Normally, I put all my stuff in a 4x6ft sled... and pull it with a snowmobile or atv to where we fish. Last few years though, there just hasn't been enough snow to run sleds. ATVs would work just as good but frankly using either to pull the sled requires using a trailer, because the sled is so big it takes up the bed of the truck.

I wanted a solution that could just all fit in the back of the truck during these low snow years, so I didn't have to haul a trailer for hours out to the lakes. We have too much gear to fit on the ATV all by itself. I thought about building a rack of some form the ATV sits on with enough space for the sled to fit under, but that gets to be alot of weight above the center of gravity in a half ton truck. Then I started exploring rack extensions.

Googling around, I found this at harbor freight: www.harborfreight.com/...69858.html

It mounts on an ATV via one of these: www.harborfreight.com/...65961.html

I thought it looked like a good deal, and headed to harbor freight today to check it out. When I got there I found the advertisement is wrong, the rack is really a 500lb load limit, not 300 as per the internet! Even better! I bought it, the receiver and a couple bungee cargo net thingys. Assembly was quite easy, adding the hitch mount just as easy as removing the existing ball and sticking the new hitch on. I think it might still torque sideways so I'll probably weld it so it cant rotate (the way my atv hitch is, I can weld a flat bar to this receiver and it will prevent it from rotating).

The cool thing with this rack is it can be used on any 2" receiver. I see a lot of Jeepers using it now as the riser gives more ground clearance.

Anyway all setup and gtg, as a test I had my boy haul some 150lbs of bedding material and food out to the shed. worked great! I don't plan to ever have more than 150lbs on it no matter what the rating is, but it has enough storage space to haul all the extra gear we take out. I figure auger goes on the front end in the gun rack, tent goes on the back rack. I have a huge storage box we'll put on the back rack with the heater, food, tackle boxes and poles etc etc. All of this will fit in the back of the truck easily and allow me to skip the trailer. We'll give it a "on ice" trial run here in the next few days I hope!

-DallanC

Ice fishing.. now that is one thing that I really got to try.

Dallan, the load at the back of the ATV looks like would make the steering wheel bite a lot less.
Would that be safe?

Looks good Dallan...but I agree with Gelan...does it have a tendency to make the front end light mate? A way of fixing that would be to put a spring loaded pneumatic wheel on the rear of the rack...something like a wide wheelbarrow wheel mounted on a leaf spring or something like a coil over motorcycle shock absorber. Something along these lines would do the job...

Aevon Bicycle Trailer

Out here in Oz, I have seen a few sprung single wheel "trailers" for use with a motorcycle. You might be able to adapt something like that to your rack.

Moto-Mule Dual Sport Adventure Cargo Trailer

I'm sure either of those two ideas could be adapted to your rack mate.

DallanC, you sure have made that a versatile rig! Hauling elk to fishing gear to plowing snow. Great way to enjoy the cold.

slimjim wrote:

DallanC, you sure have made that a versatile rig! Hauling elk to fishing gear to plowing snow. Great way to enjoy the cold.

Haha this thing is a tank. Its unbelievable where it can go, and what it can do. I remove the blade when we go fishing though, its only 2 pins. I've had over 1200lbs of cement bags on this particular ATV before... its amazing what it can pack.

As for the weight thing, like i said i don't plan to put alot of weight on it... I did stand on it and it didn't seem like too much of a problem with the steering. Most of the lighter, bulky stuff will be on the back rack (big-buddy heater, tackle boxes, poles, lunch cooler etc). Heavy stuff like my popup tent will go on the back rack, power auger on the front.


-DallanC

4 wheelers work great in the early season but I'm lazy and wait until we have 16 inches of good ice so I can just drive the truck out there.

wiersy111, how many trucks turn into boat anchors during a season?

There are usually a few dumb ___es that push their luck and decide not to use common sense. Most years we end up with about 24 inches, but I have seen over 36 inches.

on a positive note you wont be able to get into trouble wheel standing it. the rack will work like the old carryall trays we had on 3 point linkage behind tractors back in the simple days.
looks to be a great set up and making 3 trips with smaller loads is always a safer option.

Around here, no-one ever drives normal vehicles out on ice... I've never seen a car or truck out there. Normally we have alot of snow on the ice but the past few years have been low snow years.

The lake we normally fish has 10" currently, but I've punched holes through over 40" of ice before.


-DallanC

I do love ice fishing!!! We ended up with quite a bit of snow on the ice before ice was thick so we had a lot of flooding on the lakes, after many days and nights well below zero I am still running into flooded spots. Last week I hit a spot with a foot of snow on top of water that was over my boots, ever with chains on I couldn't get the 4 wheeler out by my self. It made for an interesting afternoon.

I can't get my head around ice fishing...nothing like that out here. The closest we come to ice and fishing in the same sentence is when my mate asks me if I have enough ice in the Esky to keep the drinks etc cold.

I've seen pics of guys pulling an entire hut out on the ice and drilling through the ice via a hole in the floor...they must live out there for weeks at a time. The fishing must be worthwhile I reckon, although I would have thought that the ice cold water would make the fish sluggish and not want/need to eat.

Ice fishing is more about the beer.

Vinnie I'm with you...go sit in a refrigerator for a few hours in the hopes of getting a fish small enough to squeeze through the auger hole....I dunno, I think the attraction is gettin away from hauling firewood to the house an all the other winter chores at home. Mysterious man-games, if you ask me. I don't like to fish sitting still anyway. They have these flag indicators and bells that'll tell you when you have a fish on the line, so you can go do other things instead of staring down the hole. Other things like....what? you're out on a frozen lake....gonna play frizbee? toss the football? bring the portable TV and watch some football? pick yer nose? I don't have a clue. Even if the fishing is good, I'm not stayin out there very long, it's cold. I guess you can have a heater going in those shacks, that's kinda scary, but is so cold the ice isn't going melt and neither are you. I think that's where all the dirty jokes are born and the wild stories of accomplishment and heroics. Can you imagine falling asleep out there and waking up to find it's 8pm and dark as night, you don't know which way is up and you've been drinking all day and you're 20 miles from your truck? No personal floatation device is going save you from that one.



Just a
thought
Suz

Vince wrote:

I can't get my head around ice fishing...nothing like that out here. The closest we come to ice and fishing in the same sentence is when my mate asks me if I have enough ice in the Esky to keep the drinks etc cold. I've seen pics of guys pulling an entire hut out on the ice and drilling through the ice via a hole in the floor...they must live out there for weeks at a time. The fishing must be worthwhile I reckon, although I would have thought that the ice cold water would make the fish sluggish and not want/need to eat.

On a sad note Vince, there have been some terrible accidents involving people ice fishing.

It is not for the faint of heart.
I remember a couple of years ago there were four Newfies killed ice fishing.

The zamboni got all of them in one sweep.