Modular hard sided ice house.

I work for Orion Hunting Products. We manufacture a modular hard sided deer blind. It’s an 8 sided blind made from insulated aluminum panels that is designed to ship disassembled and be installed by the customer. It takes less than 15 minutes to put the blind together and is rated to 70+ mph winds and 100# per square foot snow load. This was our first full year of distribution and we have had tremendous success.

Since we started developing the modular blind concept I have wanted to make an ice house using our modular design but we haven’t had time to work on it. During rifle season I was talking to Jake at Archery Country and he pushed me to compromise and develop a replacement floor that could be used to convert the blind into an ice house and be dual purpose. I realized that was a great option and sat down to draw out a preliminary design and pitched it to the boss. He decided it was worth pursuing and we built our first prototype yesterday. We came up with a couple tweaks last night and version number two will be done and painted today. I’m hoping to get it tomorrow or Monday to start doing some testing on it. It is on runners so it can be pulled out on the lake is set up with four catch cover holes installed and allows two fisherman to sit kitty corner from each other and have plenty of room for electronics, heater, etc.

I thought I would come on here and test the interest in the concept. What do you guys think? Anything that is a must have I should be thinking about?

Our website is http://www.huntorion.com if you want to look at the blinds to get a better idea about the blinds. I will post some pictures of the floor/skid shortly.

Thanks.

This will already have skids. This concept will be applied to our 6×6 blinds but could be modified to almost any configuration due the modular design. This first kick at the cat turns a $3299 deer blind into a $4299 combination ice house and deer blind.

I have thought about blacking the windows out (or having fewer/none in the case of a unit specific for ice fishing), spearing hole, and different hole configurations as well.

I’m pretty excited about the project. I think it would be a great alternative to the much more expensive Ice Castle type set ups. Obviously it can’t have all the features of those units, but a great option that doesn’t cost $20k or more.

Thanks guys.

the two fishermen will be on opposite sides with the holes they are fishing in front of them and the other holes next to them. Here is a picture of the floor yesterday during assembly. I need to get it put together on with the walls and sit in it with a rod, chair, etc. to evaluate spacing. I think the holes may need to be farther away from the fisherman but that is a very simple change in CAD to make.

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The blinds are intended to be either permanent once set up or to be “portable” and be able to be taken down and set up when necessary such as going on a hunt out of state, before the season/taken down at the end of season, changing leases, etc.

In the case of the ice house, I would anticipate that these would be either be set up at the fishing location or at the landing and then towed out from there. Although we have done some testing and are comfortable rating them for 70 mph winds, I am not certain if it will be suitable for being pulled on a trailer behind a truck for long distances consistently due to the additional bouncing and getting banged around. We will have to due some testing to make sure there aren’t any durability issues. Will additional strapping, I am not at all worried.

6’6″ inside hight.

This floor is carpeted like our blinds. I would anticipate changing to something different when we finalize the design. My first thought is something similar the textured flooring in boats.

We have use the frame to support around the floors so it only makes sense to have the runners in conjunction with the frame.