Smitty Sled V. Otter Sled

Between the two which one is easier to pull across the lake?
Their are -0- roads plowed at the cabin so most spots I need to walk to.
Which sled has the least resistance?

A Smitty with an Otter on top

I built mine out of aluminum “angle iron”

I was leaning that way.
Got a pic?

Going out in a bit, I’ll take some pics

Here’s mine. Now you show me yours.

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The ones I see that seem to work the best are the ones built out of steel electrical conduit. Very light and inexpensive and seem to pull like a dream.

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B-man wrote:

A Smitty with an Otter on top

I built mine out of aluminum angle iron

What he said. Built mine using old skis and some scrap lumber

Munchy,
Doesn’t that sink into the snow too far?

biggill wrote:

Here’s mine. Now you show me yours.

I would but my wife would get mad.

I took a special video for you EPG just now. We have tip ups out and sitting in the truck now. It’s short, didn’t want to burn a bunch of data uploading

Hot off the press

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Is a wide or skinny ski better for the smitty sled?

Also, for those of you with Smitty Sleds.

How do they do in DEEP snow with a heavy load on top? Does uneven snow density cause them to tip as one ski sinks deeper than the other?

Grouse

B-man social services will be after you.I don’t think that’s acceptable making 4 year olds pull that.

You guys and your fancy aluminum

What’s the weight difference between that and wood, with such little material, maybe couple pounds? How much extra cost is it? Not judging just curious.

Made mine a lil fancy, stained the wood to match skis, coated em dozen times or so with some poly. It’s in shed tho where it belongs, not gonna give in to this ice stuff just yet!

.

Deuces wrote:

You guys and your fancy aluminum

What’s the weight difference between that and wood, with such little material, maybe couple pounds? How much extra cost is it? Not judging just curious.

Made mine a lil fancy, stained the wood to match skis, coated em dozen times or so with some poly. It’s in shed tho where it belongs, not gonna give in to this ice stuff just yet!

The stuff I had was scrap I saved for a future unknown project.

It turns out that project was a Smitty Sled

The smaller horizontal pieces are too light, I’ve bent them a little while loading/unloading, but they still work.

Everything was free, including the skis. I just bought some bolts and spent an hour of time

I used the same screws and holes in the skis from the bindings to attach the aluminum. Didn’t have to modify the skis at all.

chuck100 wrote:

B-man social services will be after you.I don’t think that’s acceptable making 4 year olds pull that.

Hey, it was only like 100 yards….and they insisted (plus they’re almost five anyway)

Couldn’t help myself but to take a video, it was perfect timing for EPG

I don’t have much experience myself with a Smitty, but from what I’ve read a set of adult or kids downhill skis are the happy spot.

I’ve read/heard that cross country skis are not the the way to go, but they still work. No personal experience with them.

Too wide and friction increases. Too narrow and they sink.

You could build a Smitty with a pair of snowboards, but then it’s really no different than a sled.

Kinda my question.
What skis work the best in, lets say “semi deep” snow with #75 lbs of equip?
x-country, down hill, snowboards, water skis?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Also, for those of you with Smitty Sleds.

How do they do in DEEP snow with a heavy load on top? Does uneven snow density cause them to tip as one ski sinks deeper than the other?

Grouse

DEEP snow is no problem either. It’s usually made up in multiple layers and the Smitty just packs down a few inches of the top.

It’s harder to walk than it is to pull a Smitty. I don’t have any experience pulling a 200+ pound 2-3 man shack with gear on a Smitty, but it’s a dream pulling my Kenai around (maybe 125lbs fully loaded including a 20# propane, auger, bucket of minnows, graph, beer, food, etc). You could do it with one finger in a lot of cases. I’d say it cuts down the drag by at least half, if not more.

My loaded evo1 is not that fun in deep snow. I put quite a bit of crap in it though, I would venture to guess #175 maybe? Can lean to one side, and lean back, suppose weight distribution can be a factor but at the end of a night I just throw it in.

If walking alot really no reason to not have one. I fish the city lakes here quite a bit when I do ice fish so no motorized vehicles.

X-country skis are best. Least surface area and no issues staying on top of snow. I’m frequently putting my entire Otter Lodge on it and pulling as much as 125-150#. I don’t travel light.

Mine was made out of scrap wood in my garage 5 years ago and I love it.

Will

Small Otter Pro sled with 4 in skis with aluminum supports. I would estimate 75 / 80 lbs loaded .I pull it with a belt harness . If your on ice or hard pack you don’t know its there. On snow or tracks its about half the effort of the sled with no skis. The only time I ever had a problem is breaking thru crusted snow into slush. It was cold enough where the skis iced up immediately. I have never worked so hard to get off a lake in my life. I have been reading posts on pushing a sled instead of pulling . My thinking is in that situation the skis would be on top of the snow instead of in slush from my boots breaking thru the crust .

I built a smitty sled using waxless cross country skis last winter. I am guessing I am hauling around 125 pounds of gear with it. Pulling a smitty sled is hands down easier then hauling a portable without one. Like Tinker said, I barely notice the sled at all on glare ice or hard packed snow. I did run into a week or so of 12-20″ drifts last winter. It sucked walking through it but the sled rode right over those drifts no problem. I might have 10 bucks tied up in my sled and that includes the skis which I got from one of the thrift stores for like 5 bucks. I just bought a new Otter Cottage for this winter. I highly doubt I will even notice the extra 30-40 pounds I’ll be dragging around this winter.

I made this out of cedar strips with a 2” wide strip of azek on the bottom of the runners. Weighs under 10 lbs and can haul 200 lbs of gear easily. I typically use hub houses so I can haul gear for many people on it. Pulls extremely easy. 80” x 22”.

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Just finished mine last weekend. Tried it out yesterday for the first time with all my gear, handled it no problem. So much easier to pull than just the sled. My design was kind of a pain in the ass since the holes for the pipes needed to be bored out and fine tuned to get the right fit, but its easy to set up and break down. Cross piece is a section of threaded galvanized steel pipe with elbows, then PVC tees bored out to slide over the galvanized pipe with other PVC pipe slipped over the galvanized pipe as spacers to keep the tees where i want them. Skis are about 4″-5″ wider than the sled which gives it a lot of stability.

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Important for me is, I want to integrate a place to sit into mine.
Also need a place for the hub, couple buckets, auger holder, Marcum.

What is a good height for clearance?

I used a 2 X 6 to make the risers ? that mount to the top of the skis. I’ve only used my sled one winter so far but had zero issues clearance wise with drifts from 12 to 20″.

I used wood and downhill skis that a friend gave me for nothing. I wanted mine super cheap and simple and I ended spending about $20 for all of this. Wood, screws, 4 eye bolts to hook bunjees to, and the rope. And it pulls great. I can’t imagine pulling my Yukon XL without it if there’s more than an inch of snow.

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Eel pout go to Ice Shanty.com they have it all on the Smitty Sled including Smitty himself . Looks like there are 100 ways to make them. Ice Scratcher has designed one with plywood risers and angle iron bed rail. It is one support for each ski. He says by keeping the weight on the part of the ski where the bindings where allows the skis to work the way they were designed to. It allows them to flex front and back . Check it out there are numerous photos and design ideas.

Mahtofire,
Do you have issues with your sled sliding around on your smitty frame?

FYI, the Eden Prairie Gander has about 10,000 sets of skis being liquidated by the check-outs.

I have no idea what they are selling for though.