Building a sled deck
- Thread starter frosty
- Start date
Okay, here we go! I have about 45-50 pictures of it so far. I'm up to having it primed.
This is showing a must have tool in the fabricating business. This corner tool on a four corners brought me with in a 1/8" square.
Showing the layout on the floor in the shop.
Having built the base for the sled deck itself. This is what the snowmobile will sit on leaving all the room of the bed still available for all the garb you have to bring sledding.
Just a couple different views of how I built it.
This is the deck, which the sled sits on and rides up on to get on top of the base.
Some handles on the side for guiding it up and tieing the sled down.
Tie down for the skies on the sled, just like a regular trailer would have.
This guide is something very important for the deck to have. It keeps the deck from going all crazy in different directions. It keeps the deck in line with the base.
This is showing a must have tool in the fabricating business. This corner tool on a four corners brought me with in a 1/8" square.
Showing the layout on the floor in the shop.
Having built the base for the sled deck itself. This is what the snowmobile will sit on leaving all the room of the bed still available for all the garb you have to bring sledding.
Just a couple different views of how I built it.
This is the deck, which the sled sits on and rides up on to get on top of the base.
Some handles on the side for guiding it up and tieing the sled down.
Tie down for the skies on the sled, just like a regular trailer would have.
This guide is something very important for the deck to have. It keeps the deck from going all crazy in different directions. It keeps the deck in line with the base.
This little caster cost me $2.48 at Home Depot, but cost me almost 3 hours of time on to make it work and what the height should be. This is what the front of the deck rides on to make it smooth pushing to the front of the truck. And it works awesomely
This was another head scratcher, how high and how to tie it all together.
Different views of how the roller would look and work on the base of the sled deck. I had these in my shop laying around, I bought them at Menards awhile back for like $10.00.
These are stop and hold downs at the front of the base. It stop the deck from going any further forward and keeps the deck from flipping up when traveling down the road.
Another view of the stop.
This pin is a very important piece, as it goes through the deck and lines up with the side plates in the back of the base. There is a pin on both sides in the same location and they stop the deck from moving around on the base.
In this picture, the base and deck are mated up. As you can see in the front by the stops, there is alot of space between the deck the top of the stops. This is to allow for a 1/2" sheet of plywood and a 1" piece of composite decking for the ski runners.
Some more views of how it works.
This little ring is the hold down to the truck bed, its welded to the base in all four corners. I just use ractchet tie downs to hold it to the bed.
Heres what it looks like on the truck.
I was kicking this around, should I use a electric winch or just a cum along. I chose a cum along, very simple operation and no need for power.
It works out great! I had my youngest daughter come out to the garage to ractchet me up on the deck. Granite, I'm half the weight of the sled, but I just wanted to see what the deck did as I laid on it. It rolled up smooth as silk and did everything I expected to do. Very HAPPY
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I wanted to put this out there for everyone.
I AM A QUALIFIED WELDER, DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS IF YOU ARE NOT QUALIFED OR TRAINED TO!!!!!!!
I have my certification retested EVERY 6 months.
PLEASE, IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO WELD AND WANT TO DO THIS, FIND SOMEONE WHO IS QUALIFIED TOO!!!
HINT, HINT INDY?!
I AM A QUALIFIED WELDER, DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS IF YOU ARE NOT QUALIFED OR TRAINED TO!!!!!!!
I have my certification retested EVERY 6 months.
PLEASE, IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO WELD AND WANT TO DO THIS, FIND SOMEONE WHO IS QUALIFIED TOO!!!
HINT, HINT INDY?!
So far, between the casters, the ratchet straps, the rivets and new fancy dancy rivet gun, about $50.
I had all this material laying around my shop.
If you had to purchase all the steel, your looking in the neightborhood of about $350-400. Depends, this was built for the purpose of expanding it in the future to hold two sleds. So the rails on the deck are alot beefer than the base.
indy_500
Well-known member
Looks a lot easier to retrofit an old 8x8 trailer on there instead
If you can make that work, by all means, save a bunch of time. I purpose built this for my truck and to fit around my tuxedo cover rails. Also, when I'm ready, all I have to is lay 5 pcs of 2x2x3/16" stock across top and some flat stock alondg the side of the deck and BAM, 2 sled deck.