Go heavy on Seafoam, and if you are lucky, it will clean up in a tank or so.

Go heavy on Seafood, and if you are lucky, it will clean up in a tank or so.

I would make sure that there is enough difference between the sled you have and the one you are getting. If you have a hub, that is lighter, so you need a flip is you are moving to make that simpler, but if it is heavier than the hub you might never use it. If I had one that was a good no compromises 2 man, I would get the tiniest 1 man you can find.

Jigging rap catches on the edge of the hole, and loses fish sometimes. Other than that, a good lure.

Battery life is affected by care. Leaving them plugged in all year may be boiling the water out of your battery. RV chargers are some of the cheapest around, and if they don’t have a “maintain” mode, leaving them plugged in all the time is hard on them.
Ditto for leaving batteries discharged in the winter- a dead battery can freeze solid, and bend the plates or bulge the case. Even if you just have the carbon monoxide detector pulling juice, it will eventually drain.
If you get 5 years out of a set of RV batteries, especially if you are not leaving them charged and disconnected in storage, you are doing good.

It is hard to overstate how much power a furnace can use, if it has a fan. A blind estimate of your trailer would be 10 amps. We use our travel trailer in the summer, and can go a week or more running LED lights, TV, fridge, and so on. Go out in fall when it is below zero, and the batteries last 2 nights max, and I have (2) 6V golf cart batteries, which store more than your standard size batteries. They weigh 80 lbs each.
I would assume that your furnace runs a lot if you are in there day and night, and as has been noted above, your charger is not able to recharge the battery in a reasonable time. A Honda 2200 generator can produce 2000 W, +/-, but your charger is only producing 3.3A*12V, or about 40W. If you go with my guess that your furnace fan uses 10 amps, you need to recharge 3 hours for every hour of furnace time.
You need a faster charger, and probably even one that can charge both batteries separately if you are going to get them charged in a reasonable time. I think you can safely charge one battery at 15A, so if you charged both separately, you could charge 10X faster than what you have now.
All this is guesswork, and like others have stated, a meter is what you need to find out what is really happening. There are meters you can buy for not much that clamp over the wire and measure the current in the wire. That will let you know how much you are using, and then you can calculate how much battery you need if you want to last a few days without recharge.
Taking batteries to zero volts, especially in cold temperatures, reduces their life a lot, and you will be replacing them frequently if they are left dead out there in winter.

I have never found sharpening to be that hard. I am not talking about bent or chipped blades, but if you stick to sharpening the side away from the ice, you can bring it back to a new edge with little trouble. I started about 2010 with a set of cardboard grinding/sharpening wheels I bought from EBAY, and have sharpened my 6 inch mora, 4 inch mora, and 5 inch Lazer blades probably 10 times in total. If you have old eyes like me get a pair of Harbor Freight jewelers loupes to see the burr, and once you see a burr glinting all along the ice side, you are done. No need to strop the burr off like you do when sharpening knives- that just tempts you to touch the ice side, with is about the only way to screw it up. I got one of those Workshop belt sander sharpeners, and is works as well- I even could get in and sharpen my 4.5 inch Nils, which was impossible with the paper wheels.
If you are going to send them in anyway, it costs you nothing to try. I did not find it hard at all.

I have bought auger adapters from HHOgenerators on EBAY. He is fast, cheap, and can make anything you can describe. His Email is [email protected] if you can’t find him by his Ebay ID.

You said in your original post “flasher”, but the responses include graphs so I will assume you just want to fish like you did with your dad, and not spend too much.

I have used the Marcum Ice trotters for years- they do the job, and are small and light. I walked, and it was nice to have something not a lot bigger than a cellphone. They are selling them cheap: https://marcumtech.com/product/showdown-troller-2-0/

If you want to go a little bigger, Consider the Garmin Striker 4- you can get models that have GPS and even will make maps of your local lakes, and they start about the same price. You can get a full on ice kit, or buy the summer kit and dangle the transom transducer and add your own battery. There are a lot of folks on a budget using home-brew setups like that. You can find out how much work it is on Youtube or the forums.

Of course, you would never be sorry with a modern flasher from any manufacturer, especially if you can find a deal on a used one. I have sold or given away all of my older units, but they still worked.

I have used silicone spray to shed water and keep snow from sticking. Works on snow shovels too.

