Hoot-n-Holler in Black Duck! Most pull tabs in MN, Heggies pizza and they only accept cash! Plus they have the siren/cord to pull and you owe the entire bar a round. Fun when people are winning in pull tabs lots of free drinks!

As much as I don’t like the wakes the stereos blasting out of the back of their boats like we all want to listen to their music is more annoying!!

No problem. Its amazing what a coat of paint will do! A couple of other things I just thought about that will save you the head aches I went through in learning how to move mine. Getting the house moving is the key. When I am going to move I put some PVC pipes under it so the house doesn’t give any resistance. With a 6×10 this stuff may or may not be an issue. It is also important to keep ice/debris off the bottoms of the hyfax skids. The first time I went to move my last house there was ice/snow built up on the bottom of the skids. All this did was add friction that made it difficult to move. Once I figured that out I make sure not to push a lot of the snow when banking the house directly under the skids. If I am going to let the house sit anywhere for more than a day I put it on blocks. I also block it up on a couple 2×4 when storing in the off season so that mud/leaves don’t stick to the bottom. No matter which route you go you will love the light weight of an aluminum house.
Good luck.

I should also add the more finishing you do in these houses the heavier and less mobile they get. The 8×12 alumalite only weighs 800 lbs! I can push it around my yard by putting a pvc pipe under it and sliding it from side to side.

I am on my second 8×12 w/ V Front Alumalite and have nothing but positive things to say about them. I think they are the best bang for the buck out there. My criteria for my house was I wanted to fish 4-6 guys comfortably which this house does. I also wanted something that was easy to get off the lake when there might be several feet of snow at the end of the year and for some reason non of your buddies are available to help:) I put my house in the middle of my lake and there are no plowed roads so getting a truck out to trailer a big wood skid house or even an aluminum skid house isn’t an option.

If you want a completely finished off house with nice smooth walls then Alumalite may not fit your needs. You are also going to pay a significant premium for a completely finished off house. With that being said I painted mine gray and put white trim boards up and she looks awfully nice! The nice thing about Soderblooms (manufactures Alumatie) is Chris will custom make any size you would like and configure the holes however you want them. I had him put a rubber floor in and add a spear hole on this house so I have 8 holes plus the spear hole. I have not decided if I will add shelves in the V-Front because I like the space when you add 6 guys. I also don’t store anything of value in the house because their are to many S@#$ holes out there to break in. I will put baskets on the upper trim boards for people to store tackle, hats, gloves etc.

I will say that an 8×12 with a v-front is not made to be moved around daily. I have not pulled this new house out yet but with my old house if there was 1-2 feet fresh snow the snow would accumulate and cause my 4 wheeler to dig down to the ice. I pull it with a 4 wheeler with tracks. The new house has the boxed in skids so there will be more ground clearance which should help with this issue. I also have a side by side with tracks this year which will make things easier. If you are pulling across packed snow or a plowed road you can pull this 8×12 with a snowmobile. I should also add that you better make sure you aren’t going to pull any size house through slush as that would be a disaster. I usually make sure to follow the same path out and back a few times a few days before I want to move the house which makes it easy. Even if there is slush on the lake if you run over it with a snowmobile a night or two before you move the house the slush will freeze. If you are looking to be mobile, i.e. move every day or even a couple of times a day you need to go with a small 4×6 or 6×8. I have heard from friends that even a 6×10 w/ v can get tough to move in deep snow.

The other thing as someone else mentioned, I can heat this house with a regular buddy heater. I may add a direct vent heater so I can leave it on with a thermostat to keep the spear hole open and to make it safer if I ever sleep in it.

Here is the only picture I have on my phone at the moment.

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Don’t worry there is a place for guys that make decisions like this!

As Forrest stated the real issue with thawing out is going to be slush and wet snow. Just like a snowmobile if you don’t thaw that stuff off while you can it will turn into solid ice. With a snowmobile you can at least lift up the back end and drop it to break the track free from ice. With a ATV you won’t be able to lift it up so if your tracks are full of ice they may not turn and/or you may break something. I have been fortunate enough to have a heated garage so I have never had an issue with ice. I will say the most annoying thing with tracks is snow getting into the airbox. Just be aware of that and check the airbox after a ride so that you can remove the snow or suck out any water that accumulates. I know Can Am has created some sort of pre-filter for this issue on their UTV’s but I don’t believe Polaris has anything to prevent the snow dust getting in there.

Here is a video loading a 8 x 14 aluma lite with a UTV.

I have tracks on my 2012 sportsman 500 with out power steering so you will be just fine.

PRO:
1. Can get through just about everything until you can’t!
2. Much better traction then tires and chains making it easier to pull things and plow
3. Higher clearance

Cons:
1. Make sure you have a place to store them in a heated shop to thaw out as everything on the machine gets packed in snow (including snow in the air box)
2. When you get stuck it is a PIA

The Pro’s out weigh the cons!

Walternator

I have tracks on my 2012 sportsman 500 with out power steering so you will be just fine.

PRO:
1. Can get through just about everything until you can’t!
2. Much better traction then tires and chains making it easier to pull things and plow
3. Higher clearance

Cons:
1. Make sure you have a place to store them in a heated shop to thaw out as everything on the machine gets packed in snow (including snow in the air box)
2. When you get stuck it is a PIA

The Pro’s out weigh the cons!

