I have a 2022 Skandic wide track, towing a medium sized otter sled pro with the otter cover. I need to build a flat top that seals the snow from blowing inside the sled while on the trail. What experience do you have modifying otter sleds for trapping that may help me with planning my sled build? I carry my wolf traps in rubber-maid totes that fit flat broadside within the sled. But I also carry my setting tools, a long handled square nose shovel for clearing snow from, and covering traps with snow. My chainsaw is in the mount at the rear of the skandic. Id love to see some photos of what you who are trapping from a snowmobile use to carry all your supplies and or what mods you might have made to your snomobile or to your tow behind sleds to make life easier on the line? Id prefer to not re-invent the wheel when I know others have likely done this prior?

Thanks in advance!

Something like this? I use it with my Skandic WT also. Outside cover is Naughahide, with a green canvas sewed on the inside, or two layers. Single of either material is too floppy and snow from track caves it in. Two layers sheds snow. A 2x6" piece of treated wood screwed on from underneath the back lip of the sled, with a piece of 3/4" galvanized conduit from front to rear and loops on the cover inside
holds the cover up, velcro on wood edge and front and back bottom of cover seals the front and rear. I made loops with hooks to secure bottom edge to outside edge of sled lip. I can open it from either side. Built it about 14 years ago, works well.
I'd advise against building any trailer with a flat top, just keeps collecting powder from your track.

I use this old homemade contraption until it breaks, then I’ll switch over to one of those big trappers sleighs with skids in the back. Buddy usually follows behind with his big ice fishing sleigh. He’s drilled holes and can bungee a trap over but we haven’t don’t that yet. When multi species trapping it’s a ton of gear, and if I get a wolf or 2, there’s no room so a 2nd sleigh is nice. The gun boot is on the snowmobile now and is sometimes safe, but some of our trails are tight, the new machines won’t make it down unless they got the narrow pogo front suspension. Like you, my wolf stuff is in containers with good lids, chains & drags in milk crates. Crappy pics but here’s what I got for now.
Good luck JW!!

This is an old pic. I’ve added a Skidoo bag in back and the gun boot to the Tundra. The Skidoo bag actually stands up to the conditions good and the zipper hasn’t broken yet.

I'll see if I can find some pics later, I lost a bunch of pics when my old phone crapped out, then more when my computer went bughouse a few months ago. I run an otter sled also, and carry my wolf gear in totes with good lids. I was too cheap to buy the cover, so I made one from a tarp, bought a bunch of tarp grommets from Harbor Freight and cut it to size and put grommets about 16" apart all around the edge, then ran a piece of rubber rope (truckers use it on their big tarps, very handy for lots of things) through all the grommets. I then took a piece of aluminum skinned poly sheeting I had laying around and attached it to the front of the sled with a couple hinges, it is just a couple feet long to cover the angled part of the front of the sled where totes won't sit. This prevents the cover from bellying down there and collecting snow, and with the hinges I can flip it up and toss smaller items under it, the totes in the rest of the sled prevent the cover from bellying down there. Most trails I run are rough enough that powder shakes off and doesn't build up on the relatively flat top, but wet heavy snow will if I'm not stopping frequently and removing the cover. Most important thing I did to the sled was to cut inch thick strips of UHMW and bolt them (use countersunk bolts) to the ribs on the bottom of the sled, I go wherever I need to go regardless of snow or lack thereof, I usually go through one to two sets of skis on the snowmobile a year, but that UHMW will last me several years, I would go through multiple sets of the runners that Otter sled sells in a winter, they are too soft a material.

You might try reposting this on the Wilderness forum to get more responses, lots of those guys run snowmachines all winter. Although you'll be told how Otter sleds won't hold up and will break apart when you hit stuff with them. True for the cold they deal with, but at the temperatures we usually have I have bounced them off trees, rocks, gates, etc. for years and not had an issue. I did rip the tongue off one after a few years hanging it up on a log I was going over, and after about ten years managed to break that one up, but figured it had close to 15,000 miles on it when I did so. I figured that was a good life.

Snowshoes, axe, shovel, and saw are all attached to the box on the back of my SWT. Lure is usually in that box, urine in a pocket in coat or the "glove box" under the windshield so it doesn't freeze. Or I use dog or wolf urine where they pee in the snow and I scoop the yellow snow into a ziploc bag and toss it into the front of the sled.

these things are a good alternative to otter sleds. You can build them as big as you want. The one in the first picture is smallish-medium sized (3 supports per side) and the one in the second picture is a much bigger one (5 supports per side), used by families to travel between villages with cargo (typically 1 or 2 50-gallon drums, a couple of people and luggage). Most of the joints in these sleds are mobile so they bend instead of breaking, are easy to fix, and usable even in the coldest weather when otter sleds become super-brittle.

T can you show how sleds joints are fastened to not break but move.,

Probably the same way we do ours. They are mortise & tenon joints that are tied together rather than using any hardware fasteners.

The traditional method was rawhide or sinew but these days it is para cord.
I MIGHT have some pix that illustrate it.

Edit: Look closely at T's pictures. Notice the black stuff at a 45 degree angle between the top of the runner and the stanchion. Notice it goes through a hole in the stanchion. That is some sort of lashing material.

The joints between the crosspiece and the stanchions are held together the same way.

Very much the same way we do ours

Great tips, Thank you!

Interesting, and clever,,looks like all "joints" are tied with rope going through holes bored through the supports...

Great feedback- Thank you!

phone cable (thicker duplex cable will work too).


This one is a nicely made big cargo sled, it doesn't need to be so pretty.
Ideally the planks/ribs/whatever is the right term should be made of split rather than sawn wood but few people bother to follow protocol anymore. I'm thinking modern composite materials could be used as well.
The blue material on the skis to make them more slippery is strips of plastic 50-gallon drums

You can see the lashings better in this pic.

Great feedback- Thank you!

W17: Your lead dog there looks a bit sluggish. Did you take him to a vet? Did it turn out OK? Asking for a friend...

PB

I used to run sleds with skis. Not the same type of design as Tatiana and White pictured, but angle iron legs down to the skis and an angle iron rectangle frame with the tongue coming off the front, then I could drop whatever type box I needed for the day in that frame, dog box if I was going hound hunting, different box for trapping, or just a chunk of plywood to make a flatbed. They worked well but with the solid welded joints they didn't provide the flex shown in those lashed joints and they would eventually stress and crack the angle iron, requiring me to reweld/scab it back together. I ran UHMW on those skis also, and it makes a world of difference. I knew a couple guys who ran strips of plastic barrel on theirs like Tatiana shows, works well on snow but wears out pretty fast when running on bare ground and rocks. One thing you want to do if running a ski sled is make sure the ski stance on the sled is the same as the ski stance on your snowmachine, you want it to track right down the ski tracks your snowmachine is leaving.

Yes.
Very few rocks in Yugra, most of it is one giant flat peatbog. Reduced friction saves gas considerably for long hauls and heavily loaded sleds, but it's not a big deal for routine trapline checks or fishing.

Similar sleds used to be made commercially, not on a large scale, and I think they were produced by one of our aircraft factories along with skiffs (riveted aluminum alloys, same tech essentially, just like your Grumman boats).

Some people make DIY sleds of this kind, many use a combination of an open box with low walls and a taller, +- cubical box with a lid in the back. Found a picture from some years ago.

Install a piece of plastic sheeting on the underside of your tow hitch. will deflect the snow down and under the sled.

Yeah he was a bit off his feed. Some sort of restriction in his throat... A bone maybe ???

Great ideas here