A generator is going to be your cheapest option. Between Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, and Slickdeals, you should be able to fine one for <400. It can do so much more than a solar setup you would be willing to bring. Remember, that panel is rated at 100W max, and you don’t get that many hours of full sun, so I am betting you can count on less than 500 W*H of power per day. Run your 2KW generator for 15 minutes and you get the same. You can also run a heater, a heating pad, a corded drill for making holes, or your corded electric knife for filleting if you need to. Home Depot has several less than $400.
Another option is a big battery- I bought a LiPO4 trolling motor battery for the boat I paid about $700.- it weighs 28 lb, and holds 1300 W*H of energy. That is a lot more than you could ever use charging things up, and you could run an inverter to service all of your chargers.

A third option is to use tool batteries. If you have several, there are adapters for most brands that have USB sockets, and would charge all your 5V needs. I connect my Garmin sonar to them directly, and always have a spare if needed.

As a fisherman and skier, I can say for sure that the Smitty is the way to go for pulling. If you ever have gotten out in conditions where snow freezes to the bottom of your sled, it can be a killer.
Long, narrow skis are faster, like cross country or downhill race skis. The side cut on modern skis does you no favors, and old, out of date straight skis are cheaper anyway.
If you want the ultimate, wax your skis like a ski racer- hot wax them and scrape them down. There are videos on YouTube. Don’t drag them across the parking lot- again, treat them like race skis.
Also, put your rope on the ski tips, or at least down low on the sled, to help it ride up in deep snow.

I use these:

Not leather, but though and easy on/off and good grip.

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I have Striker Predator. Plenty warm for me, and I would not want anything thicker or heavier to walk in. I put my phone in the vest pocket, but I use a fishing lanyard on the case to make sure it does not fall down the hole.

So there is a new option from Garmin since this discussion started: It is called either GT-6 or “Dual beam IF” It is supposed to support beam angles from 15-45 degrees and be compatible with Echomap units. It is what they ship with the Striker 4 ice kits, according to what I can read.
I bought one for shallow water fishing in the spring, where my GT-8 has trouble seeing the baits I put down 2 holes each 2 feet off to the side of the center hole where I put the transducer.
Has anyone used this transducer that can comment on it’s trade offs vs. the GT-8?

I just bought some this year. I got those that have rechargeable batteries. They were a cheap brand from Amazon Warehouse I bought on a whim in the middle of summer. I tried them for the first time deer hunting, and they worked great! Waited until I started to feel cold, then turned them on the lowest setting, and ran them til my toes warmed up. Used very little battery, and were quite comfy. Some have a remote or a phone app to turn on and off, which might be nice since I need to dig through layers to get to the socks and turn them on or off. I looked today and they have them for about $25 I paid less, but that kind of thin is cheapest in mid summer. They are not the greatest sock ever, but like I said, I bought them on a whim and I am glad I did.

My buddy uses a Nils 6 inch all season. I think most people would do fine if they had the Nils professionally sharpened every year. Those things cut a hole with less effort than anything else I have found. I am faster with my 6 inch pistol bit and Octane drill, but he ends up with the same size hole and gets warmed up to boot!

Nice work! It would be a shame to put synthetic skis on that beautiful wooden sled. My grandpa made several pairs of skis out of steam bent wood, and as long as we kept them waxed, they worked fine. I am sure you could figure out how to make a short pair with the help of YouTube!

That is one of the reasons I switched to using 18V tool batteries to power my sonar. Since I already have multiple batteries and multiple chargers, I can keep a spare if my auger or sonar needs one. I can also leave some on chargers and take some with for multiple days in a row fishing.
Most brands of sonar will take up to 20V without a problem.
I use Garmin, but others on this site with different brands have done the same.

I think your problem is running your furnace for a day or 2 off the batteries. Simplest thing would be to get bigger batteries. On my camper, we went to 2 6V golf cart batteries, and wired them in series to get 12V. This has more amp-hours than 2 12V deep cycle batteries, and will take the extreme cycling even better than a deep cycle marine/RV battery. You will need to buy taller battery boxes, but it is still less work than solar. We can boondock several days with this setup.

