Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! > Ice Fishing Transportation

Snowmobile Transformation into an Ice Fishing Machine

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T-Hawker:
Getting close to wrapping up a summer/fall project converting my 96 Skidoo 440 fan 2-up into an efficient hard water machine.  Goals when I started were a front auger carrier, large storage box, place to haul my rod case and be able to mount my Humminbird Helix 9 to the handlebars.  Nearly all of the metal I used was repurposed from an old tweaked ladder tree stand I had laying around and a couple sections of some heavier wall stair handrail.  One other goal was to have the auger rack and storage box be quickly removeable.  I believe I was successful in achieving all of my goals.



Starting to fab up the rear rack.


Fab continues.  Used a grinder with a cut-off wheels and a MIG welder to tack everything together.  Friend of mine did the finish TIG welding on the thin wall tube.


Decided to build a frame under the storage box for extra support and to allow me to use quick release pins to allow the box (with frame bolted to it) to be quickly removed from the rear rack.



Here's the frame under the storage box.





To mount my Humminbird Helix 9 to the handle bars, I bought an extra mounting bracket from Humminbird and then bent and drilled some flatbar to allow me to attach the flatbar and mount to the handlebar clamp bolts.


I power the Helix from the snowmobile battery with a 2 prong connector attached to a Humminbird power cord.  The same 2 prong connector doubles as my plug in for my Battery Tender maintainer.


Decided to use the stock bumper attaching bolts to secure the lower auger carrier brackets to the belly pan on the snowmobile.  I would have preferred something more beefy but there just was not much steel support going to the belly pan.  I figure if the bumper can lift the entire front of the snowmobile, hopefully the bolts can hold up a 20# auger and 5# auger mount.


Used some Kolpin "grips" to securely hold the handles on my Ion auger and take the majority of the augers's weight.


After using a flapper disk to remove most of paint from the tree stand material, I gave everything a couple of coats of primer and a couple of coats of textured black paint.  In hindsight I wish I would have used truck bed liner but I was concerned about the coating thickness not allowing parts to slide together. 


Mounted the rear rack to the tunnel with a total of (6) 8mm bolts.


Bought a used red hood in really good condition to replace the stock hood that was cracked and scratched up pretty bad.  Removed the original decals and went with more ice fishing specific decals.


I put some stubby legs with black plastic push-in plugs so the storage box has something to set on when it's not on the snowmobile other than the mounting tabs.


Using a simple rubber strap to complement the grips that hold the handles of my Ion auger.  I slid fuel line over the hooks on the rubber strap to prevent the hooks from scratching up the auger mount and to reduce the chance of the strap sliding around.


Fabbed a small channel for the auger shaft and used foam and electrical tape until the shaft fit snugly in the channel.




Added some decals from my favorite ice fishing brands.


By pulling 2 pins from the auger mount and 4 pins from the rear box, the sled trims down quickly for trailering.






I used (4) snowmobile hood latch style rubber snubbers to securely attach my hard rod case to the top lid of the storage box.  The rubber straps stay mounted to the rear box and the only mod to the rod case was adding 4 small pins on which the rubber straps "catch".


I mounted a 3 rod holder to the side of the rear box.  I slotted the holders to better fit the short handled ice fishing rods.  I had to mount the rod case a couple of inches off center so it did not interfere with the rods in the rod holder.


Cargo box completely blocks the original tail/brake light that was on the rear of the seat.  I made a black panel to cover the area where the tail/brake light was originally installed.  I then wired up a slim LED tail/brake like and mounted it to a cross member of the rear rack.  I modified a hitch I bought that bolted onto the stock rear bumper and modified it to weld to the new rear frame.  I bought an Eskape 2600 flip over shelter for this season.


I may try to figure out a small "emergency supplies" box to tuck inside the rack, under the rear storage box.

Baetis62:
Nice Job T!  Ice can't be too far away up there

bart:
Very nice job! Looks like quality workmanship!

The only thing I might question is the placement of the tow hitch, it is positioned at the furthest rearward and highest point of the rear rack. It may not be an issue but it may add additional stress to the rack and effect the ride of the sled depending on the weight of the shanty and contents in the box? Most tow hitches I have seen are low and tight to the sled.

BTW, the ice fishing decals are a nice touch.

Great Ice Fishing Machine!

iceman260:
Nice job on the snow machine, looks nice you are ready to go.

cwavs1982:
Impressive setup and designs.  Always appreciate the guys that can fab up something! 

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