Walternator

“God is Great, Beer is Good and People are Crazy” – Billy Currington

One of my favorites when you know there are going to be bad decisions that you don’t want to take responsibility for “I’m just going to let Jesus take the wheel tonight” Carrie Underwood

I have subs in my wheel house and sometime the party gets the music up to full volume and we always catch fish. Even in 8ft of water on red. I am talking the type of subs that you hear coming from a mile away. And apparently walleye even like rap music at times!

Thanks for the response. That is the info I was looking for. I coincidentally ran into a buddy who has the same size house and he gave me pretty much the same info. He said he uses a high lift jack and just chisels out a little ice to get enough room to get the jack under the house. Thanks again!

Bob

So I just bought a used 8×12 aluma lite skid house and this thread was one of the issues I am worried about. Dan after another year of use do you have any more tips for making sure the house doesn’t get stuck. Most of my fishing will be short trips for a couple of hours do you still block the house up every time? When you said you used the 2 inch pvc are you indicating that after you are done fishing you get the front of the house on the piece of pvc? (the pvc trick is how I got it on my trailer when I bought it!) What is the easiest way that you have found to get the house up on blocks? Any other general tips with this size house.

I have tracks for my 500 sportsman but with no snow I don’t think I will put them for a while so will be using tires with chains.

Thanks

Walter

If I am not to late I would like two batteries and one charger please. Or the coupon code! Thanks

I bought a demo from them several years ago and it was like new. They are usually used one day to drill holes in an ice tourney and then sold as demos. Mine came with blade gaurd.

Just wanted to update on my X200 purchase. Well went out last night and saw that the seam on the canvas is coming apart. It is right where the canvas attached to the top pole that holds the light bar. I spent over $1000 on this thing and several hours putting it together to have it start falling apart after 3 times out. Good new is L&M Fleet supply said they would swap out the canvas for one in stock! Bad news is after taking the canvas off the sled and bringing it in L&M realized they are out of stock of the X200 so they are ordering one through clam to take care of me. I am very happy with how L&M handled the situation but they don’t know how long it will take to get the new canvas:( Don’t know how clam’s customer service would have handled the situation but I sure hope they overnight the canvas to L&M. Disappointing that this seems to be the same problem Clam has had in years past. Was debating buying the Otter and at the moment regretting that I didn’t! Those in the same boat may want to consider the Otter even though it is a couple hundred bucks more.

I was deciding between the same two houses and went with the Clam X200. For me it came down to the fact the house was priced $200 less then the Otter. ($999.99 at L&M compared to $1,199 for Otter). Then you add on that the Clam comes with runner kit, light bar, cover and battery tray that is an additional $200-300 worth of accessories. While I think the Otter is a better made house I didn’t think it was worth an extra $400 bucks. So far I have been very happy with the X200 and it has plenty of room for fishing with my two kids. We have even fished four out of it when the wife comes.

I bought a house last year with 200 ft of bog to get to the lake. After talking with the neighbors they said stay away from pier type docks. Everyone of them that build a permanent pier type dock was constantly dealing with heaving and having to redo the dock every year. Further, on years when the water got really high it pulled the dock up causing a bigger mess. Plus, if the ice comes in on a pier type dock you will watch the thing buckle and snap like twigs. I built my dock on top of plastic barrels. The first 200+ feet I set right on top of the bog and the last 35 ft is actually floating. Setting it on top of the bog eliminated the need for mobile connections between dock sections which saved big money as they are about $50/80 a pair. The dock on the bog is just screwed together from one section to the next as the bog does not move enough to matter. The remaining three sections are tied together with joints to allow the dock to move with waves. In the winter some neighbors leave everything in place, others just disconnect the floating sections and tie a rope to it so if the ice does come in the dock will move with the ice and they can just pull it back.

The other thing I did since it was going to be permanent is made the dock 6ft wide which allows me to drive the 4 wheeler right out to the boats!!
good luck

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What I did when first started getting into Cigars was order sampler packs. I started with a 40 cigar sampler that came with a humidor. When I smoked one that I really liked I saved the collar and the next time I ordered would order a few of the ones I like but would still buy a 5-10 cigar sampler pack to keep trying new cigars. I usually order cigars once a year on cigarbid.com and keep them in a nice humidor for those special occasions called weekends!!

I have had straight talk for nearly two years and wouldn’t switch to any other service. As an initial matter Straight talk is not Walmart. Walmart happens to sell straight talk phones and services. I purchased mine right from Straight Talk and never entered a walmart. A couple of things to clarify previous posts, straight talk doesn’t only run on verizon towers, it actually uses all of the major carrier towers, i.e. At&t, verizon, T-Moible. The catch is that depending on your phone it may prefer certain provider towers. For example, I live in Northern Minnesota and know that AT&T provides the best reception in the area. Thus, I purchased an unlocked AT&T phone (samsung S4) off of ebay. I then bought the sim card directly from Straight Talk which allows me to get their service. Since my phone is an AT&T unlocked phone it will automatically prefer AT&T towers even if verizon or T-mobile is providing a stronger signal. However, if I am in an area where there is not an AT&T signal it will pick up service from one of the other towers. With that being said I don’t know if you buy an actual straight talk phone how you determine which towers it will prefer.

The only downside to Straight talk is if you need technical support it will be someone in India and not a store front down the road from you. Further, if you go the route that I did in purchasing an unlocked phone of ebay instead of an actual straight talk phone there is a little more up front time expense to get the phone set up for service. As someone previously pointed out, even after you pay a little more for the phone up front the savings in the long run can add up rather quickly. The other advantage to buying an “unlocked” phone is that I am not tied to straight talk either. If another carrier can provide as good of coverage for cheaper all I have to do is buy a new sim card and put it in my phone.

Hope that helps.

Walternator