Slightly OT sledges who sells? or how to make?

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recycled recycle bins are good

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And death to bystanders!!

[The Medway Handyman]

Built my granddaughter (the most beautiful & intelligent 7 year old in the world, in my unbiased opinion) a sledge on Friday night because we couldn't find any plastic sledges either.

Just built from workshop scrap, runners from 6 x 1, cross pieces from some C16 notched to make halving joints, glued & screwed. Strong & fairly light, but trials outside the house (slight slope) and it doesn't sem very fast - not tried on a decent hill yet.

Last time I built a sledge must have been the mid 80's, when I had more time. That one I made with laminated ply runners about 2" wide and it seemed faster.

Might try Colins idea of plastic trunking cover.

So, is good sledge design about having thin runners that go through the snow, or wide ones that slide on top of the snow?

[JimK]

to my armchair physics mind - depends on the snow! thin covering =wide /no runners but with directional issues, deep fresh= same as above? hard packed =runnners, fast, steerable

JimK

[Owain]

And spray it with silicone ... Or Snow Displacement -40.

I suggest it depends on the type of snow, really hard snow you could use think runners like skates on ice, softer snow you'd need more like skis to stop sinking in.

Owain

[Gordon Henderson]

Mail order?

like they're "snowed under" with orders though...

Gordon

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Colin Wilson writes

I thought 20mm electrical conduit and an opportunity to get some use out of the pipe bender and oxy-acetylene....

regards

[Tim W]

Owain wibbled on Monday 21 December 2009 09:43

So an all-snow rail might be profiled to look like a ski blade, with an additional narrow runner blade on the face.

eg (cross section)

| |D |

[dennis]

My local asda has plastic ones, they are only about 3 foot long though.

[larkim]

I would have thought that "all snow" might look just exactly like a ski blade, given that they are quite well designed to run on snow, thick, thin, deep or icy!

Rally cars use very thin tyres in the snow to maximise the mass into a small contact patch with a view to getting more grip per cm2. I would use the same (inverse) logic for sledges - maximum sized contact patch for least grip.

Matt

[ARWadsworth]

Yes:-)

But I did slide down the steet on the way to the pub last night sat on plastic rubble sack.

Adam

[Mark]

Davos sledges are the best IMHO. There are quite a few retailers who claim to have some in stock if you google.

[Old Git]

Have you tried rubbing the runners with a candle Dave? Makes some difference

[JimK]

mmm I've googled plenty - trouble is as its Xmas they won;t be delivering to me until the snows all gone - hence my request for retailers I could drive to and acquire there and then.

However the good news is we now have a plastic sledge!! From of all places the local Hardware shop - you know the sort of place that's either run by "arkwright" in brown overalls - or a gay bloke.

Either way (as it were) we are sorted - bet it rains now - Cheers JimK

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim W saying something like:

Or car bonnet. Mind the barbed wire.