I guess I will jump on the other side of this- When I was a kid, we had no boat at all- we fished from the bank until I was in junior high, then we got a canoe.
Don’t use inflation to talk yourself into a boat you have to finance. We are in a bubble now- outdoor stuff is bid up because that is all we could do for the last year. Campers, RVs, boats, snowmobiles, pickups- all are at a high. In a year or 2 there will be a glut of used stuff as people drift away to other activities.
I would get something simple and basic that you can start with, that you will not lose too much on, and wait a few years until prices normalize. Remember too, that there is nothing like owning a boat to answer many of the questions you have.
A boat is an expensive toy- even without a payment. They always need something. Remember too that the economy will not be what is was before this- people moved, changed habits, and some businesses are not coming back. Once the stimulus stops coming, we will see what we really have, then we can start paying back all the borrowing of the last year.
Gosh- this sounds depressing, but I would not like to see anyone taking on years of payments to buy a boat during a price bubble.

Funny thing is- there is nothing special about that lake- at least not if you take the whole of it’s history into account. When my kids were small, we went there and caught stunted perch on a bare hook- they were everywhere- most people have fished a lake like that. Then, early ’90’s population crashed- F&G had to re- stock the lake. They also removed some predators, but the lack of perch to feed those predators probably did more. The perch reintroduced had no competition, and more food than their population could eat. They grew fast, and by the early 2000’s we were getting some nice fish. I asked the biologist at the time what they did, and he said if there were a way to do it on purpose, he could get rich doing it everywhere. Those big perch became the dominant predator in the lake, and made it tough for small perch to make it through their first year. That lake is drawn down 14 feet 1n the late summer, so any weeds that grew in the shallow and sheltered the fingerlings are high and dry by fall and winter.
Since about 2015, catches of the big 13 inch+ fish have decreased, and the smaller age class fish are filling in. You now catch more fish under 10 inches than over, which was not the case. There are still giants swimming, and every March there is a chance someone will snag one of them. Over time we should expect the population and size to cycle about a reasonable average, like it did in the past, but until then, I feel lucky to have experienced an extraordinary fishery.

If you want the best deep cycle setup, you can get Lithium Ion batteries, for about $700 each. The next best camper setup is a pair of golf cart 6V batteries. They are $90 each, and you connect them in series to get 12V. The plates are heavier, and the batteries are larger, so you end up with something that lasts longer and holds more energy. We use them on our trailer, and can get 3 days if the heater does not run all night. There are battery isolators that people use in truck campers and motor homes to charge the camper battery when the truck is running, but do not allow the camper to pull from the truck starting battery. Then, you need the same switch to power the 120V outlets from either the shore power or your inverter. This is also standard for RVs.

I learned this year that the plastic flights on the bits designed for drill use are important for more than just weight. I used a 5 inch Lazer bit for years, and in the spring when we drill a lot of slushy, layered ice, I almost could not hang on to the drill. I ended up spraining my wrist, which hurt until June. This year I got a 6 inch pistol bit, and there is no grabbing whatsoever- the ring on the bottom prevents the grab at breakthrough, and the flights just don’t grab the sides like the metal ones did. I believe they flex out of the way instead. I still have my Lazer, but I don’t see it getting much use, even if it is faster.
My current setup is a Ridgid Octane I got for $69 from Direct Tools, a 9 AH battery, a Pistol Bit 6 inch I got for $139 on sale, and a direct connect adapter I got from EBAY for $25. I don’t plan to put the chuck back on this summer, I have 2 other Ridgid drills, so I guess this is the same as a dedicated auger setup. Since the battery is from my tool collection, I would cost my entire auger rig at $233- not free, but not in the range of some of the dedicated setups

Dash Adams wrote:

Just got a new Garmin 73cv UHD yesterday – WIll be using it for the 1st time on Saturday.

1st off this discussion has been helpful- thanks to all that have contributed

Couple questions

Is there anywhere on the unit that displays the battery life or setting to add that somewhere. Percentage would be great

I noticed there is not a panoptics or livescope app on the home screen. IF I choose to add panoptics later will that app automatically just show up or is that something that has to be downloaded.

The unit does not display battery percent- that would require knowing what type of battery you are running. I am powering mine with a 20V lithium tool battery. There is by default a battery voltage displayed in all but the map screen. There is also a voltage alarm you can set in system alarms. I set mine to 16V, but you can find out what voltage you want to change the battery you are using and set that value.

