Ridgeline fish house reviews

I’m looking at getting a new house and kinda like the Ridgeline houses. Was looking for some reviews from owners/users of either the wheel house models or the skid house model.
What I’m looking for:
I’m looking for an aluminum framed skid house or possibly wheel house. The house will be primarily used on lake of the woods where I have a cabin so I’m not looking for sleeper/rv style house. I want to get just the shell and then finish the inside as I want. Looking at either 8×12 or the 6.5×14 plus v.i have a track truck so I’m not limited to roads. 90% of the time a skid house would be just fine but there are the times I would like to be able to bring the house to friends lake places or have the ability to use it for a night or two at hunting camp or eelpout fest.
If I do go with the wheelhouse I like the design of the axel system, no winches no motors nothing really to break. I have learned over the years that if something can break or go wrong it will happen when your 20 miles off shore and it’s dark and cold. So I figure the less things to break the better. I would have skis for the house when pulling it on the lake which is nice for cross country travel as it gets the house up off the snow whereas the skid house can tend to drag when getting off trails.
If anyone would care to chime In and share their thoughts that would be great!

I’ve done alot of research on Ridgeline houses, especially the wheel models. I like the fact that you can buy a shell and finish it the way you want to, I just worry about the longterm durability of the thin aluminum frame. My advice would be to go check them out in person at Beberg’s in Coon Rapids, they have shells and finished models.

I’m a fan of the Firebrand fish houses. I’ve had my 6.5×14 v-nose for going on it’s 3rd ice season. I also use it as a hunting shack for grouse and deer hunting. Mine has a ramp door and doubles as a powersports trailer.

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you might want to look at core ice https://core-ice.com/ might not be big enough for you, but sure is a neat concept.

The axle design is awesome. When the Zach Shacks were popular (not that they aren’t anymore), the axle design has always been something I liked over my Yetti. I have a friend who just built his own ice house with that axle design. Only thing that stinks about the axle design is they protrude into the interior a bit.

I would be hard pressed to buy a skid over a wheelhouse, even if I lived on the lake I mainly used it on. Dropping the house with that design is simple and easy, no reason not to get wheels.

I would be worried about the weight of the units, they are awfully light, even for all aluminum. My 6.5×12′ Yetti shell weighed in at 1600lbs and have had my frame crack once (welded up by a local fab shop). the Ridgeline weighs in at around 1000lbs. That is substantially lighter that most other all aluminum wheelhouses…The weight savings could come from the axle design, but I am unsure. Just my .02

Ya the weight was a concern of mine as well, but with the limited amount of over the road travel I did think it would be to much of an issue unless I went will a toy hauler type. is your yetti a toy hauler as well? I was contemplating putting a ramp in the back ,again, for the 1 or 2 times a year I might take the wheeler with some where else. Is you 6.5×12 with a 3′ v making it a 15′?how is the inside set up? Do you have cook stove tv benches or anything? How many ppl do you fish in it? Mind sharing a pic of the way you have yours set up? Thx

Those look intriguing as well

I went to Beberg Outdoors last week to check out their operation. Chris Beberg, the owner, has a demo which is 6.5’x14+3’v. Made lightweight with aluminum bunks and such (weight approx. 2,300lbs). I’d be curious to know how much the Firebrand and Yettis weigh with similar dimensions and layout. However, even with the weight I had an employee show me the lowering system and it was heavy for that, a real struggle to get up and down. Which is why they have a winch attachment. I’ve been in the market for awhile, just cannot make up my mind on which one to go to. I’ve narrowed it down to Yetti, Firebrand, and Ridgeline. I also stopped by Performance Engineering. They said they have only (3) 8′ wide houses on order, the rest are 6.5′ wide. They make around 40-45 houses a year. It tells you where the market is going. With the winters we’ve had the last few years, it’s definitely worth going lighter and convenient.

I have not seen that many Ridgeline’s on the ice or on the road. As of now, its a small market.

I will take pictures next weekend when I get it all pulled out and prepped for the season.

