Quote:
Originally Posted by Buck Rogers
This will be my third year using this setup for ice fishing. The floor is 5/8 plywood screwed to 2*4 sleepers with 1 polystyrene insulation and glued linoleum with door hinges used to keep it all tight. The floor goes on top of 2*3 sleepers that are separate and held in there pattern by a ratchet strap band, you lay these down first to mark your holes, after drilling and shoveling you put the sleepers down and then the tent floor on top (they are cheap insurance against the floor freezing to the ice in case of bad flood water overnight). The tent skirt anchor holes are attached to the floor with machine star bolts and then a rope with a binder keeps the skirt cinched tight around the floor. I run a big buddy heater and a Milwaukee 18V fan in the tent and within 20 minutes of set up you can be fishing in your socks.
The tent is the 6*12 insulated tent from Cabellas. I also set up a Eskimo 949i with a two burner camp chef for cooking, this tent also serves as spot to use the poop bucket as well.
The main tent sleeps 2 people well, 3 is doable and 4 is really tight but possible (all on army cots). All five holes are catch cover holes with sleeves right down to the ice and two of them are late night fishable even with three cots set up. The cots get stored in the Eskimo during the day and we sit on the hard back Costco camping chairs during the day.
This setup is heavy and a bit of work to set up, if or should I say when I build my next setup I think I will use 3/8 plywood with 3/4 plywood strips for sleepers and 1/2 foam on top of 2*3 sleepers to cut down on the weight.
I cannot adequately explain how nice it is to be on a warm dry floor fishing 3 off the ice 4 hrs from home, sipping a whiskey and catching walleye at midnight in -30 conditions wearing pajamas, its as close to heaven as I think I will get to in this lifetime.
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Im building almost this exact set up! My floor is going to be fixed 6 ft down the middle with 2 folding wings on hinges to make a 14 x9 base for the new otter monster lodge. 1\2 inch plywood top and bottom with 1 inch strapping and insulation with 3 2x6 skis built into the floor to be able to pull it set up with the tent on it behind a side x side. It will store on the trailer with the side x side parked on top. I just built a diesel heater box that sits outside and connects to the propane ports on the tent. And a bluetti 2048 wh solar generator with a 2500 watt backup champion inverter generator and 2 back up big buddy flex heaters. When I go its for 3-4 days so worth the set up and back up equipment.