Skid house vs Ice Castle

For those of you that have fished out of both Aluma-lite skid houses and ice castles, I am looking for your opinion. I am looking for a solution to pull behind a tracked ranger during the winter.

I am looking at a 6×12 skid house or a 6.5×12 wheel house. Obviously the wheel house is heavier, I fish mainly lake of the woods. For those of you with side by sides how is pulling and mobility of a smaller ice castle compared to a skid house?

If you don’t plan on sleeping in it, save the money and get a skid house. It also opens up a lot more areas to fish because you can get a skid house over unplowed snow easier then wheels. There is a heck of a lot less that can mechanically go wrong with a skid house.

Like Al said if you don’t plan on sleeping in it a skid house may better suit your needs. If you are going to sleep in it I would go 8 feet wide. For me personally I can’t spend too much time in a 6 foot wide anything the walls close in pretty fast especially if it’s just white spray foam interior. Gets that feeling of being in a lock down room or something!

If you go to Beberg’s outdoors in Andover they have these really neat beds that are bolted to the inside sidewalls of the skid. You sit on then like a sofa while you fish, and if you want to sleep you fold it out. It at least give you that option. I just bought a skid house from them, but it just for my lake at the cabin.

Depends on a few things.

If money isn’t a big priority, it’s to hard to beat a tricked out ice castle (or whatever brand you prefer – yetti, firebrand, etc). Nothing like watching Monday Night Football on one TV, an underwater camera on another, and cooking dinner on the stove while hauling in the occasional walleye. Show me a person out on a lake in December/January doing these things that says, “man, I regret buying this thing,” and I’ll show you a liar. It can be cost prohibitive, but it can be more affordable than you’d think.

I’m sure you can do all these things in a skid house as well, I just don’t know if any personally without doing a ton of work on it.

Also, various levels of bathrooms/hydraulic lift options can make life pretty easy for an old guy (speaking for myself). On top of that, air units can easily convert them into a nice camper for the summertime. You can call and get them customized to the nuts.

They have numerous sizes. If you’re looking for maximum portability, they can get pretty small while still being comfortable to fish/sleep in. Can get from work, hook it up without worry about trailers, etc., and go.

Although, the point about unplowed snow above is valid, especially if we’re looking at a winter like last year.

Also, customer service is elite.

Just my two cents.

I think a wheel house offers more options and is more versatile, while a skid house is less expensive and there is less maintenance and less that can break on it. I would go wheel house but the choice comes down to the application.

I’ve got a 6.5X12 wheelhouse. If I only fished one lake and it stayed out there all winter, I would probably go with a skid. Even if I only fished one lake and moved it every weekend, I would go skid. If you want to transport it across the state to different lakes throughout the winter, a wheelhouse is a much better option. Plus I like to use mine like mentioned above, for camping. It’s my mobile duck camp all fall.

I should add that I do have a large ice castle that never leaves shore. It’s used as a base camp, I’m looking for something that can be pulled with the ranger or moved to other lakes.

Would be hard to beat an ice core house with skids.

6511ST

What’s your method/objective?

Are you towing it up every trip?

Are you leaving it on shore between outings?

Are you leaving it on LOTW most of the time?

Are you ever sleeping in it?

How many people? A 6×12 skid house is a pretty big shack to be tugging/trailering/loading/unloading on a regular basis. I’d go with a 6×8 if you’re fishing 1-2 guys, occasionally 3.

Are you accessing the lake via/near plowed roads or off-roading into no-man’s-land?

A small skid house will definitely be easier to pull around off-road compared to a wheelhouse. But a flip-over will be easier yet.

If you plan on bouncing around lakes and not staying put, or if you’re off-roading long distances I’d stick to a flip-over.

If you’re planning on leaving it on the ice not too far from a plowed road, a little skid house would be sweet. Easy enough to get some room from the crowd, but not F’d if you get stuck.

If you’re fishing on plowed roads, go with a wheel house.

Or just say screw it….sell the big ice castle….sell the sxs…..and buy a SnoBear

The majority of the time it will be left at Lake of the Woods, I like the idea of having the wheelhouse to run down to red for years like this when red has fishable ice and we are still a week to 2 weeks away from fishing the west side of the lake safely. The only time it would be slept in is if we went to another lake for the weekend.

Thanks for the insight, I already have a 6×10 skid just looking for something with more creature comforts but the ability to still be mobile on the ice. I think we will try a smaller ice castle and see how we like it. I will post my thoughts on it once I pick one up.

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Just another thought. Check CL and Facebook Marketplace. There are some nice smaller home brew units out there. I found a 8X16 wheel house at the end of last year. Weighs about 2000lbs. So I can go out when they let the first single axles being pulled by wheelers by resort rules anyhow. Before that I use a flip over and sleep in the wheel house on shore. Also some nice skid houses can be had. You can usually buy stuff cheaper than manufactured and sometimes better built.