Tow no more is the goal

After blowing apart my tub yesterday my goal next season is to not tow shanties anymore, the long runs on the bay and crossing cracks is just to hard on them

This past weekend we had my buddies otter cottage in the hitch rack and it fits perfectly up against the tailgate of my SXS and towed my fx200

I’m thinking about trying to haul two cottages or one lodge, has anyone seen a lodge being hauled on a rack or think its do able? Would hauling two cottages in a 2-tier rack be better?

Obviosly one lodge over two cottages is a better price point but we do not want to tow if we can get around it

Any pics or advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

We put an otter resort in the back of a john deer gator when on the ice. So nice not towing. One ratchet strap across it keeps it in position without any issues.

I’m looking to keep the bed open as my 2nd row seating folds up from the bed and it’s a secure place for my propane tank and any other gear, I’m running a Honda pioneer 700-4

Very curious to know what tub you blew apart. Never heard of an Otter tub getting blown apart. I’ve heard of them getting worn through when not using hyfax and towing on asphalt. But that’s it.

Shapell fx200 that was 6 years old

Two thoughts. An otter tub with hyfax will last a long time towing if you need to tow. Stackable cottages; setup one without a crossbar so they can nest together.

I’ve seen Dave Gentz’s snowmobile setup. He picked up an extra sled tub and made a bracket that it is mounted to. He can now just drop his house right into it and bungee it down. Looks very slick.

My thought with running two shacks is either a rack on the front and back of the machine with my storage box in the bed, or storage box on the front and a double rack off the back

I think if you went with an otter shelter you would reduce your blow apart sled issues by 90%. There is a chance down the road that they could wear through, but routine maintenance and hyfax could cure that. I have heard of a few guys over the years that have busted an otter sled, but that is few and very far between.
The difference is the rotational molding process versus what many of the cheaper alternatives are that are injection molding. I know the new Eskimo Grizzly is supposed to be rotational molding as well.
One thing to also consider is if you put a 20# LP tank in the sled, perhaps put it in a milk crate. That will keep it from bouncing around and the bottom perhaps gouging the floor with the sharp edges.

The milk crate mention is a must and that’s what i do, as far as towing goes how do you guys feel the otters track with little to no snow on the ice? Probably my biggest pet peeve is the tub sliding all over side to side even at slow speeds

Mine isn’t too bad as long as you go with the Otter rigid hitch. I don’t tow on glare ice often.
My buddy has a resort and he was having some wear-through issues so he put a set of carbide runners on his from his snowmobile. That baby tracks straight as an arrow and any speed, but it does pull hard. 1 because its a resort and they are quite big and 2 because he has an enormous array of compartments, built ins, fans, switches, full size deep cycle battery, etc. he is loaded for bear! LOL

Pretty much the 2 factors pushing me away from towing are the obvious of tub damage, crack and heave is brutal on any tub and the tub filling with slush and water on the not so pretty weather days, i have always believed the biggest shanty you could afford was the best option but I’m starting to second guess that, i really like the mobility of stop, flip and fish but if it takes me a few more minutes to protect my investment the best, i just need to figure out how to capitalize 2 guys with 1 machine, thanks for all the input

CaptainMusky wrote:

Mine isn’t too bad as long as you go with the Otter rigid hitch. I don’t tow on glare ice often.
My buddy has a resort and he was having some wear-through issues so he put a set of carbide runners on his from his snowmobile. That baby tracks straight as an arrow and any speed, but it does pull hard. 1 because its a resort and they are quite big and 2 because he has an enormous array of compartments, built ins, fans, switches, full size deep cycle battery, etc. he is loaded for bear! LOL

Captain musky, my shack right now is setup the same way with storage and switch boxes, lights, etc. We originally wanted the resort for maximum comfort for 2 guys, i like the idea of carbide runners to a true tracking over the hyfax, does he run both?

I’ve put my resort thru the ringer and only had to replace the hyfax once and that was due to pulling on gravel with it full of water/slush coming off on Winnipeg, so clearly user error there. Made some mud flaps and all its good now with slush/water issues. Pulling behind on glare ice can be an issue, but that’s only when you’re coming to stop, so just do it gradually and its ok. With that said a nice rack to carry it to the first spot would be nice, but I wouldn’t want to have to pick it up and put it on the rack each time I moved, so if you’re making one, I’d add a stop to hitch it to as well.

I wouldn’t hesitate to pull two Otter Cottages or Otter Cabins in line, if we only had one machine for two fishermen.

We run long distances at pretty high speeds over hard drifted lakes on the Canadian end of LOTW. We’ve never had an issue with breakage of anything on our houses. We’ve broken gear, but never anything with our houses. We have to go over heaves a ton up there as well. You couldn’t convince me that putting them onto a bracket and carrying them is better than towing.

For the snow and slush getting inside during the run, put some U Hooks on each side (We’ve got 4 on each side) and run a bungee cord over the top. This keeps the cover from flapping while we’re towing, and the amount of snow inside the tub has dropped by 90%, even on fresh snow powdery days.

For tracking straight on bare ice, I can’t imagine any tub of any brand doing that without some sort of modification. I will say that once there’s a couple inches of snow, the Otters track awesome if they’ve got the hyfax.

If you are really worried about a tub tracking on glare ice when using rope or tow bar add a single sheetmetal screw to the rear of your center hyfax. It will provide drag and you can easily remove it when you get back to shore.

Jim Kosinski wrote:

i like the idea of carbide runners to a true tracking over the hyfax, does he run both?

You know, I don’t remember if he has the hyfax under there still or not, but I believe he did at least at first. It might be a trial and error type thing to find the right placement under the sled for the carbides because obviously they are not full length. The other thing I would be a bit concerned about over time is since they are higher than the hyfax, if you mount only 1 set of 2, you might get excessive wear on the hyfax where the carbides are not located so positioning them properly under the sled would be important. He has his in the front section of the sled.

My buddy as a rack that goes in the receiver hitch on his ranger he hauls his clam x2 around and it works well. I see the perch patrols on devils running racks in the receiver hitches on suburbans that have ramps so you don’t have to lift the house on and off the rack. To me that would be the way to go if hauling an otter lodge.

Sled Carrier – Hitch Mount

I’ve been throwing around the idea of getting a normal cargo carrier for your hitch and seeing if that would hold my resort instead of dragging it up and down a road for 2 blocks, but just haven’t looked into them much. It would probably be a lot cheaper alternative to the one in the link above.