What to carry winter gear? Of course, on sleds, on children's plastic sledges, called in the fishing environment "KORYTO". On the shelves of stores, now not only children's goods, but also for anglers, there are several sizes of such sledges. They can vary in size, shape and profile of the bottom.
If your company has been going fishing by car for years, then it makes sense to purchase completely the same type of “trough”. Having folded them according to the principle of nesting dolls, you can very noticeably minimize their volume by putting them in the trunk or in the cabin. Or even by placing "troughs" on the external trunk or arcs.
I must say right away that I was not the first to come up with the idea of using them for fishing. The theme of ordinary children's sleds was developed more. Tried to put them on skis. They glued fiberglass boxes with their placement on fluoroplastic "slips". But when I first saw children's sleds on the ice, I realized that they surpassed my technical searches in all respects.
Why are they so attractive?
Are made of frost-resistant and shock-resistant plastic.
Can be stored in any conditions.
Being deformed during storage, after removing the load, they return to their shape again.
They do not require special care, they are light, and there is enough internal volume for winter luggage.
A large footprint allows you to carry a fairly heavy load even on loose snow.
They can be used in conjunction with a backpack or fishing box.
And most importantly, they can be somewhat modernized, bringing them even closer to our fishing needs.
He didn’t stupidly copy what he saw, but immediately ran to the store to get them, and when he brought them home, he first of all listened to the malicious mockery of his family. Like: “What kind of mermaids are you going to ride fishing?” or “You rarely bring that much fish!”
But the plan for their tuning in my head was already ripening, so, having taken out the necessary tool, I set to work. The first is the towing eye. For this, steel wire (preferably stainless steel) with a diameter of about 2.0-3.0 mm is best suited.
For the manufacture of technological loops on the sides, after several trial options, I took segments of a stainless steel steel cable with a diameter of 1.5-2.5 mm. The holes for the eye and loops are perfectly melted with a hot nail on a gas burner, the diameter of which is equal to two diameters of the workpiece wire, that is, 4-6 mm.
To attach the tow rope, I used a carabiner, so the diameter of the eye ring is arbitrary. To limit movement and not to break holes in the plastic, I used two lock washers. The fixation of the eye from the wire occurs by bending the ends of the workpiece in different directions (such as a "mustache").
In the manufacture of side loops of wire, I proceeded from the size of the hook of the elastic shock absorber. The stopper for the loop is a flattened small piece of thin-walled metal pipe.
During transportation, the trough is empty, but on the ice there is a folding chair and a backpack. In order not to lose all this on the road, I use elastic shock absorbers.
Finnish sleds differ from the classic ones in a raised seat and long skids. The person standing behind leans with one foot on the runner of the sled, the other is repelled, as if on a scooter. For convenience, handles or a special frame for riding are attached to the seat. The stability and speed of the device allows you to comfortably ride one or two, as well as carry luggage.
Contrary to the name, the Finnish sled was not invented in Finland, but in Sweden. Initially, such sleds were a traditional means of transportation in the Scandinavian countries. Now they are used for outdoor activities in parks and skating rinks, transportation of fishing equipment and just for fun in the winter.
Finnish fishing sleds have a modified design. Their weight is less (up to 8.5 kg), the length of the skids is shorter (1.37 m), which simplifies both long-distance travel and transportation in a car. The device of the sled allows you to quickly move on smooth ice and trampled snow (up to 15 km / h). For better gliding on loose snow, plastic runners, similar to cross-country skis, are attached over steel ones.
A high seat and a special frame attached to it reduce the load on the back. Sledges are also used instead of a comfortable fishing chair with a high back. On a sleigh, you can comfortably transport the equipment necessary for fishing, and on the way back you can also catch a catch. For greater convenience, additional hooks and elastic bands are attached to secure the tackle box. Collapsible Finnish sleds for fishing are especially convenient.
Specifications and design features
There are two types of sleds: for walking and for fishing.
The walking option for adults weighs up to 10 kg, the length of the runners reaches 2 m. The design can withstand weight up to 180 kg. Smaller size sleigh intended for the entertainment of children. They are designed to carry weight up to 110 kg, respectively, the skids are shorter (up to 1.55 m), the weight is also reduced.
Finnish fishing sleds are lighter than recreational ones (up to 8.5 kg), the length of the runners does not reach 1.4 m. This option can withstand 150-180 kg. Fans of winter diving often equip the structure with additional fasteners for cargo, use plastic lining on the skids. Finnish fishing sleds are also equipped with a motor and a special wheel, which increases the weight to 16 kg and increases the speed of movement to 40 km/h.
