New Wheel House Owner Tips

Hey just thought we could start sharing tips if anyone has anything good or a question throw it up here.

I heard a lot of issues with heat the last couple of weekends for the brave ones that were out. We figured out if you only open one tank of propane and that tank gets low you will loose heat. Open both and leave them both open through your entire stay.

You can also run the heated tank blankets, but they are spendy. I just put a moving blanket around mine and had no issues last weekend.

Generator freezing up, I know its been brought up before here but build a shelter for it or keep in your pick up box covered. I am using my suv so I took one from Bman and made a plastic tote work as a box for it, works fine.

Anyone else got any?

Good topic.

My friend was on Lacs this weekend and it was freezing. He put his generator in his dog’s plastic dog crate and put a moving blanket over it to keep it warm and it worked.

I read on here where a guy used an oil pan heater under his propane tanks.

Also, I’d say keep your ice house raised, drill the holes, and then lower the ice house. You may or may not need an extension but it stops you from getting ice all over the inside of your shack. If this is bad in anyway please state so.

We did this last weekend and worked great. My friend who’s had an iceshack for 4 years has been doing it without keeping it raised and had to clean ice out of his shack every time.

Good point on the drilling holes first, no problems with doing it, you can drop it halfway also then no hole sleeves are needed. I did hear about the oil pan heater and they would be cheaper than the tank heaters for sure, not sure if there are any draw backs to using it.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Good point on the drilling holes first, no problems with doing it, you can drop it halfway also then no hole sleeves are needed. I did hear about the oil pan heater and they would be cheaper than the tank heaters for sure, not sure if there are any draw backs to using it.

Did see that last week a guy was using a heat lamp on his propane tanks, melted the propane hoses and blew up his shack.

Holy balls thats a bad day.

Here it is.

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Anyone use the HotHands hand warmers on your regulators?

For the tote generator box, do you insulate it? Throw a blanket over or anything?

Yes my regulator froze this last weekend so I lost heat. Placed hand warmers around and blanket around regulator and it unfrozen in 15 minutes.

Jensen wrote:

Yes my regulator froze this last weekend so I lost heat. Placed hand warmers around and blanket around regulator and it unfrozen in 15 minutes.

I’ve heard that a oil pan heater (basically a heating pad) underneath the tanks works too.

Doug M wrote:

Anyone use the HotHands hand warmers on your regulators?

For the tote generator box, do you insulate it? Throw a blanket over or anything?

I just bought a plastic tote that fits and cut holes for the exhaust and another for the cord to go through that doubles as a fresh air intake, then set the lid on the ice gen on top and snapped the bucket part down over it. Did not need to insulate for last weekend and it worked fine. Could make a box out of wood if you google it there are examples.

They also sell heated tank blankets, you can get by with just using one of those and putting a moving blanket over both tanks, it will keep it warm enough.

Also I would not use 20 pound tanks as they will not work when it is this cold.

At least we don’t have to worry about this crap this weekend.

I always carry a handy man type jack and wood blocks. Should you break a cable or blow a hyd hose, you can get under the frame to raise the house up and get lock pins in.

John glad the tote is working out for you.

To keep your tanks warm you have a bunch of options.

The easiest (and what I do), is run one tank at a time. If it starts slowing down in the cold, simply point your generator exhaust/back vent right on the tank.

It might sound sketchy, but trust me it doesn’t even get the tank “hot”, or even “warm” for that matter. But it’s enough heat to let you run the tank bone dry in brutal temps.

Another option is to buy a medical heat pad (like for a sore knee). They’re like $10-20. Tape it, strap it, velcro it, or however you’d like to the side of one tank. You can get a second one or move the one you have if your regulator freezes up.

Drilling with the shack up is the way to go when the ice gets thicker. Some shacks “move” when you lower them, so just pay attention if you have to drill the holes forward a bit (towards the truck), or backward a bit (towards the back of the shack).

Hole sleeves are an absolute must for me, as are Katz covers.

Some guys use wheel barrow innertubes as hole sleeves, but I’d rather not deal with pumping them up and storage.

Bank your shack good, and kick the snow down a little to compact it if it’s super fluffy.

Don’t bother with blocking your shack up unless you are flooding or plan on leaving it unheated and unattended on the ice.

If you’re in it and have the heat on, blocking is a waste of time and makes it harder to bank.