Gary Lothrop wrote:

That simply won’t work! The tent and frame are designed along the height of the sled tub. The Smitty sled would have to be the same height plus it would have to be enclosed on 3 sides to keep the wind and snow out and allow the flip to touch the ground out front. It would end up being much heavier and probably cost more to build than the price of a new tub. With the optional runners Otter sells for the sled tub I have no worries of it ever wearing through and the sled itself is pretty thick and heavy duty to begin with. Lets face it, big flips like the XT Resort pro are not meant to be pulled by man power especially if you load them up with all your other gear. It could be done on glare ice but never ever on 6 or more inches of snow. I pull mine with a Snowdog machine and it pulls real easy no matter how loaded I get it as long as I am not going through deep slush.

Fished with Dave Genz last week. Turns out the original fish traps were built on wooden sleds. My problem with tub sleds has never been wear, but punctures. The surface of our lake gets cut to pieces with 4 wheelers when it is slushy, then that freezes and you have ice lumps and spikes that have punched holes in my sled. Even Hyfax strips are not thick enough to keep the sled tub from being bashed. Maybe I need to build a steel bash guard on the front curve of the sled to prevent that.

Plunker wrote:

The jumping a battery trick to get it to recharge works a lot of times, but not every time. I ruined a 12 AH Dewalt a few weekends ago, by forgetting to totally unplug and having parasitic draw on it. Those babies ain’t cheap.

Now I’m sure if I pull the battery apart I can find the individual cell that is causing the issue and try to jump that individual one up a bit. Which I might one day when I have time to see what it all looks like in there.

But be forewarned. I’m a big fan of using my drill batteries, but they aren’t dummy proof. You need to have a bit of awareness on what you’re doing.

I set an alarm on my Garmin at 16V- which should be 1V more than a tool would shut down at. I also set it up so that it turns on automatically when it detects voltage. I put the tool battery on the connector when I start fishing, and take it off when I am done- that way I protect the battery from going completely dead. I noticed the parasitic drain when I left a full battery on for a week between trips, and had only 3 bars when I started out.
The other solution ai have seen to to put a hard switch between the battery and the voltage converter, or between the battery and the sonar if you are going straight in.

Slush has little to do with ice safety. The ice is not a bridge from bank to bank, it is a raft. Ice is about 8% less dense than water, so it floats, about 8% out of the water. 6 inches of ice with no weight on top would float with the ice surface about 1/2 inch above the water surface. If you stand on it, it bows down slightly, and that half inch is slightly less. If you put a foot of snow on top, the weight of that snow will push the top of the ice under water. Water will come up through every crack and hole, and make slush. Eventually, the snow will settle and the slush will freeze into “white ice”, and become part of the total ice thickness, and you can walk on that new surface.
As someone also stated, there is a point where the top of this new surface freezes, and the underneath is still slushy, and you get layers of crust and ice, but the original 6 inches of clear ice is still there, and melts extremely slowly, so unless you are near springs or warm water, it is still safe.
Out here, the larger concern is going to be the shore edges rotting as the snow melts on shore, and boat ramps and streams melting the clear ice from underneath.

Chad Pingel wrote:

Does anyone know where I could find the shovel mount on the Digger auger carrier thats in the first picture in this thread. I have two diggers and am trying to find a way to mod them for my Eskimo Pistol Bit/Drill combo and would like to keep my normal Digger setup intact for my Strikemaster auger. Thanks!

I have never understood the design of most boots. They want to talk about how much thinsulate they have in them, but the thinsulate is between your foot and the shell of the boot. When you tighten it, you smash your insulation.
Then, when you sweat, all that moisture goes into the insulation.
Smashing out the air and putting in water are 2 of the worst things you can do to the insulation value.
Mickey Mouse boots have this fixed. They are the first thing I saw that had the insulation protected against smashing and moisture.
The second good solution were Mucks- the insulation is impermeable, and does not compress much. They are also a fraction of the weight of Mickey Mouse boots. Off and on Muck made lace up boots out of the 5mm neoprene that the Arctic Pros are made of. They are like a typical hunting boot, but waterproof and warm. I use them for ice fishing and elk hunting in the snow. You need dry socks for every day, but the boot does not absorb, so it dries quickly. There must be some reason they did not catch on- the only other pair I have seen are the ones I bought for my wife.
If I go back to the midwest and sit in a stand, I put “boot blankets” over them- that is an additional inch of dry, fluffy insulation.