Both variations are durable: the racks and runners are made of metal, the seat and back are made of dried wood, varnished or painted. For convenient transportation, folding models are made, which, when disassembled, take up a minimum of space.
How to make a Finnish sled with your own hands
Finnish sleds are simply arranged: at home, a craftsman can independently make them for fishing or entertainment.
The choice of design and design depends on the skills and technical skills of the home master. The selection of materials and tools is determined by the purpose of the vehicle: for fishermen, more durable and stable sleds are suitable than for skiing. The walking option is made of wood or aluminum, and to make a Finnish fishing sled with your own hands, it is better to use steel as the main material.
skids
The easiest way is to use old skis with a metal edging for homemade. 4 corners with pre-drilled holes for bolts are attached to the wooden skids.
To make aluminum steel sleds, you will need a pipe bender and welding. Ribbed rubber for the footrest and footrest is also needed. The base is bent from aluminum pipes: skids, leg support and chair mounts. Rubber is glued to the footboard and the back of the runners for an anti-slip effect, holes are drilled for attaching the racks.
The most stable and durable design will be made of metal. Skids are formed from bent sheet steel. A metal rod with threaded ends is inserted into the holes drilled in the front. To prevent slipping, as in the previous version, rubberized pads are attached.
Chair
To save time and effort, you can install an old chair on the skids, having previously marked and drilled holes for the bolts.
To make the seat and backrest, you yourself need to prepare wooden bars or planks and cover them with paint or varnish. Wooden parts are attached to a frame made of aluminum pipes or metal. Holes are made in the finished chair for subsequent screwing to the runners and the rack.
Racks
Finishing the manufacture of wooden sledges, the back is built up with wooden blocks and an upper bar is installed from the same material.
To install aluminum vertical racks from pipes, the frame is bent, boards are fastened with rivets, holes are drilled at the bottom for screwing to the base. For convenience, handles or crossbar are pasted over with porous rubber.
A rack of metal plates and wooden bars is fastened with screws, a horizontal bar is attached to the upper part or handles are made.
If collapsible sleds are being made, wing nuts are used to attach the uprights and chair to the skids.
How to make your sled more comfortable
Finnish sleds are equipped with wide plastic nozzles, which are used for skiing on loose snow when the runners begin to sink.
The sled can be turned into self-propelled by adding motorcycle parts. A motor and a gas tank are mounted on a separate frame, and a wheel is additionally installed. The speed of such transport will be almost 3 times higher (up to 40 km/h).
To reduce the likelihood of injury, in addition to pasting the handles and footboards with a rubber cloth, an anti-slip platform for the feet is additionally installed and an overlay is put on the shoes.
To fix the load on the sled, various fasteners, elastic bands, hooks are added. This option is used by anglers to transport equipment.
What is better homemade or purchased sled
In order to make a Finnish sled with your own hands, you must have the necessary skills, materials and tools. Of the positive aspects of independent work, one can note not only the money saved, but also the design, limited only by the imagination of the home master.
Purchased sleds will be stronger and more durable: factory processes are used to process metal and wood. A wide range will allow you to choose a model with the desired functions and related accessories. Whatever the choice, the Finnish sled will be both a fun winter entertainment for children and adults, and a faithful assistant on winter fishing.
Homemade do-it-yourself fishing sled box The fishing box is both the angler's seat and the storage of the catch, fishing tackle, tackle, bait, bait and food. At the moment, anglers are moving away from the traditional rectangular box with one shoulder strap. Some anglers simplify the task and are content with only a backpack and a chair, or a canna or a bucket for seating and fishing... The lid of the bucket, on which the angler actually sits, is usually covered with foam plastic, porous rubber or felt for greater insulation. Of the various types of fishing boxes, metal boxes of industrial production with a soft seat and removable ski runners are still in demand. As a rule, they are used by urban fishermen during the transitions from transport to the place of fishing. Of course, such boxes are quite convenient, they are voluminous, strong, reliable and durable, but they have two significant drawbacks: the first is that a metal box rattles a lot on open ice, creates a noise that scares cautious fish, the second is the price of such a box.
