Author Topic: Mods to Portable Almost Complete (Lights, Seats, Stereo, Storage...) with pics (Read 15280 times)

Gordo · « **on:** Dec 02, 2010, 04:27 PM »

Well, after a lot of thought, many hours working on it, and a bit of money - my buddy and I have almost completed our modifications to my portable (Eskimo Eskape 300). Here is what we did:

LIGHTS - I ordered two 18" long LED strips from besthongkong with the intent of putting them on the overhead poles like I have seen a number of people do. I was a little leery of running the wires through the poles though, it seemed like eventually it could lead to problems. I also decided that these things were almost too bright to be looking at. After staring at my house long enough, I had the idea of mounting them to the bottom of the seat rail. I think they will work out great. They give off plenty of light to light up our holes, and wont blind us from our seats.

STEREO, FAN, WIRE BOX, & TUB LIGHT - We needed a spot to make all of our wire connections, so we (mostly my buddy) built a box that mounts to the back of the seat rail, and it also houses a car stereo and a computer fan on the top of the box, and a light on the back to light up the sled for when we need to grab something. My portable is not insulated, so we are hoping the computer fan blowing up will create enough air flow to cut down on condensation. The stereo also has an input for our iPods. We ran the wires for the speakers, and antenna on the bottom of the storage tub under the seats.

Eskimos have a large rain gutter like storage area under the seats. We utilized that area to mount speakers on each end. Mount the battery. And placed the toggle switches to turn everything on right in the middle of the seats.

Battery Mount & Left Speaker

Toggle Switches

BOAT SEAT

The bench seats that come with the Eskimo are not real comfortable for big guys like us, so we are going with boat seats. We took the cover off of the existing bench seat, removed the padding, shortened the board a little, recovered it, and mounted the boat seat on it with a swivel. The seat will still flip forward to allow access to the storage tub underneath. We still have to add a seat on the other side, and we will be done.

HOIST

Finally, we needed a better way to store the house when not in use, to keep it out of the way. I ordered a canoe hoist from Amazon that is rated for 125 lbs. We tried hooking it directly to the eye bolts on each end of the sled, but it was flexing the plastic. So we ended up building a carriage for it and attached chains to the hoist to raise it up.

jasond37 · « **Reply #1 on:** Dec 02, 2010, 05:48 PM »

I think that is a great mounting position for the lights, let us know how it works out. I also think the wires through the poles would lead to problems, that is why I have never done it myself. Boat seats are the way to go...I removed the plastic seats in my Otter and put my big man camo boat seats in there.

wiredstone · « **Reply #2 on:** Dec 02, 2010, 05:55 PM »

Sweet

big jim callahan · « **Reply #3 on:** Dec 03, 2010, 08:40 AM »

Nice way to store it Keep the Mice away from it and out of the way of the Wife and kids way Cool

openingact · « **Reply #4 on:** Dec 03, 2010, 09:03 AM »

sweet setup!

justfine · « **Reply #5 on:** Dec 03, 2010, 10:13 AM »

nice mods

Perch tugger · « **Reply #6 on:** Dec 03, 2010, 10:38 AM »

That looks great let us know how it works and if the fan blows enough to help keep the condensation down.
When are you going into production?

scavengerj · « **Reply #7 on:** Dec 03, 2010, 10:43 AM »

Very, very nice mods indeed!!

ryder29 · « **Reply #8 on:** Dec 03, 2010, 10:45 AM »

Great work!!

JIGGIN- · « **Reply #9 on:** Dec 03, 2010, 02:27 PM »

Nice job to you and your buddy!

You guys will be styling out there this season. Pimped out portable!

JIGGIN.

beeverfishing · « **Reply #10 on:** Dec 03, 2010, 02:51 PM »

Great Job....

