I run an otter sled, but two things you need to do a)make or buy a cover. I am cheap, I went down to Harbor Freight and bought a cheap tarp and a bag full of grommets, folded it over to the right size, put grommets around it about every sixteen inches and ran a chunk of rubber rope around through the grommets. Viola, I had a cover for under ten bucks. I also took a scrap piece of aluminum and hinged it to cover the front two feet or so of sled where the bottom is sloped, behind that I carry my gear in totes, but I can throw smaller stuff I don't want in the totes under that aluminum flap and it keeps the tarp "soft cover" from bellying down and collecting the snow your snowmachine will be throwing up on it.
B)put some high wear runners on it. The blue ones that they sell will get you by if you are just running in deep snow, but I tend to go wherever I need to go, whether there is snow or not, and I could never get a winter out of them. I got some good UHMW from a local mill for free and cut into strips the width of the ribs on the bottom of the sled and almost an inch thick. Bolt those to the bottom of my sled and I get about five years out of them before I need to replace them. A heat gun, or at least having them in a nice warm shop by the woodstove makes it easier to bend strips that thick to follow the curve of the sled.
I've heard the pelicans are good, but I've never been around one. I've also heard several guys in Alaska claim the otter sleds are junk and will break when they hit trees in the cold. Their cold and our cold are different things, I've bounced my otters sleds off trees, stumps, rocks, gates, and anything else daily all winter and one of them I've owned for ten years. I've never broke one yet, and I'm pulling one every day all winter. I've ripped the bolts/pins that hold the tongue on out of them, broke the metal tongues, wore holes in the bottoms, flipped them, chewed holes in them by letting grapple drags ride loose in them; but never cracked or broke one by hitting stuff with it.