Still, the vast majority of craftsmen fishermen make original boxes from plywood, wood, polystyrene or metal with their own hands. For example, we present you the original design - this is the so-called backpack-sled (Fig. 1). This model is indispensable both in transport and when hiking on the back of the fisherman, and, most importantly, when moving on snow and ice. A large area of support does not allow him to fall into loose snow. It is flat and its side walls are collapsed, as is the case with rustic sledge sledges, which, together with the guide skids, allows you to create very good stability when driving over snowy rough terrain. The side walls are made in the form of a human back and rise to the level of the head. Most of the load can be placed above the shoulders, which, when walking, makes it possible to take the main part of the load vertically on the spine and, thus, unload the muscles of the back and lower back. "Sled backpack" is best made from duralumin. It has 3 compartments. The two lower ones, with a volume of 14 liters, are intended for equipment and products. The upper one, up to 25 liters, is intended for fish. The top is made of tent fabric. From above it closes the valve with the help of two clamping elastic bands with hooks, protecting the first compartment from snow. In order to make such a sleigh backpack at home, you will need a set of ordinary locksmith tools, a few pieces of duralumin, tent fabric and rivet corners. The side walls, the upper part, the folding cover of the sleigh backpack and the partitions are made of solid duralumin 1 mm thick; the bottom is composite, its inner part is made of soft aluminum, the sliding surface is made of hard aluminum 0.5 mm thick. This part of the bottom is riveted together with the guide skids, and when worn, it is quite easy to replace. By the way, it must be said that it is not at all necessary to make the bottom composite, but with a fairly active use of the sleigh backpack, you may have to change the sliding part of the composite bottom more than once. Guide skids are made of duralumin with a section of 5 by 8 mm. They are riveted along the entire bottom of the sled, 40 mm from the side edge. The side walls are best made according to the shape of the curve of your back, in which case the sled will lie more comfortably during the carrying process. To do this, first, from a piece of thick cardboard on one side, you will need to cut out the silhouette of the curve of the back, and on the other, the shape of the sliding surface. After that, using this template, cut out the side walls of the sled from metal without allowance. At the workpiece of the inner part of the bottom, first of all, it is necessary to bend the sides to a height of 20 mm, and then riveted the side and back walls to them. The collapse of the side walls with respect to the vertical is 20 degrees and is set by the inner and rear walls. Next, you need to rivet the guide skids together with the sheet of the sliding surface. Now the composite bottom is ready. The hinged lid thus closes the interior of the sled and is held in place by a locking lug located on the interior wall. The constipation works due to the bending deformation of this very wall. In order to open the lid, it will be enough to press the inner wall forward - and the spring will drop the lid. Two U-shaped loops are riveted at the bottom of the sleigh, a wide support belt is inserted into them and stretched with lacing. Firstly, this belt softens the fit of the sled against the back, and secondly, it provides ventilation to the back when you walk due to the air gap. The canvas top must be sewn around the entire perimeter of the front compartment through the holes drilled in advance in the side walls. It features a drawstring neck, a flap and a large zip pocket. Shoulder straps are put on a specially provided axis, and limiting brackets fix their position on this axis. Inserts (with M-5 thread) are pressed into both ends of the axle, through which the axle is fastened with screws directly to the side walls of the sled. For manual carrying, a handle is attached in the same way to the front of the sled.
Fishermen use a wide variety of equipment while catching fish. Especially for winter fishing. In order to make it easier for yourself to move around the ice stake, you should approach this issue in an unconventional way - for this you should create a sledge for winter fishing.
Making a sled with your own hands for winter fishing is not so difficult as it might initially seem. With all this, for this you need an aluminum sheet, as well as a profile. Here it should be noted right away that the dimensions of such a sleigh should be chosen based primarily on your own preferences. These sleds will consist of only the main three parts - or rather, from the standard side walls, bottom and runners.
Step 1. First you need to draw a drawing of your future sleigh or print the diagram itself, having previously found it on the Internet. Well, after that you need to start carefully marking the material. First of all, you need to cut out all the aluminum areas of the sled itself.
Step 2 It will be very good when you also have a standard bending machine at your disposal, but if it is not there, then in principle it is possible to get by with an ordinary steel corner or a mallet. But both sidewalls should be solid, then there is an option - you should cut out a solid metal part, and then bend it in such a way that you get two sidewalls of the same size at once, as well as the back wall. Then you need to make the bottom part, using the same technique. It is also important to remember that the edges of the sled must be safe, so it is best to bend them immediately.