Gordo · « **Reply #11 on:** Dec 03, 2010, 07:17 PM »

Thanks everyone. He hasn't posted in this thread yet, but my buddy just joined the board as well, so welcome to The Ice Shanty Puggie.

hamiltonmike · « **Reply #12 on:** Dec 03, 2010, 07:34 PM »

sweet setup man!!! i like the lights and the deck. have you tested to see how long the battery will fun the cd player?

chucknduck · « **Reply #13 on:** Dec 04, 2010, 06:39 AM »

I'm also curious how long that battery will run your sterio. I need to rig something up that runs a sirius radio so I can listen to the football games. I'm thinking a battery to run the sirius and using the dewalt 18v jobsite radio. Nice job on your setup

$ignmoney · « **Reply #14 on:** Dec 04, 2010, 09:46 PM »

Yea very nice set up!

I use my boat battery for radio,lights and camera and after 6-8 hours outings haven't lost more than 1/2 power. It would be interesting to see how long a small battery lasts

Gordo · « **Reply #15 on:** Dec 05, 2010, 12:37 AM »

We haven't had it out on the ice yet since these mods, but should be soon. I will let you guys know how things work out, particularly the battery. It is a Vex 9AH battery. I am planning on having a spare battery ready as well.

scmelik · « **Reply #16 on:** Dec 05, 2010, 09:07 AM »

Nice mods, I have been thinking of doing something similar with mine, lights, toggle switches, radio. But I am going to take mine one step further I think and compartmentalize it with rod holders, a place for the vex, cooler, heater, tackle boxes, etc. That way you don't have stuff rolling all over the place making a mess.

walleyeboater · « **Reply #17 on:** Dec 05, 2010, 09:48 PM »

Bout the only thing missing is a hot tub!!
Sweet.

Buckeye John · « **Reply #18 on:** Dec 17, 2010, 04:01 PM »

One h--- of a job guys!!!

LAKEGEORGEJEFF · « **Reply #19 on:** Jan 25, 2011, 04:08 PM »

Very Nice!

oc · « **Reply #20 on:** Jan 25, 2011, 06:10 PM »

Nicely done!! The location of those LEDs is gonna be great I'm thinkin, alot better than just overhead.

mr_mojo · « **Reply #21 on:** Jan 25, 2011, 09:35 PM »

I like that stereo setup a lot.

peon · « **Reply #22 on:** Sep 10, 2011, 02:50 PM »

i was wondering how the battery held up with the radio? i got a cd player mounted in a small dinner bucket/ cooler for work and was wondering about adding wires and a battery for my ice fishing adventures.....

Gordo · « **Reply #23 on:** Sep 11, 2011, 12:03 AM »

Quote from: peon on Sep 10, 2011, 02:50 PM

i was wondering how the battery held up with the radio? i got a cd player mounted in a small dinner bucket/ cooler for work and was wondering about adding wires and a battery for my ice fishing adventures.....

Worked pretty well. I can't give you an exact length of time, because there are quite a few variables (lights, fan...), but I was out a couple of times that it lasted for at least 6 hours or so. Only once did I ever need to switch over to my 2nd battery, and that was the night that I camped in the portable on the ice, and it was about -15F.

peon · « **Reply #24 on:** Sep 11, 2011, 04:25 AM »

Good deal, thanks for sharing your mods. I will probably add a light to mine too and the fan couldn't hurt.

wyatt_8 · « **Reply #25 on:** Dec 02, 2011, 02:07 PM »

Nice looking lights Gordo. Wondering if you had any issues with shadows with them mounted at that level versus overhead?

Gordo · « **Reply #26 on:** Dec 02, 2011, 03:34 PM »

Quote from: wyatt_8 on Dec 02, 2011, 02:07 PM

Nice looking lights Gordo. Wondering if you had any issues with shadows with them mounted at that level versus overhead?

No, they are very bright and run almost all the way across the sled so that there is enough light even with two sets of legs in front of them that shadows are not a problem.

wyatt_8 · « **Reply #27 on:** Dec 02, 2011, 04:41 PM »

Thanks Gordo, that is exactly what I was wondering and great to hear. It looks like a much more straight forward setup than overhead.

Goatskin · « **Reply #28 on:** Dec 03, 2011, 02:01 AM »

Those are some sweet mods. The hoist for your garage is pretty sweet too!

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Author Topic: Mods to Portable Almost Complete (Lights, Seats, Stereo, Storage...) with pics (Read 15280 times)