Wilcraft

Interesting write up in today’s St Paul Pioneer Press.

Wilcraft

-J.

To add to Dave’s article, I had the pleasure (and shock) to ride with Don Lincoln out on Pool #3 a few years back.

I’ll never forget the local fells face when he said…” I’ve lived here since 1979 and have never seen anyone on THAT ice! It can be frozen in the morning and open by noon.”.

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I’m surprised they are still around. They must have found a commercial niche because regular guys aren’t buying them.

What is the general cost, website does not list it…

Last I checked with Santa Don, between $8k and $14k. Demo to decked out.

Figure the price of a wheeler and a portable and they’re in line. Plus I hear wheelers sink.

Wheelers generally float, upside down, once the driver falls off into the icy water.

It would be great to have one. You could really tick some people off who are waiting for first safe ice. Not just because they’d be hating, but you could also bust up the ice when you were done.

Will those things actually go through an inch of ice and still be able to move forward? Like a mini ice breaker?

When Don and I were in one of the cuts on Pool 3, I know we were on less then an inch of ice.

I would never have tried to walk on it.

I’m just wondering if it does break through can you get out of that hole or are you floating and stranded?

will not keep going like an “icebreaker”

but you’re not stranded … it WILL climb out of the water back up onto the ice

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I’m just wondering if it does break through can you get out of that hole or are you floating and stranded?

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It backs out of the hole

Watch the video in the above link that JJ posted

N Hudson bingo going yet?

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I’m surprised they are still around. They must have found a commercial niche because regular guys aren’t buying them.

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not regular guys … “special” guys

mostly sportsmen getting them for fishing and hunting
distribution accross the ice belt is spread out from Montana to Connecticut; quite a few went to SD within the last couple yrs
building enough to keep two guys busy

Sweet.

Very cool, but I can buy a car for that kind of coin. Now if I won the lotto or a long lost relative died and left me a bunch of $$$$.

So true Nutz. If you want a car, that’s what a person should buy.

If a person wants a portable and a wheeler to pull it…well add those together and it’s….well, the price of a car! LOL!

it’s all a matter of toy priorities
I know plenty of guys who have boats which cost that much or waayyy more who only use the boat from mid may to mid sept (4 months)
I am on the ice most yrs from late Nov to late April (five months) … plus I use the Wilcraft with a trolling motor on it in small lakes and ponds all summer then take it duck hunting in the fall
every toy has its use(s); every toy has the market(s) it appeals to

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it’s all a matter of toy priorities
I know plenty of guys who have boats which cost that much or waayyy more who only use the boat from mid may to mid sept (4 months)
I am on the ice most yrs from late Nov to late April (five months) … plus I use the Wilcraft with a trolling motor on it in small lakes and ponds all summer then take it duck hunting in the fall
every toy has its use(s); every toy has the market(s) it appeals to

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you sound like a wilcraft salesman??/

Cash … American

you ever connive kim and rick at highbanks to get one????

unfortunately haven’t made it back there in a while!

How much snow can they navigate?

I was under the impression they were pretty much a very early and very late ice vehicle.

It depends on the type of snow and how it’s rigged.

Utilizing its unique features to your advantage, you will find it to have more snow ability than that of an ATV. The ability to retract the front tires, thus using the nose of the Wilcraft as a ski, combined with its light footprint is the key.