There’s a thousand little tips and tricks, but those are just a couple bigger ones that help.

John Rasmussen wrote:

They also sell heated tank blankets, you can get by with just using one of those and putting a moving blanket over both tanks, it will keep it warm enough.

Also I would not use 20 pound tanks as they will not work when it is this cold.

At least we don’t have to worry about this crap this weekend.

A friend swears buy using a 20lbs. tank outside with a “wall heater” style heater that saves a ton. He said a 20lbs. should last about 5 days wherein the regular icehouse heater will burn through two 30lbs. tanks in a weekend.

He said he turns his wall heater off when he goes to bed and turns on the icehouse heater. He did say that he cracks a window when using the wall heater for safety.

Spoke to a dealer and he said they can just T-Valve off of the main 30lbs. tanks and you can run a wall heater inside without having to cut a hole through the icehouse wall or have a separate tank.

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200664881_200664881

First time with our new Forest river this year staying over night in temps at -25, luckily we were close to home. 3 am we got up and went home after the heater started blowing out cold air.

Is it the propane freezing or the regulator? Our previous ice house never had issues and we stayed in temps slightly colder than -25, the only thing I could think of was that the regulators were indeed different.

I found an old heat pad laying around the house and laid that on top of the regulator/tanks, with the propane cover over it and did not have issues the 2nd night.

Other thing I’ve noticed is intial warmup, the heater ran a good 2 hours to warm up and keep up the warmth in the house (68 degrees). The only thing I could think of there was the lack of snow and very little bank around the house

I have a ice castle 🏰 with a camper style door found that in the extreme cold the dead bolt and Latch lock like to freeze and can’t on lock them. So I took them apart and put beaver tip up grease on the moving parts and has worked so far the do still feel stiff in extreme cold conditions but still work

I also keep a screwdriver in house to take latch apart because there was one time I locked my self in with deadbolt froz with all the moisture on night only locked door to keep my drinking buddy from messing with me when I went to bed It hasent happened after the greasing the latch but still keep it on hand

ShldHveBenHreYserdy wrote:

Is it the propane freezing or the regulator?

It could be one or the other or both, depending on a number of variables.

We stayed the weekend as well. We had three houses. An Ice Castle, A Fire Brand and Ice Cave. As predicted, all three houses would only burn half a tank of propane. Just keep your tanks full and I’ve never had an issue.

My buddy with the Ice Cave did have regulator issues though. He has a low flow regulator. We swapped it out for a high flow after it froze up and we had no other issues.

So to recap, make sure you have a high flow regulator and full propane tanks and you won’t have an issue.

This is the one I have and it works great in all temps.

I just picked up a magnetic oil pan type heater from menards. I have the high flow regulator on my glacier and froze up last weekend on lotw. -35 and wasn’t a fun experience

Coletrain27 wrote:

I just picked up a magnetic oil pan type heater from menards. I have the high flow regulator on my glacier and froze up last weekend on lotw. -35 and wasn’t a fun experience

How full were your tanks? If they were full to almost full I’d be blown away. I would love to know for reference though.

I’m not saying it can’t happen with full tanks and a high flow, I’ve just never seen it.

My buddy last weekend said his tanks were full… Then I checked them and they were near half. Low tanks can cause the regulator to freeze up.

Joe Scegura wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Coletrain27 wrote:</div>
I just picked up a magnetic oil pan type heater from menards. I have the high flow regulator on my glacier and froze up last weekend on lotw. -35 and wasn’t a fun experience

How full were your tanks? If they were full to almost full I’d be blown away. I would love to know for reference though.

I’m not saying it can’t happen with full tanks and a high flow, I’ve just never seen it.

My buddy last weekend said his tanks were full… Then I checked them and they were near half. Low tanks can cause the regulator to freeze up.

Both full to the top when I got setup on the lake at around 4pm. 4am it started to not heat well. I then switched over to another full tank and that didn’t help. That was the first time I used my house in that kind of cold and I should be more prepared now if it happens again.

When I bought my shack the sales lady recommended the high flow stuff to me and they threw it in with the deal for me and I installed it right away.

Coletrain27 wrote:

Both full to the top when I got setup on the lake at around 4pm. 4am it started to not heat well. I then switched over to another full tank and that didn’t help.

