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Author Topic: Smitty sled  (Read 702 times)

Offline trout hounder

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Smitty sled
« on: Jan 15, 2019, 07:39 PM »
What kinda skis r you using for your smitty sled
if it bites I chase it

Offline missoulafish

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Re: Smitty sled
« Reply #1 on: Jan 15, 2019, 07:43 PM »
Powder skis

Offline pmmpete

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Re: Smitty sled
« Reply #2 on: Jan 15, 2019, 09:51 PM »
A pair of skis has a lot less drag or friction on the snow than a plastic Otter-Style sled or a toboggan.  "Smitty Sleds" are popular because they are easier to drag around in the snow than a plastic sled or a toboggan.  Any old downhill skis will work fine for a Smitty sled.  You should be able to acquire an old pair of downhill skis for free. 

Skis with a lot of camber, i.e. skis which curve up from the snow in the area where the binding was mounted, and which hit the snow primarily at the tip and tail, will produce a sled which is difficult to turn.  In many snow conditions you may need to pick the tips or the tail of the skis up off the snow in order to turn the sled.  However, if you put a board such as a 2x4 on top of each ski, and then screw the front and the back of the ski to the board, you can bend the ski so the center of the ski is lower than its tip and tail, and the tip and the tail of the skis are raised off the snow a little bit.  A sled with the skis bent in this manner, reversing the normal camber of the ski, will be a lot easier to turn.

The first picture below shows my Smitty Sled in action.  The second picture shows how I constructed the Smitty Sled.  The third picture shows how I spaced the skis far enough apart on my Smitty Sled so my plastic Otter sled fits between the skis when I'm transporting them.  If the pictures don't appear in the post, and all you see is a black square with an "X" in it, click on each black square to see the picture.






Offline lundin-loading

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Re: Smitty sled
« Reply #3 on: Jan 16, 2019, 12:18 PM »
Put together a super simple smitty last week, made the long walk out so much more efficient, 6$ 2x6 and 7$ skis invested, used it once now ice is good enough for wheeler!

 



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