New Ice House, Axles Stuck (Pics Included)

Hi guys,

Just bought a 2014 Gulf Stream Ice Haven 8X16 fish house and got it home. First thing I did was attempt to lower it to the ground since I wanted to make sure everything was in working order before taking it out on the ice. After raising the jacks and taking the pins out on each side, I began lowering the house down. The buttons to lower these houses are right inside the door, so I was able to watch the axle drop with no issues.

Went around to check out the other side and the axle had not dropped at all. I went back and raised the other side back up and now the axle is also stuck, but in the up position:

This house is basically brand new, but was used a few times last year as a rental. My guess is that it was never greased and they are just stuck.

I was able to get grease to go in the zerk on the side the wheel actually moved, but still can’t get the wheel to go down.

Here is a good example of how the Ice haven jacks work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOP_kNTpeb4 (this is from firebrand, but basically the same setup)

I’m sure I will have to take the axle/spindle apart, but have heard it can be hard and there is a possibility of bending the axle.

I cannot take at to a shop anywhere as the wheel will not go back down in place, so right now its sitting on the jacks in my yard.

Please let me know any tips/tricks/suggestions you guys might have on repairing this.

Thanks in advance.

Have you tried to heat up the pivot point?
A little WD-40 and tap with a hammer?
Maybe get a bottle jack and try and push it up or down.
Otherwise call the Manufacturer… you’d think it be a warranty thing if it completely took a crap.

Or maybe there is a safety to the system, you have to drop it all the way to disengage/ release it?

Those appear to be stub axles and are basically a steel pipe within a steel pipe. Road grime can cause them to bind, or if left sitting rust will do the same…maybe even ice. Can you take the elevated wheel and grab it and push it up and down? Something is binding and I bet it’s corrosion from sitting since last year…unless you tried it while purchasing it recently, and it worked then, good luck. Let us know what you find out.

ps0345 wrote:

Have you tried to heat up the pivot point?
A little WD-40 and tap with a hammer?
Maybe get a bottle jack and try and push it up or down.
Otherwise call the Manufacturer… you’d think it be a warranty thing if it completely took a crap.

Or maybe there is a safety to the system, you have to drop it all the way to disengage/ release it?

Thanks for the quick response.

-I have tried heating up the pivot point, but it was very cold out when I tried and I had no success.
-Have not tried wd-40 yet, but it is a very large pivot point and I’m not sure if it’d be possible for the wd-40 to make its way inside.
-I did try to jack the other side up(the side the wheel is in the down position) and it just lifted the entire house. I mean this is kind of the same thing as just raising the jacks on the house as all the weight goes onto the tire.
-I’ve looked underneath and I don’t see any type of safety system, but I could be wrong. This still wouldn’t explain why the other side of the house doesn’t drop though.
-I read the book that came with the house, there is a 1 year warranty on pretty much everything, and a 2 year warranty on the frame/structural stuff. I don’t think something like this would be covered as nothing appears to be broken….yet anyway.

StormyNY wrote:

Why would you come here and not call the manufacture first ?

I’m waiting to hear back from the dealer that sold it to me. I was told the head service technician was going to give me a call and “make this right.” So we will see.

I would have just taken it back in and I’m sure they would have taken it all apart and greased it up for me, but with the wheels stuck how they are it cannot be moved.

castle-rock-clown wrote:

Those appear to be stub axles and are basically a steel pipe within a steel pipe. Road grime can cause them to bind, or if left sitting rust will do the same…maybe even ice. Can you take the elevated wheel and grab it and push it up and down? Something is binding and I bet it’s corrosion from sitting since last year…unless you tried it while purchasing it recently, and it worked then, good luck. Let us know what you find out.

Yeah I hear this sort of thing is pretty common on Ice Castles as well if they are not properly greased.

I am almost certain it is corrosion after looking at it pretty close and reading about this happening to other people.

I guess what I’m mainly looking for here is, how should I go about getting these axles off of the pivot point if I am not even able to move them up and down by hand? The one side did move up when i put the weight of the ice house on it, and it also did take some grease in the zerk, so maybe that one will not be as bad.

I kind of want to do this myself as well because I will most likely be doing it on occasion as I do not want this to happen again in the future.

Thanks again guys.

Is it possible to back it up or move the the trailer ahead slightly in case the shafts are sitting at a slight angle which may release some pressure if the shafts aren’t aligned straight up and down?

If the unit Isnt completely level and it sitting at an angle and then raised, it could see where the shafts could be binding against each other

+++How to drop the axle when they are frozen up. You basically need to anchor the arm down, here is a method that should work.
-Put the trailer back down on ground.
-Use a log chain and go around something solid on the pivot arm, preferably on the shackle end for leverage.
-keeping the chain as tight as possible run it down to ground then straight out away from the house.
– then pull drive your front tire of your truck onto the chain as close to the house as you can get.
– now when you lift the house with the jacks it “should” pull the frozen arm down as the house is lifted.
– if you run out of lift distance block the house up and then retract the jack and put a block under the jack to then lift it higher.

