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There I was at Scofield tangling with my 10 yr. old daughter's
tackle when I looked up and scanned the lake and saw a city of
ice tents. One of those ice tents stood out, (and being a fellow do-it
your selfer, make your own ice tent kind of guy) I was immediateley
drawn to it like a Muslim to Mecca. So much so I dropped everything (including the conversation I was having with my daughter) and started running towards it. Why you ask? Well,
I was either mesmerized by what my eyes beheld!, or the occupants were piling on their three wheeler preparing to leave.
I had a lot of questions to ask this fellow angler about how his ice tent was made. Hey coldfooter, I hope I didn't come off too over bearing,usually when I get excited about something my social
protocal goes out the window. I learned alot from the tour
of your Hilton, bonded cement windows, zipper door ( I didn't know you could do that with a polyuerothene tarp.) When I read your post about your hotel on skis, it all started to add up:brown tent, strikemaster in lobby with bow still attached, then I realized it was you. Anyway thanks for the tour and I want you to know that I plan on encorporating what I learned into the construction of mine this summer. Hey!! wouldn't it be great that when we have these get togethers on ice, that those with home-made jobbers could bring them and we could have a show-and-tell session? (sorry,that's the school teacher in me!) I plan on mounting my home-made rig on a XL Jet Sled,with pvc pipe that telescopes out one side ,doulbling my room yet still allowing mobility. I 'll probably cover it with poly.
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Welcome to the board and thanks for the kind comments.
LOL, no you werent to over bearing but I have to say I was a tab surprised someone wanted that close a look see.
Screwing the seams and the zipper in proved to be quite a chore, (thank god for helping hands!!!). The Bonding cememt works fairly well for the windows but their a small area not taking a heavy hit from W. The "Coldfooters Hilton" (as my ol'e pal Pat/TD tagged it last year) takes me maybe 90 seconds to stand up and pull down and when all closed down it measures 3.5' X 6.5' X 14" tall. As I said its fairly heavy and built to deal with strong W and cold temps. and thats why it has a full plywood floor with hatchways to fish through. I didnt have the insulator blanket inside when you seen it but when installed it only take a small amount of heat to keep 2 or 3 people fairly comfortable over night. When I build the Hilton I built it to spend nights on FG and FL. In fact, its set up to sleep one or two while another fishes. It amazes me how light it pulls while fully errect. It also has a tag along we usually haul all the gear in witch doubles as a one or two person explorer shanty.
I also have another one in the works much as you described for easy day use but can take heavy W.
Yeah it might be quite a show-n-tell sometime if all the do-it-yourselfers showed up on the ice. I know a lot of people have come up with some very smart ideas dealing with all facets of ice fishing and fishing in general.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Don![/size][/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3][/size][/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Don't you have a pic or 2 of the "Hilton"? I'd sure like to see your creation. Could you post them if you do?[/size][/black][/font]
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Rich.. I think I still do (somewhere).. I'll do a bit of PC searchin' and stab them on the board as soon as I run across them..
Btw. Soon I plan to add a slight upgrade to help handle those mild 40 - 60Mph butt and bone chillin' W's and white outs we get tail end with at you know where.
And while I'm on the subject of W:
Pat have you started our anti W dances yet??
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I got lucky! Here the pictures be..
Btw, the Hilton actually has a fishing hatchway on all four corners and can easily fish four people. 80% of the time it stands its used as the bunk/cook house etc... But its nice to have it close by when the W charges in.
I also tossed in a picture of the "Tag along" showing it ready to be loaded and a picture of it standing ready to be fished in. It takes about 30 seconds to ready for fishing or pull down.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Holy Crap! How do you get that around? Man, you must be built like a horse! Looks pretty ingenious and functional but without something to pull that around with... I thought I was going to kick the bucket pulling my quickflip III around by hand and that included help. I just hope you're a good looking guy, Don, because if you're as ugly as me, no one will want to give you mouth to mouth when you give yourself a heart attack pulling that around! LOL![/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]All kidding aside, looks like a well designed unit. You should consider drawing up a set of plans.[/size][/font]
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[laugh] Rich.. Thats where the chained up 3 wheeler comes into play , LOL!!!!
I've thought about doing the "plans" ordeal, just never found the time, to much fishin' gets in my way.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Draw a quick set of plans and I'll turn them into a CAD masterpiece complete with 3-D solid models. Only hitch is, you let me post them here for the membership.[/size][/black][/font]
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I'll try and do that Rich but with my art skills it may take longer to draw it up than it took to build it! [laugh]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Quite the explanation you've created. I have a tendency to believe that if you do the W dance too much the only wind will be you huffin' & puffin'! LOL![/size][/black][/font]
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As long as you dont try and do a ice strippers dance I think you'll be just fine. On second thought go ahead if you feel the need, you be perfectly safe regardless! But let it be known, I wont tip!! [laugh]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Haven't made it out today. Getting the boat set up for tomorrow. Charging batteries, changing fuses, etc. I'm still going to try though. Maybe a few hours this afternoon. Weather looks, shall we say, interesting tomorrow on the Bear.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]I'd compare "guts and butts" with ya but the simple fact is I'd be overwhelmed and deemed "unsubstantial". How about we get Don to judge! LOL![/size][/black][/font]
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LOL,, me thinks I have ya's both beat in the gut department. As far as judging your butts,, well,, no thanks, but thanks for asking. I dont want to look at either of your butts that close! Oh crap, you two in an ass juding contest! What and ugly mental picture that paints.
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