waxing your skiis? If so, how often? I used my Smitty sled for the first time this season in about 4-6" of snow and it was a bear to pull. I don't recall ever having this problem before. I'm wondering how much of an impact increased weight will have or skiis that need a good waxing?
Most Smitty Sleds don't work with flip-over ice shelters, because they hold the ice shelter up in the air. Here are pictures of a Smitty Sled I made for my flip-over ice shelter which has legs that fold down to lower the shelter down to the ice. It works well.An advantage of this design is that a lot of its stability is because (a) the sled is resting on the flat bottoms of the legs when it's high, and on the flat sides of the legs when it's low, and (b) the wide legs are bolted against the sides of the box, which stabilizes the legs against side-to-side wobbling.A disadvantage of this folding Smitty Sled is that the wooden box weighs a lot. Now that I know that the concept works, I'm working on a way to attach the same skis and folding legs directly to my shelter, so I can get rid of the box and reduce the weight of the setup.The reason that I bolted a 2"x2" to the top of each ski, rather than using two short brackets on each ski, is to reverse the camber of the skis. Skis have camber, which means that when they don't have weight on them they contact a flat surface at their tip and tail, and the center is off the surface. This camber makes a Smitty sled hard to turn. By bolting the skis to a 2"x2", I reverse the camber so the center is a bit lower than the tip and tail of the ski, which makes the Smitty sled easier to turn.
Nice build! Does it come apart for transport?Be sure to move the rope down and attach to the ski tips for pulling.
Looking for some input/advice. I was thinking of rigging up some skis under my milwaukee packout roller to try out as run and gun setup. Doubles as a chair and keeps everything together. Would pushing or pulling be best? I figured if pushing, the handle can be a bit of a support for hanging onto. I'll try to have it tilt around 45ºand probably add a rope if pulling is best. Thoughts? I just want something smaller then my big smitty.
Go bigger with the bolt size Rich, I used 1/4" bolts on my smitty and they bent after a few uses.