Board logo

OT - Sledge design advice required :-)
eznfrank - 9/1/10 at 08:07 AM

I've been dying to go sledging but all round here has sold out of sledges but now I've found a few designs online for ''build your own''. The question is - most of the desgins use two rails with some sort of aluminium runners but I'd have thought that would dig into the snow quite a bit?? Especially with me being a big lad?

The reason I ask is I have a nice piece of surplus work surface which has a curved edge that looks like it would make an excellent base, but why didn't the designs use a flat bottom?

P.S. I've already made a camera mount!! :-)

Humbug - 9/1/10 at 08:11 AM

With a flat bottom it would have no directional stability; with runners, you will be able to keep it pointing in one direction

Steve G - 9/1/10 at 09:22 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Humbug
with runners, you will be able to keep it pointing in one direction


Being in control - where's the fun in that though??

I recon a Stainless sink would be great - so long as you can get you're a*se in it, you'll be the fastest on the slope!!

MK9R - 9/1/10 at 09:27 AM

Screw some strips of ali, steel or platic to the bottom of the work surface, should give you a bit of straightline stability. They have sold out of sledges for miles round here, the kids are resorting to tea trays, plastic bags and cardboard boxes! The sledging field in our village looks like a war zone, broken bits of plastic and debrit everywhere!

mangogrooveworkshop - 9/1/10 at 09:41 AM

Go and get a car bonnet

flibble - 9/1/10 at 09:53 AM

Wheelie bin lids were the best when I was younger

Hellfire - 9/1/10 at 09:53 AM

When I was a kid, I always found lorry inner-tubes made the best sledges. Pop down to the local tyre place and borrow a few. Repair the punctures, fill them with air and off you go. You'll be the fastest and most comfortable on the slopes and if you burst it, you just go get another one.

You don't have much control but like Steve G says, where's the fun in that? It's not like you're competing in a slalom......

Phil

welderman - 9/1/10 at 10:13 AM

had my sledge 31 years and its a cracker, now my kids are getting the use out of it.

Humbug - 9/1/10 at 11:41 AM

I remember once going to Switzerland over New Year. With a local guy we climbed (as in walked + scrambled, rather than ice picks and crampons) up a mountain - took about 4 hours from the highest point we could drive to, and it was snowy all the way. We got to the top not long before sunset. we started on our way back down a different way. We got to the top of a ridge above a long curver valley and the local guy got a bunch of industrial thickness bin bags, which we sat in and slid down this valley. Excellent fun, dry as a dry thing, controllable by sticking your heels down in the corners and we arrived about 3/4 the way back to the car in about 5 mins!

meany - 9/1/10 at 05:36 PM

1 x plastic barrel (waterbutt)
cut in half down the length
= 2 x sledges.

who needs directional stabilty