Due to the lay of the land on my new lease and because there is a wide and shallow river running through the entire property, I picked up a sled to get stands in and deer out. I should be able to float a good amount of weight in the sled. Because I will also be dragging it with an ATV and by hand on hard, dry ground as well as snow, I opted to add thick plastic wear strips to the bottom to extend the life of the sled and to make it track better. I will also add a pull rope and rope tie points all around the top rim of the sled to lash items to the sled so they don't fall out.



I used a heat gun to shape the strips of plastic I cut from a larger sheet.



I bolted the strips to the sled.



I added eye bolts and on the inside of the sled, a strip of steel to spread out the pulling load rather than the two small holes that were in the sled when I bought it. Because I will also make a rigid tow bar, I used quick connect links to the eye bolts to make swapping easier.





The pull rope is beefed up in the middle with clear tubing and then wrapped with gorilla tape so it wont wear through when pulled with the ATV and to increase the diameter for a more comfortable grip when pulling by hand.



It float tested 140 lbs of gear and still be well above the water line and did not leak.

Nice

With my luck, the sled would crack if I tried that....

Good modifications I would treat the entire sled with formula 303 for UV protection and it makes the skids slicker too. I used one for goose hunting but most places I hunt are too rocky for the sled. There are Teflon sprays people use for air boats that would work well too.

HDPE for airboats is the only real way if you are doing more abrasive than grass. The spray on stuff wears pretty quickly unless its just water and grass mostly.

Sharp things: What a great project you have completed. Good for you.
I have had a larger (I think?) sled and used it on Elk, Deer and Antelope for 20 years now.
I will incorporate some of your ideas on my trusty old sled this summer.
Thanks again.
What length is your sled?
I can not tell from the pictures.
Mine is about 7" long.
I have drug it on everything from rocks to sagebrush to natural grass and all manner of crops (wheat alfalfa etc.) - indeed pulling the sled on snow is a breeze.
Amazingly the "bottom" of my unaltered sled is sound and intact after all these usages.
A spring Bear Hunting friend of mine shot a Black bear in an "impossible" situation - Black bears are tough enough to handle/pack in the wild but he was WAY back in a basin with heavy cover and most of the winters snow pack had long since melted.
I dreaded receiving his call to me to help him as I knew the area.
He comes and fetches me and his 6' size sled and the ensuing three mile "drag out" using the sled was not nearly as bad as I envisioned.
Thankfully nearly all of that trek was angling downhill!
Another thing I love about the sleds for transporting Big Game is the sled keeps blood and ooze from the carcass from getting all over the truck bed and other gear and in my case the carpeted truck bed.
They are easy to spray clean once the transporting is done.
Thanks again for the great ideas and the wonderful pictures.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
P.S.: I have literally had to "shame" several of my "acquaintances" into buying their own tow sleds - they kept calling me to bring my sled and help them retrieve "way back in" game animals!
Including one 10:30 P.M. call from a co-worker of my wife's, to retrieve a Bull Elk "that the Wolves would get" if "we" didn't get it out that night!
I did parlay a beautiful Elk "back strap" from that ordeal though.

This looks like the Sh*t to make it real slippery and durable. https://www.tse-industries.com/prod...c-sheets/gatorback-airboat-polymer-sheet

As always, Rancid Crabtree, you are a fine craftsman. Your smoker cabinet, your father's tower stand, your sled mods are all well done. It's your hanging around with politicians and your personal convictions I find troubling.
I will be adding a sled to my gear at some point, and will be modifying it along similar lines. Nice job.

Don't ya just love i when a project is what ya hoped it would be when ya get er done!