It is a 6.5′ x 12′ with 3′ V. About 14′ inside as my 14′ canoe fits if I set it on the front counter. It does have double doors in the rear to put an ATV inside. I have it setup with 6 holes and a front counter with cabinets above and below. No stove but a TV mount and antenna installed on the wall. For the limited and changing use it gets, I just use a Coleman propane cooktop stove. Most of my one ice cooking is in a smoker or crockpot. I do not have bunks in it as I generally use it as a day-shack but have 2 cots that fit in the backside the longways with just over 1′ of room in the middle. As a sleeper, I can only use the front two holes, which is fine with me. During the day we fold up the cots and fish out of 2 holes each.

I’ve had my Ridgeline for 3 years now. More cons than pros. It’s a good house if you don’t plan on hauling an atv. Which was the main reason I bought it. I wore the tires off after 300 miles. They claim it can haul 1500 well there’s no way. The scissors tounge snapped clean off due to inferior welds. And the aluminum door hinges all broke the first year. They took it back three times to “fix” the problems but ended up blaming Axis axel company. They can’t warranty something that’s been shortened welded and modified. and rightfully so.
I no longer haul my ATV in it as it can’t even handle half what they advertise. As far as set up and set down it goes real easy and takes less than a minute. It is a light weight fish house, however less weight comes with a price as far as hauling an ATV of any sort. My house is a 6×10 V nose and weighs 1400 with shelves heater 20# gas tank and a deep cell battery. The tounge weight is only 300# which is great for towing with an ATV however you can’t safely haul it inside which defeats the pourpose. I hope this review helps you in your decision.

I have watched ridgelines for a few years and seen them make a number of changes/improvements until I felt they had what i wanted in 2016. I purchased a 14+3 6.5 wide, extra tall, “heavy hauler” which has more reinforcement then the standard ones. So far I have only used it for family camping in the summer and have really liked it. I went with the upgraded premium service door, ramp door, and upgraded wheels/tires among other things. It has a minimalist finish with a simple electric package, spray foam, and some trim from Bebergs. I basically wanted a light-ish insulated box that can be empty, or I can swap out cots, stoves, whatever for 4 season use fishing, hunting, kayaking, camping, etc.

Base weight is 1300lb and I’m overestimating mine is about 1700-1800lbs with full tanks, battery, tv, etc. (need to hit a scale soon) and it has a 3000lb gvwr (and 3500lb rated wheels/axel).

Something I found was that if you are planning on hauling an atv is pay close attention to gvwr because #1 some manufacturers put a ramp door on their “toy hauler” when the finished product is only like 500lb off the gvwr (and this is before you put ANY of your crap in it), and #2 there are huge variations in how heavy certain models and years of atv/utvs are.

Once I haul my atv around a bit I’ll let ya’ll know if I got a dud like tbone!

Yes the axels are rated for 3500 when used the way they are designed. The problem is not only do they cut them shorter they mount the swing arm next to the wheel on the same bracket that the trailer is supposed to sit on. In other words the weight of the trailer is supposed to be supported as close to the wheel as possible for support. Throw a load in it and watch your mirrors when you go over bumps. You can see the wheels camber in and out. This is fine if you’re going 20 miles to lake x near home. But I rubbed mine off on the first trip. They supposedly fixed it and it did the same thing and instead of having 8″ ground clearance it came back with 4″. That’s when I took matters in to my own hands because they just made it worse. The owner accused me of over loading it. I took it to work and scaled it empty and loaded and was still under weight. The shop Forman said they learned a lot from my ” testing” but the owner still wouldn’t make it right with me. I even showed them the scale tickets. It’s fine without a load but it the reason I bought it. I hope they made major improvements for your sake instead of blaming Axis axel company. Which I called and they said they wanted to help Ridgeline trouble shoot but Ridgeline wouldn’t show them their axel after they modified it. Very suspicious. They can’t cut, re weld, and not use as intended and expect them to warranty it. As a Millwright/welder I know a little about this stuff. I’ve also built trailers. Hopefully they’ve made the necessary improvements and you enjoy yours for years to come.

