Another Portable Ice Shack Project - Pic Heavy
 

Well, I must start off saying I've wanted to build a shack for about 10 years now, but never got around to it. I have a garage, and recently bought a big buddy heater to help heat it.

I've done a bunch of research, and a special thanks to The Fisherman Guy, his completed project is here.

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=24279

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...3686Medium.jpg

The design for mine is roughly based on the following designs.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~charrons/Default.htm

http://www.stopsnoringnow.com/icesha...ntyphotos.html

I have a dodge Dakota, which means I have a small truck box. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that there will be a portion of the shack hanging out the back of my truck over the tailgate. I’m going to set it up so that there’s a fair amount of storage under the shack for gear.

I’m going to make the shack pretty large, so that I can have 4 people relatively comfortably in there. And possibly use for winter camping overnight. The floor will fold down in two pieces with two clasps holding it together. Each floor piece is 6’6”, making the total length 13’. The width is 4’, for standard plywood.

Since I’m thinking on using it for camping as well, I’m making 4 hatches, for 4 holes.

By making the floor so long, I created a problem for myself in that when they fold up, they have to be below the curved portion of the roof or it will damage the canvass. So I’ll be making the roof 7’ high with a very shallow curve. Not the best, but I’ve already built one floor section. In hindsight I’d have made the floor panel only 6’.

The other issue is that it may be quite a sail in high wind, but I guess I’ll find out. I can always use guy wires with ice anchors if needed.

For the spreader roof pole, I was looking for expanding metal poles, since I didn’t want a 13’ pole hanging out the back of the truck. So I went with 2” abs, in three sections put together by couplers. I’ll build a slot for it on each wall, and should work well.

I bought a 15’x20’ brown canvas from princess auto. It looks great on The Fisherman Guy’s setup. I love wood burning stoves too, but since I have a big buddy heater, I’m going with propane heat. I have a CO detector as well.

Other than paint, I think I’ve purchased all of my supplies. The total budget was more than I thought, but this is a project that my wife let me do, so I wanted to do it well.

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...ack_budget.jpg


I spent a few hours this evening and have the first floor section down. My buck keeps me company, it’s cold so he’s got my toque.

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...3688Medium.jpg

Will post updates as I can. Hope to get the project done in about 10 days. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

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Here’s the big buddy going full bore in the background. Works great on the double car garage in -20 weather. Melts snow on the floor.

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Just dam cool! Good thread ABD, sounds like it will be more comfortable and spacious than mine. Great idea with the carbon monoxide dectector, a must have if you are going to sleep in it.

To hold the tarp on the sides, since your floor is collapsable, perhaps you can thread some rope through the grommets, and attach them to each wall, that way when the shack is expanded, the rope pulls tight and holds the tarp down and in place. Snaps can fill with snow, and can be a bugger to clear out in the cold.

How long until you are fishing? I hope to do plenty of fishin over the holidays.
Thanks for the props, I look forward to seeing it in action. A Christmas holiday derby maybe! Let me know what you think! :lol:

I bought some cup hooks to screw every foot or so along the floor. I bought a grommet tool as well, so all I have to do is hook the canvas grommetts onto the hooks to keep it tight. I'll leave some extra cloth as well, and tuck the rest under the floor to help keep blowing snow from getting in. I like that rope idea too, might try both!.

My father is recovering from prostate cancer, and growing up we just sat outside and fished on Pine Lake, so I'm going to push to get it done before the holidays so I can take him out to the lake when we head up to Ded Reer.

update
 

So in about another three hours, I completed the second floor piece and cut and hinged two access hatches. I also decided to cut the first floor piece down to 6" to make my total length 12'. Seems good when it's all laid out.

Other than taking a chunk out of the end of a finger it's going really well. (following in Treeguy's footsteps. Next it will be a broken or severed finger).


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Next step is to do the next two hatches, build the walls, door, paint, and then fit the canvass.

http://icefishinghuts.ca/

Go here and make life easy.....

They're nice enough, but if I wanted to purchase a hut I would have probably just went and bought a 4-man ice cube.

This is a fun project for me with an end use.

This site offers both assembled and assembled yourself. They send you the plans and the canvas and you supply the rest. Or they can build and ship.

Lookin Good - Keep us posted on how it works out

Huntingonthebrain is right, The wooden fold up huts are best there is, and quite affordable at that. $120 gets you the plans plus plywood and the odd board still cheap! and build away. Most economical and spacious hut there is, plus very light weight at that. The only thing with these is to replace the tarp door with a wood one, much handier. Your hut could half the size and have six holes. Cheers

Thanks ULTRAlight. It's going not too bad.

I've got the end wall fastened and up. I just finished painting it after adding a 6"x8" window and vent.

Now that that end is drying, I'll work on the other wall and entry door. Hope to get the wood working part done today, finish painting tommorrow, and work the canvass after a few more days.

I chose to paint for durability, and since I'm using OSB sheathing, I want to keep water off of it. The paint will be a good enough seal for my purposes.

I think it's going to take a while to dry as I can only get the garage to around +8.

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...3700Medium.jpg

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Looking great so far! Took my shanty today for a few hours and it is pretty cramped inside with the portable chairs we have. I think going with a smaller seating alternative, I will be able to have more space. Looks like yours will be a heck of a lot bigger than mine for floor space. I am interested in comparing your weight to square foot ratio. Mine is small and incredibly heavy.

Keep us posted, the photos are great.

