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I stayed away from the cross members as I don’t haul a ton of weight really. 30 lbs maybe. My ABS side pipes are screwed directly into the side of my sled so no need for grip tape here. I wanted to be able to use the sled with or without the skis and for it to fit into anything easily for transport.
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Member No.: 10778
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Nice smitty! Mine is the wooden version, similar to the one pictured but instead of 2 pieces of wood I have a 24” X 32” board on top. Comes apart and i have 2 Home Depot containers on top. All in about $20 (wood and board I had at home), skis I actually got free from a shop that sells skis. Just asked them for something old they had that was going to get tossed out. Those black sleds are impossible to pull in deep snow. I find far more storage in my two bins as opposed to the sled. I will post a pic tomorrow
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I noticed you guys all use downhill skis for your smittys. I salvaged a pair if cross country skis from a friend to make one and was wondering why downhill seems to be the preference? Would it be the width floats better with the weight? Or maybe the length is easier for transport? Great job on the builds guys just looking to see if i should start mine with x country skis or find downhill skis first? Thanks and tight lines!
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Downhill are a bit wider but mostly seem to hold up a little better when going over some of the crap at the launches. My last smitty was on cross country skis and it was fine.
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QUOTE (browns @ Feb 03, 2018 - 10:32 am)
Downhill are a bit wider but mostly seem to hold up a little better when going over some of the crap at the launches. My last smitty was on cross country skis and it was fine.
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Member No.: 3665
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Hey fishon2, great job. You may wish to consider attaching your pulling rope to your skis, not to the sled. It may give you a bit more leverage to pull through deep snow.
Group: Members
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Looks great fishon2.
Second attaching the rope to the skis. It helps big time as the leverage point is lower on the ski tips than having it on the sled. Easier to pull. In addition if the skis do somehow stick in slush you want to be pulling directly from the skis as it won’t stress the ABS frame.