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Member No.: 7520
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If you’re a walker, you know how difficult it can be to pull a heavily loaded sled through deep snow or on very cold days even with a smitty. You can make hauling easier by periodic cleaning and waxing of the base of your smitty’s skis. It’s easy to do and it doesn’t take a lot of time.
However, before you begin, ensure that that are no bumps or deep gouges in the base of your skis. If necessary, use a metal scraper to smooth out the base from tip to tail but be aware that this requires a steady hand. If your base has deep gouges, these can be filled using a P-Tex candle. Finish off by using a sanding block wide enough to bridge the width of the ski with 100 grit sandpaper. Repeat using increasingly finer grits up to 320 until the base is smooth then finish off with a few passes using your kitchen scrubbie and wipe clean with a paper towel.
To begin the waxing process, start with a liquid base cleaner applied to the ski base with a paper towel. I wear rubber gloves when doing this but it isn’t necessary. Once the base has dried, you can then apply a liquid or hard universal glide wax. Glide waxes are temperature rated so make sure that you purchase a universal wax that will cover a wide range of temperatures.
Liquid glide wax is easy to apply using either a foam applicator or aerosol spray but, of course, you pay a premium price for the convenience. Hard glide waxes are melted and ironed into the base of your skis then scraped off after the wax has cooled sufficiently. Yes, applying hard waxes will take more time and effort but they are less expensive, easy to apply, and work just as well as the liquid waxes.
Below is the step-by-step method that I used to clean my skis and apply a hard glide wax.
Group: Members
Posts: 911
Member No.: 7520
Joined: December 06, 2014
Base cleaner, iron, glide wax, scraper, brush, kitchen scrubbie. If you’re using a spray-on wax rather than a hard wax, you’ll only need the base cleaner. For both methods, have some paper towels handy for clean-up.
Group: Members
Posts: 911
Member No.: 7520
Joined: December 06, 2014
Finished base.
You're now ready to head out onto the ice and your walk will be considerably easier!
If you want to prevent further oxidation and prevent any damage to your base over the open water months, apply a layer of hard wax at the end of the ice season. Leave the wax on until the next season then do your scraping, brushing, and polishing just prior to your first outing on the ice.
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Wow thats quite the process. I do a couple of coats of this stuff and seems to work pretty good in the snow. I also put a thin layer on my revolver x2 roll up tonneau cover as a bit of water will always find it's way into the track and freeze. It seems to help.
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Member No.: 15807
Joined: March 11, 2018
Wow, that is quite the process. I tend to travel light so for me, just putting on some new wax every now and then or when I start feeling things are getting harder to pull, has helped greatly. I use this rub-on/rub-off biodegradeable wax (and would like to encourage others to do the same as we are dragging the stuff off on the snow, ice, etc. and it will get into the lake and into the fish). It's not really more expensive and supposedly the performance is just as good but of course, I have no idea since I don't ski competitively but for sure I noticed the difference after applying new wax. I have used it three times this year and so far, barely made a dent in the container (supposedly a little goes a long way) - I can't see me using up this small shoe-polish-sized container of wax in 10 years. On Amazon, I was to get one container for about $30 but now it seems that they don't sell them as a single (need to get two for $40) but you can get the warmer recipe for ~$25 per tin.
Group: Members
Posts: 1562
Member No.: 15807
Joined: March 11, 2018
Oh, I do take out the larger gashes and gouges when I see them. But just using a flat file and some sand paper if needed. But again, I'm pretty light with my gear and so won't notice too much of difference I think....it's already quite weightless when on top of snow/ice. When submerged up to the sled in snow/slush, well...I don't think that is a waxing issue anymore
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Smitty sled ski maintenance, Make your walk easier
