Fished this weekend with a good friend. He has a 1-yr old Stikemaster with the molded plastic handles. Well, while traveling across the ice, he hit an unforeseen snowdrift. His sled (an older Elan) and otter sled both flew about 3 feet or so in the air. It was a sight to see. He bounced off the Elan upon impact, and tumbled without injury….and his otter appeared to be fine, so he re-saddled and continued on. Upon getting home, we discovered that both of those plastic handles on the auger were sheared off……..His otter sled is none the worse for wear, not a mark on it.
Why on earth would they go to those handles instead of reliable steel? This is the 2nd one I know of this season that this has happened to – and the first one was not even the result of hitting anything – just from the rattling/bouncing of regular travel.
Has anybody else had this problem? My SM Lazer is 16 yrs old and been pounded in the otter sled many, many miles and is none the worse for wear…..why on earth would they change to plastic handles 
Tim