Brain Fart

[droid_ca]

So I was sitting here working out a trailer design with my Pencil Cad program .....Doodling away and thought what would it be like to have a cross between a teardrop or tiny house and a dog sled it would have to be light weight as there will probably be times where you have to move it by hand...So id like some input on this idea wondering how hard it would be to build a sled...I'm always looking for new and exciting things to try outdoors with my dogs and thought Hmmm maybe just maybe if it could be built cheap enough...might be a good winter projectand to help me get the ball rolling on my other ideas....
Eagerly awaiting your input....if someone could do a drawing that would be even better

[josephhanson]

Check out the "foamies" section. Very light weight stuff there.

[droid_ca]

Check out the "foamies" section. Very light weight stuff there.

Good point I sent a link to a thread on the fomie section....Now just wait...Thanks again

[Wobbly Wheels]

This is going back a while, but I built a pulk a long time ago. I made it 6 1/2' long: just long enough that I could sleep in it by unloading it and setting up the skirting as a cover like a bivy bag. I used it half a dozen times before I sold it - not much snow on the coast
It pulled really well (skis) but I would make the next one narrower. Mine was about 30" wide.

The big difference between a pulk and the sleds you're talking about is that a pulk has a hull like a boat rather than runners like a sled, so it has a lot more flotation (and lower speed). I think that would make it more suitable for a double life as a trailer. The most efficient way to get what you want might be to have a collapsible towing dolly for it. You could build an A frame trailer and use hitch pins at the joints so that it collapses into a long, thin package that you can put in the back of the truck or on the roofracks.
I'm envisioning the folding bumper hitches used to tow a car behind an RV, but connected to an axle rather than a bumper...
Because of how narrow your rig would be, you could also use a normal trailer axle to match the track width of your tow vehicle.

The 'design' for the one I did came from the ones we used in the army. I spent a lot of winters schlepping one around the Chilcotin and Wainwright so I had plenty of time to think about how to build a better mouse trap...
Those ones were metal (either magnesium or aluminum) and the bottoms were pretty chewed up from dragging them over rocks and logs. Putting some runners on the bottom would help with that, but the extra surface area would create a lot more drag in snow.

I guess you could build it light and screw some plastic sheet (HDPE,UHMW, etc) to the bottom both to make it slick and to help shed road debris.
Food for thought: a lot of ski tourers make their own from those plastic kids' sleds.


An idea I've been kicking around:
I have an old snowboard and a couple sets of X/C skis I'll probably never use again (blown knee) so I've been thinking of a high-speed sled for grownups - sort of a GT SnoRacer that you lie down on. The snowboard will be the base and the skis will be cut down and canted/toed in for steering (like a snowmobile). It will probably be a frame of tubing and a bed of cloth or mesh to keep the weight down.
It's a 'someday' project though so I don't know when I'll get on it...

[Greg M]

Check out the "Captain Avalanche" sled for inspiration on your downhill racer. Scary fast.

[droid_ca]

Re-posted from the Fomie section


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either a Conestoga wagon or a teardrop trailer or some other crazy bizarre idea
= ????

[Wobbly Wheels]

Check out the "Captain Avalanche" sled for inspiration on your downhill racer. Scary fast.

Hehe...yeah, that's what I'm thinking of, only with more flotation.
Can't spend too long looking at that page though: I miss living where there's lots of snow !

[droid_ca]

"Wobbly Wheels" I miss living where there's lots of snow !
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You should see my neck of the woods we usually get lots of snow especially up in the mountains hence the reason for making a winterized trailer of sorts...So I can play to would be nice to be able to go ice fishing as well

[Wobbly Wheels]

I camped in your neck of the woods quite a bit as a kid during the summer (dad was a forester) - sort of a PG-Kamloops-Revelstoke triangle. I used to train (biathlon) in the Koots and Chilcotin as well: as much as I love living on the coast, I sure miss having all four seasons.
Here we have wet and not-quite-as-wet, though this summer's been a bit of an exception...

You're thinking of using it as an ice fishing hut as well ?
Good idea

[droid_ca]

I figure I mind as well get the most out of this little trailer as I can I have another build that I'm going to be starting until the weather changes and then I'll try and build this one since I think it might be small enough to tackle indoors

[Deryk the Pirate]

I like the look of it lol but too narrow for winter...thinkof all the layers of clothes where they gonna go lol

[droid_ca]

I like the look of it lol but too narrow for winter...thinkof all the layers of clothes where they gonna go lol

All the clothes I figure would be worn...still not to sure as what I'd like to do but be a fun project and something to keep me busy all winter: build, test, change, test again..ect ect