Ideally a ground anchor or bobcat,tractor or any implement with hydraulics would be easiest way to hold the pivot arm down but I am assuming you don’t have one since you have not thought of that yet?

It’s a bit hard to say without a better view but I think I’d place some sort of saw horse between the jack and wheel and lower it down onto the saw horse to hold it against the ground. Then I’d use a heavy duty ratchet strap wrapped around the arm and looped around the saw horse. Under the saw horse I’d place a bottle jack that can be used to push down on the ratchet strap and bring the wheel’s arm downward.

Hope that made sense. I think it just might work.

These are very good suggestions, and I will probably give them a shot if I need to, but they also do not solve the overall problem of the trailer being able to do it by itself when I take it out on the ice to go fishing. This may help me get the axles broke loose enough to get them off though.

I do not have a tractor/bobcat to use, but i do have a chain and a 4-ton hand cable puller. Just not sure where to hook some of this up as there is not a lot of room on either side of the house. The house is currently sitting about 3 ft away from the property line fence.

I wont have time to really work on it until this weekend but thanks for the suggestions.

Take the tire off, take than fender off, place 2×4 on axle arm, and hit with sledge and I bet it will come down. After getting it trailerable get it to dealer and have them make it right. Every spring I would remove stubs and clean / recoat with waterproof grease.

castle-rock-clown wrote:

Take the tire off, take than fender off, place 2×4 on axle arm, and hit with sledge and I bet it will come down. After getting it trailerable get it to dealer and have them make it right. Every spring I would remove stubs and clean / recoat with waterproof grease.

Good idea there. If it were mine, I would probably leave it hooked to the tow vehicle, get two bottle jacks and jack up the center of the trailer taking the pressure off the cylinders. From there you should be able to work with the cylinders much easier as there will be no stress on them. I would grease the heck out of them and maybe us a floor jack underneath them and force them up when the lift motor is engaged.

castle-rock-clown wrote:

Take the tire off, take than fender off, place 2×4 on axle arm, and hit with sledge and I bet it will come down. After getting it trailerable get it to dealer and have them make it right. Every spring I would remove stubs and clean / recoat with waterproof grease.

This is a very good idea, thank you.

steuben1 wrote:

Good idea there. If it were mine, I would probably leave it hooked to the tow vehicle, get two bottle jacks and jack up the center of the trailer taking the pressure off the cylinders. From there you should be able to work with the cylinders much easier as there will be no stress on them. I would grease the heck out of them and maybe us a floor jack underneath them and force them up when the lift motor is engaged.

The wheels on these only move on the pivot point by gravity, there is no motor to make the axles go up and down. Thanks

One product that is in my truck at all times if called PB Blaster…

This stuff with unstick just about anything..

Not that this is your solution.. but just a note to maybe pick up a can and keep it with..

Hook a standard ratchet strap to the end of the leaf spring then to the frame and tighten it up and it should pull it down and just keep resetting the strap and repeating until its down to get the pin in.

If that doesn’t make it move just get good tension on it with the ratchet strap and whack the end of the lift arm with a hammer and the tension from the strap to the spring should work it down when its hit.

If you can get them down and pins in the shackles driving around should work the grease in if you can then grease through the zerks. Grease very often!

Update guys….

Had about 30 minutes to take a look at it today and was able to get the wheel and fender off:

And here you can see where the axle needs to drop down to:

This is also the side where you can see I was able to get grease in the zerk:

I did take a smaller and a 2×4 to it, but it would not budge, I might just need a bigger mallet though. I would have tried ratchet straps, but they are in my wife’s vehicle and she has it at work. There’s not a ton of room to get any sort of leverage with straps. Not really any good place to hook a strap to below the leaf spring. The frame may work, but its not really a straight shot either…

Alright guys,

I went to menards and bought a big sledge hammer and was able to get the side that was stuck all the way up back down and got the pin in.

The other side would not budge with a sledge hammer. For this side I took a really long steel poll and put it between the rotating assembly and the frame. I put a bunch of weight on it and was able to get it to move.

Now I have the pins in both sides to I can at least tow it and get the work done to it in the shop. Thanks for all the help everyone!

sounds good, you should be enjoying it in no time.

i would return it. sounds like you got hosed

that sounds a little presumptuous. The guy has to weigh whether he possibly saved some money by buying a lightly used vehicle as he stated in his post or, if he bought it being told it was brand new and in pristine condition. I believe if you save some money and they are willing to make it right then keep it and enjoy it.

Hey I have this same issue with my fish house. Im just wondering how you got them off I have been working on it for a week now. Any help would be greatly Appreciated.

Thanks

A lightly used house is also probably a lightly maintained house. Take the whole assembly apart every summer, or at least every other year, and clean and grease everything. I’t the best insurance you can get. You’re lucky you weren’t out on a lake away from home when they rusted together.There are nightmare posts on here about how expensive that can get. I am personally not a fan of electric jacks either, they are just too exposed to grime and corrosion. The 2 speed winches and a drill set up like I C Nutz is pretty dependable and just as easy. Just my 2 cents, glad you’re on the way to recovery.