This afternoon I built the other wall, put a door in with a small window and got it painted.

All that's left now is paint the bottom of each floor piece, then fit the canvas.

I think it's going to be fairly hefty, probably about 80lbs so far.

The canvass is pretty heavy, so it will probably be well over 100lbs. I beefed up the door wall to keep it from being too flimsy.

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...3704Medium.jpg

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looks good buddy , keep up the fine work.

Looks great, ~ Le Chateau AlbertaDiver~

Can you tell me where you picked up that Big Buddy Heater? It's exactly what we've been looking for and their website doesn't have a search option for Canadian retailers.

Thanks!

Great thread
 

I look forward to see the finished hut and then seeing a couple of good pics of you pulling some fish through the ice. Thanks for sharing your build with us.

weight
 

I realize you dudes are trying to save money, but that OSB stuff is the heaviest material you could use.

Princess Auto. I bought the extra 12' hose extension to connect to a standard BBQ tank as well.

I bought a carbon monoxide detector 'just in case' and I noticed last night after spending most of the day in the garage, that I had a horrible headache and a little bit of nausea. Classic CO poisoning symptoms. The detector didn't go off, but I am going to be a lot more careful because that's not something to play around with.

I installed a vent in the one wall for the shack as well.

I'm using 3/8" which is pretty light. If I had the budgest I would have used plywood, but since I'm painting anyways, osb was my choice.

T&G osb wieghs a ton.

Home hardware has big buddy heaters for 100.00 right now.

Yikes, be careful with that heater man!

Looking good Alberta. It has given me the incentive to build one myself. You can run out and buy one but this will outlast anything that will compare in price. That and you can take pride in building something with your own hands.

Thanks Sparky, BBJ, and others. I could have went and bought a 4 man ice cube for probably cheaper, and it would be lighter, easier to sled, and in some way's they're much better.

However, although I work in the construction industry, I don't get much opportunity to get my hands dirty and physically build somthing myself. This has been a fun project. For work, I do problem solving whether it's constructability issues, contractural issues, or people issues. It has been fun to problem solve for myself and plan.

Got the bottoms of both panels painted today. I'll let them dry overnight with the heaters on, and then work on the canvass hopefully tommorrow.

I'd say I'm 70% done. Could have done more today, but still not feeling 100% from last night and felt like vegging a bit.

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...3707Medium.jpg


Once that's done I'll have to build a sled if I want to go to spray lakes or somewhere like that. Anyone been ice fishing on the Kananaskis lakes?

To be honest, only place I've ever gone ice fishing is Pine Lake because it was so close to the farm. Maybe once or twice to sylvan or Gull, but I would have been a kid.

real nice job now i want to build one a have holiday trailer gutted and is somewhat finnished but too big to take everywhere . for you guys that dont have the time check out
:)http://www.niceshack.com

These are very cool but 2500.00 is way out of my price range.:cry:

Thanks for taking time to post all the pics and info. Most people dont take pride in building things for themselves. Glad to see it when someone still does. My wife bought me a cube last year for christmas so i cant justify building the whole shack but after seeing this I am going to build a floor for it.:wave:

Alllmmmooossst There
 

Well, got the canvas on and fastened this evening.

My only problem now is that the roof spreader pole I planned on using is 3 pieces of 2" abs held by couplers, but it won't straighten out enough to hold the walls apart. Just bends.

SO... anyone have any ideas? What I'm trying to achieve is to have somthing that collapses down to fit in my 5' truck box. I'm thinking about trying to find some more heavy duty extending tent poles or tarp poles, and using 3 of them to spread the load out.

All I have left to do is put some canvass 'blinds' for the windows, and a better latch on the inside of the door to keep it shut better.

For the bottom, I left a 1' strip to put snow on top of to keep it down. I might use a few grommets to bring it to attach to the floor, but we'll see how it goes.

It's not light, probably close to 180lbs or so. I can lift it, but it's awkward. But as you can see it packs down to about 6" deep.

All in all I'm happy, just have to figure out the wall spreading thing...

I also thought about using ropes and ice anchors to pull the walls apart. That still doesn't keep the roof from sagging, so still need a ridge pole regardless.

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...3710Medium.jpg

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Anyhow, thoughts would be appreciated guys.

awsome job !

Nice work ABD! Great job man! Feels great now that it's done I bet!! Now all we need to do is get them out and have a fish off!!

Did it turn out like you had hoped? anything you would've done differently?

I recommend you place it on blocks, not directly on the ice. Both times I have used my shack the blocks were frozen solid to the ice, after just a day's fishing.

How much was your total cost, including your heating system?

As for dimensions, I was fly by night. I designed it as I built it, I would like to see any plans that you built though. Thanks for the post man, great thread.

TFG

Also check Peavy mart I picked one up there last year

Great job on the hut!

My costs were pretty acurate to that little spreadsheet I put together at the top of the forum. The big buddy heater I bought a few weeks ago, for somewhere around $150.00

I didn't do any plans, just in my head. I could draft some up I suppose. I used those websites for reference as well.

I'm pretty happy how it turned out, only problem I'm having is trying to figure out the spreader bars for the roof and keeping the walls up. Still trying to figure that one out. I really like the canvass from Princess auto though, pretty good stuff.

Good point about the blocks. I might get 3 or 4 4x4's to put it on when I'm driving. If I'm dragging it out, might take a little tiger torch to help unfreeze it.

Hell of a job you best better give yourself a pat on the back and crack a couple brews.