Making a sled for touring

[tele_nut]

Anyone have some basic instructions, advice or ideas? A diagram or whatever ya got. Just looking to put something together that is cheap and sturdy.

[Beck]

there's been a thread on this in CC.com before...i have lots of great ideas on constructing a rigid trace double hull, bomber haul sled you can put in kid seats, brakes, etc, that will cost about 25 bucks. PM me if you can't find the tread.

[vegetablebelay]

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=freshies&Number=152149&Forum=All_Forums&Words=sled&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=152149&Search=true#Post152149

[tele_nut]

Thanks fellow dirtbags.

[AlpineK]

Krazy Karpet is going to be the cheapest by far, plus you can roll it up when you've gotta hike up a steep slope.

 

On the other hand if you're into trips to Boeing surplus and a nice shop project then the Karpet wont cut it.

[mattp]

A hard body plastic kid's sled is a great item for melting snow at a basecamp on the glacier. Even in relatively cool temperatures in Alaska, I've been able to generate quite a bit of water by shovelling snow into one of those things and rotating it so it was tilted directly toward the sun all day long.

[tele_nut]

That karpet looks good. What do you do? Get and old carpet and roll it up like a burritto? I read the link there and it just talked about how it handled then the pros cons and tips.

 

How about the attachment to the body and to the carpet? Do things rip up over time. How has this been tested? I can imagine it would be ripped up in some situations but if you apply it in the proper plan it _seems_ ok. Do the attachment areas rip? Are you attaching them by slings through a cut hole in the carpet?

[fern]

yeah I never got around to putting in the building plans.

 

You can use grommets or rivets to engineer a front end and the

necessary lash points. You need to cut a couple of notches

out of the plastic sheet then start doing some origami.

 

 

 

____        __________________
| o    \    /       X  X  X  X  X  X     
|         \/  o                                       
|  @                                                     top view
|                                                         
|  @                                                    
|       /\  *                                        
|_*_/    \_____X_X_X_X_X_X__
    ^
    | fold here and rivet * to * and o to o


thus:
 |  folded and overlapped on sides
 V
______________________________
\  *\     X  X  X  X  X  X
\@ /              side view
 \/__________________________    


the X along the sides are fittings to run lash straps to hold the
load together. The @ are reinforced holes through which the
traces run. I put the load into sled bags and connect the bags to 
the traces directly so that the sled itself is not load bearing.

 

this is a nice sled for Coast Mountain touring, but not a good

choice for Denali. It's good for loads up to about 60lbs.

Edited November 15, 2003 by fern

[tele_nut]

I see. Never expected something like this to work in shitty conditions.

 

I guess I'd have to fold the burrito's back end as well so shit doesn't fall out.

 

Thanks. Answers most of my kwestions.

[fern]

you don't have to fold up the back end if you put everything in bags and tie the bags together to the traces.

[tele_nut]

Traces?

[fern]

traces are the stringy bits that connect you to the sled. the things you pull on.

[tele_nut]

Is the entire plan for this sled on the internet or in a book?

[jhump]

Check these sleds sites out.

 

http://www.telemarktips.com/Sled.html

 

http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/winter/gear/sleds/equipment.htm

 

http://www.wolfgang-reinelt.de/Outdoor/PulkaHowTo/index.html

 

 

 

[salbrecher]

I've used sleds similar to ferns and they work ok in most cases. The one thing we did that made a big difference was sew one big bag that you can stuff everything into so it doesn't fall out. We also put 2 grommets in the top of that bag and tied it to 2 grommets on the top of the sled.

[snoboy]

tele_nut said:

Is the entire plan for this sled on the internet or in a book?

 

Yes, it's online here.

[ken4ord]

jhump said:

Check these sleds sites out.

 

http://www.telemarktips.com/Sled.html

 

http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/winter/gear/sleds/equipment.htm

 

http://www.wolfgang-reinelt.de/Outdoor/PulkaHowTo/index.html

 

 

 

Several things about the designs on these sites.

 

Instead of uisng nuts and bolts to connect the sled to pack belt I would reccomend using cotter pin with large fender washers. That way you can disconnect the sled from your waist belt. Instead of using seperate waist strap I just used a soldering iron to melt holes in my climbing pack waist belt. Don't notice the holes during the summer time.

 

As for mounting the poles ono the sled I used PC7 to glue the poles to L-tubes and short piece of tube the width of he sled, so that you have n elongated U. Then you can use U-brackets to connect your poles to the deck of your sled. Drill holes at the end of the poles so that you can run the cotter pins from your pack through the tubes. Doing this will eliminate any play at the sled pole connection and the pack pole connection, which will making skiing much more enjoyable.

 

Also, I noticed that a lot of people choose to use PVC. I never really liked it that much cause it broke and it was to flexible. I suggest using aluminum tubing, you can get it at almost any hardware store for about the same price. Either way you can run cord through the poles in case the poles break you have a back up in place that you don't have to set up.

[ryland_moore]

To expand on Ken4ord's comments, I would highly recommend not using any joints to join aluminum poles. Instead only purchase two aluminum poles in the 1/2" diameter and one short 3/4" diameter. I used the 90 degree joiners and they snapped under heavy loads. I also experimented with PVC, but the weight of the sled was too much for me throwing the weight of the sled around and was hard to turn back over weighted on side hills. What worked for me on Denali and did not even have to make a repair was this: Take the two aluminim poles and get a bar bender, bending them at 90 degrees or a even more if you want the poles to cross going to your hips (even stronger). To attach the two poles together on the sled, take the 3/4" aluminum pole and fit it over top of the two 1/2" poles in the middle of the inside of the sled. I had the 3/4" pole running the entire width of the sled in the front. I drilled four holes to accomodate 4 large screws and wing nuts (easy to grab in cold conditions with gloves) and joined the 1/2"poles to the 3/4" joiner with two screws for each pole. Super solid and strong and really awesome on the downhill slope. I was using a harness, but attaching the poles to your pack would work well as suggested above too. The sled was your basic orange kid sled but longer (alomst 5 ft. Get the size that will fit your needs the best, but remember that you want the weight on the bottom. Top heavy sleds or weight sticking up high will cause problems on varied terrain.