I have a Ridgeline 8X12 skid with a 2′ v-front so it is 14′ total. I am very happy with it because I use it as a toy hauler too and didn’t find other aluminum skid houses built well enough for this dual purpose. I sold a wheel house to get this skid house because I don’t want to be confined to roads only when I fish. I made skis for my prior wheel house and had “limited” success with them. The skid house has 3 full length skis under the entire length of the house so the weight per square inch on the skis is minimal and it is easier to move that attaching skis to wheels. One thing with Ridgeline is that they are very flexible with any customizations you request too. The skid design also gives you the maximum amount of usable fishing space also. I had them add a curved roof (which is now standard after they made mine!!), a double rear door to serve as a toy hauler, vertical windows, 3 spear holes, (I cut 7 angling holes), and more…

I finished it off with 1.5″ foam board and thin tongue and groove knotty pine, vented furnace, and it is a great house. I pull it with chained up ATVs, or a Polaris Widetrack snowmobile that has a high/low-range gear option and a HUGE studded track.

I also purchased a customized Aluma snowmobile trailer for it because I needed a trailer to haul other toys anyway. It has a tilt bed and winch to pull the house up on. Super easy! This way I don’t have to deal with storing a wheeled fish house and a trailer. In the summer the house sits on the trailer on one storage foot print.
Good luck with your choice! These days there are more right answers than wrong answers because there are many good houses now.
See ya’ on the ice.
Dale.

Tyler,
What did you end up getting? What drove your decision? How satisfied are you?
Would you do anything different? There are alot of good choices out there.

Still haven’t decided. As much as I like the ridge line design I think I am going to opt away from them and leaning towards an aluminum 8×16 v front. I took the family and we went and sat in some similar sized houses and for the dual purpose I’m looking at, these were a little on the small size. If I were looking for a strictly day house for myself I’d have bought one, but the flexibility in buying a 8×16 shell seems to be my best route.
Now with that said I’m still undecided on what brand Im going with. I lay wake hours upon hours at night thinking dreaming and planning layouts. I go back and forth between steel vs aluminum vs galvanized. I have talked with numerous owners of each type of house and they all have pros and cons. So basically what I’ve determined is there really is no right or wrong answers or best house out there. I’m in no hurry to jump in to a house,so I’ll continue the debate in my head till I finally get sick of arguing with myself and go with a brand “whatever ” house!

I think you’re doing the right thing really thinking things through Tyler. As you stated, I don’t think you can make a bad decision, as long as you’ve educated yourself in the facts.
Full disclosure, I personally have a 5 year old 8×16 IC toy hauler. I used to put my sled in back when I had a little Polaris 340. I upgraded to an AC Bearcat two-up and that’ll no longer fit.
That being said, I LOVE the beaver tail for loading/unloading/drilling holes/etc. and even if I wasn’t going to be hauling “toys”, I’d get the beaver tail again.
If I did it all over, I would not buy an IC most likely. The pro is they’re affordable, but you have to be willing to accept the fact that you’ll need to do A LOT of investing in your time and money to maintain/replace parts.
Given your desire to use it as a toy hauler, I’d encourage you to think about getting a tandem axle. I know they’re more money, but they pull (empty or with a “toy” in the back) FAR better than single axles.
My friend just built a custom Firebrand 21′ tandem and that things pulls better behind a half ton than my single axle 16′. He can also fit his two-up Bearcat in it.
For me, if I was going steel, I’d look at Firebrand and for aluminum, I’d look at Yetti’s. Just my humble opinion though.
Oh, and get a rubber floor!

michaelcfi79 wrote:

For me, if I was going steel, I’d look at Firebrand and for aluminum, I’d look at Yetti’s. Just my humble opinion though.
Oh, and get a rubber floor!

Uh, Firebrand is aluminum, not steel.

McCord Stowater wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>michaelcfi79 wrote:</div>
For me, if I was going steel, I’d look at Firebrand and for aluminum, I’d look at Yetti’s. Just my humble opinion though.
Oh, and get a rubber floor!

Uh, Firebrand is aluminum, not steel.

Whoops! Even better!