I can’t say with 100% certainty. But I’d be willing to bet that in 12 hours a 30 lb tank was half full. So you were essentially running on a tank with no pressure. This will freeze up your regulator.

If you would have opened up both tanks right away this more than likely would not have happened. (In my experience has never happened) Keep that in mind for the future.

When it’s super cold either bring extra tanks or plan on filling up tanks halfway throughout the weekend. We started with full tanks on Friday and filled up all of our tanks Saturday afternoon.

I can’t imagine your tank heater would hurt things either.

Joe Scegura wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Coletrain27 wrote:</div>
Both full to the top when I got setup on the lake at around 4pm. 4am it started to not heat well. I then switched over to another full tank and that didn’t help.

I can’t say with 100% certainty. But I’d be willing to bet that in 12 hours a 30 lb tank was half full. So you were essentially running on a tank with no pressure. This will freeze up your regulator.

If you would have opened up both tanks right away this more than likely would not have happened. (In my experience has never happened) Keep that in mind for the future.

When it’s super cold either bring extra tanks or plan on filling up tanks halfway throughout the weekend. We started with full tanks on Friday and filled up all of our tanks Saturday afternoon.

I can’t imagine your tank heater would hurt things either.

What do you mean open both tanks? The regulator has the switch on it to only run one tank at a time doesn’t it? I did have another 30lb tank with me that I tried.

Thanks guys- Joe, that regulator you posted is the one we used to have installed in our old ice castle (and no issues) the forest river/ice cave/gray wolf we have now must be low flow.

When we started, the regulator was set to the tank that was 3/4 full the other was full and both valves were open.

Coletrain27 wrote:

What do you mean open both tanks? The regulator has the switch on it to only run one tank at a time doesn’t it? I did have another 30lb tank with me that I tried.

You are correct, there is a selector valve on the regulator. But as far as I can tell the regulator switch does nothing. (See picture of regulator above) Under normal temperature conditions I can have that switch in any position with only one tank open and still my heater will run just fine.

In fact just last week when the temperatures were dropping. I had a scenario where the right tank was open and the toggle was pointing to that tank (tank was half full), but I could hear and feel my heater was not burning as hot as normal.

With the selector valve still pointing at the right tank I opened up the left tank and heard the heater instantly roar louder. The valve doesn’t seem to matter what position it’s in. I’ve tried this on numerous houses.

With both tanks open you will draw equally from both tanks. I only do this when its super cold. Under normal winter temperatures my tanks will burn all 30# it’s just when it’s super cold that they will only burn about 15# per tank.

Awesome, thanks for the info joe. I just figured that it would only draw from the way the valve was pointed. I’ll definetly give that a try next time

ShldHveBenHreYserdy wrote:

Thanks guys- Joe, that regulator you posted is the one we used to have installed in our old ice castle (and no issues) the forest river/ice cave/gray wolf we have now must be low flow.

When we started, the regulator was set to the tank that was 3/4 full the other was full and both valves were open.

Yes I can confirm the Ice Cave one is low-flow. My buddy just bought his ice cave this year and was a little disappointed after it froze up this past weekend to find out it had a low-flow regulator.

IDO Service Announcement anyone with a Ice Cave Fish House I would recommend replacing your regulator and hoses. It only takes a couple minutes.

I have a hair dryer if mine isn’t heating as well I turn it on and put it in the propane box within minutes the heater starts working like a champ again. Warms the tank and the regulator at the same time

blakehreha wrote:

I have a hair dryer if mine isn’t heating as well I turn it on and put it in the propane box within minutes the heater starts working like a champ again. Warms the tank and the regulator at the same time

What is a propane box?

That was me talking about the pan heater. A IDO’er, his wife % son spent Sunday & Monday night in my shack, last night hitting -33. Mrs. Belletaine and I are out here now (Leech).
The propane has been flowing fine. There was a generator issue that was easily fixed & happened one more time but has been fine since.
Beautiful night, not a stitch of wind & plenty comfy inside. These frigid temps definitely test equipment but I like the bitter cold occasionally, as long as wind is down, that’s the X factor.

usmarine0352 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>blakehreha wrote:</div>
I have a hair dryer if mine isn’t heating as well I turn it on and put it in the propane box within minutes the heater starts working like a champ again. Warms the tank and the regulator at the same time

What is a propane box?

The white cover over your tanks is what he is referring to, there are also nice metal lockable ones you can purchase.