Step 3 At the next stage, you just need to make the skids themselves, they only need to be cut from a pre-prepared aluminum profile. The most important thing at this stage is to correctly calculate and mark everything, and after that, carefully make simple cutouts in places where the runners will bend.
Step 4 At the last final stage, it is necessary to proceed with the full assembly of the winter sled, and here you will only need any fasteners, including self-tapping screws designed for metal.
The connection can be made using nuts and bolts. In general, there are a whole bunch of options, so you don’t need to cook anything with a welding machine in this case.
Any way to go fishing brings not only joy, but also brings a lot of worries to the process. For winter fishing, a fisherman needs to carry a lot of different things and equipment with him: a tent, an ice screw, a fishing box, and so on.
It is simply impossible not to take some of the devices: without an ice drill, you will not make a hole, without a box you will not sit comfortably, there will be nowhere to keep the bait and equipment, and without a tent there will be no warmth and comfort during the fishing process. Therefore, you need to have everything. But moving on ice, and even more so on a snowy surface with such a load, is not easy, especially with frequent changes of place. It is to facilitate the movement of the fisherman that special sledges designed for winter fishing are required.
On the frozen reservoir, you can always admire sleds of various designs, both purchased in a store and homemade.
Sledge with metal skids
Such models usually come in two versions: non-separable and folding. Previously, only such sleds were used for winter fishing trips. Iron sleds have a very rigid structure and a significant load capacity. Things are located on a cargo area made of wooden slats, plastic or fiberboard.
The disadvantages of such sleds include their difficult movement in deep snow: when the thickness of the snow cover is higher than the distance between the base of the skis and the upper plane, the sled is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to pull. The problem lies in the narrow skis, which are not able to keep the sled on the snow cover. It is convenient and easy to pull such sleds over covered with a low layer of snow and clean ice, or even over trampled snow.
Plastic sled for fishermen
Such models are made of frost-resistant plastic, they are made in the form of a trough with a ski-shaped front part. For smooth and stable movement along the course, they have stiffening ribs on the bottom that act as skids. Plastic sleds? the best transport option for winter fishing. Having a wide base, such sleds do not fall through and move easily even on freshly fallen snow.
In view of the low sides for attaching fishing equipment and things, you need to use rubber straps, the holes for which should be made along the sides with your own hands. The cost of plastic sledges depends on the size and quality of the material. Their dimensions must be selected based on the number of things transported, usually the size should be selected for a fishing box.
But do-it-yourself fishing sleds are considered the most durable, reliable and comfortable; when making them, the fisherman takes into account all his abilities and wishes.
Making a sled for winter fishing with your own hands is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Such homemade vehicles can be made from wood, aluminum, plastic pipes, metal and other materials at hand.
Homemade aluminum fishing sled
To make a light sled, you will need an aluminum sheet and a profile of the same material. Their dimensions are selected based on the total capacity of the transported devices and the dimensions of the fishing box. Such sleds have three main parts: two side walls, a bottom and skids. Their production takes place in several stages:
Wooden homemade sled
Also, good sleds for winter fishing can be made of wood. Before manufacturing, you will need to carry out the necessary calculations and select the material. It is better to use pine boards, it is easily processed, but other types of wood can also be used. Having decided on the material, you can begin to manufacture parts of the sled. You will need:
- boards;
- glue for wood;
- sandpaper of different grain sizes;
- electric jigsaw;
- electric drill and other tools for woodworking.
On two boards intended for skids, in front, using a compass, draw semicircles and cut them out with a jigsaw.
Drill holes on the runners to strengthen the transverse bars; you need to connect the parts with round spikes on the glue. After installing the crossbars, it is desirable to strengthen the structure by installing transverse strips on round spikes in the front and rear of the skids. After complete drying of the adhesive joints, cut, where necessary, the protruding tips of the spikes and sand everything with sandpaper.
On the board intended for the seat and installation of the fishing box, it is necessary to cut grooves to connect it to the skids. In the back of the skis, you will need to glue the bars in those places where the skids will connect to the board for the seat and box installation. Starting from the rounded part of the runners, an aluminum or steel strip is attached to them with screws from below.
Before starting assembly, be sure to fit all finished elements and check the accuracy of the connections. All manufactured parts must be well sanded and coated with waterproof varnish. Assembly is carried out using self-tapping screws and a special waterproof adhesive composition. After finishing work, install a fishing box on the sled, put the necessary things for fishing and check the product for strength.
For convenient operation of the sled, drill the required number of holes along the edges for attaching an elastic band that will hold the load.