Couldn't get to my job today, on top of a steep hill on an ungritted back
road.

Took my granddaughter sledging instead. Amazing to see the variety of
things used as sledges; rubble sacks, estate agents signs, road signs, small
surfboards, wheelie bin lids, trays,

Built her the sledge from some scrap timber. Runners are 6 x 1 with
aluminium strips.

Wasn't as fast as I thought it would be, mind you, despite eating like a
horse she doesn't weigh much.

The plastic sledges seem faster. Is the idea to have narrow runners or are
you better off having wider ones to ride on top of the snow?

Any Eskimos on the group?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

The Medway Handyman <davidno-spam-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Couldn't get to my job today, on top of a steep hill on an ungritted
> back road.

Same here. So I stayed at home.

http://s428.photobucket.com/albums/q...t=100_0263.jpg
http://s428.photobucket.com/albums/q...t=100_0274.jpg

--
Adam

On 2010-12-01, The Medway Handyman <davidno-spam-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Couldn't get to my job today, on top of a steep hill on an ungritted back
> road.
>
> Took my granddaughter sledging instead. Amazing to see the variety of
> things used as sledges; rubble sacks, estate agents signs, road signs, small
> surfboards, wheelie bin lids, trays,
>
> Built her the sledge from some scrap timber. Runners are 6 x 1 with
> aluminium strips.

I have a suspicion for some reason that aluminium may not be suitable; does
it bind to ice, or similar?


--
Today is Setting Orange, the 43rd day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3176
"Always mount a scratch monkey."

On Dec 1, 2:23 pm, "The Medway Handyman" <davidno-spam-
l...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Couldn't get to my job today, on top of a steep hill on an ungritted back
> road.
>
> Took my granddaughter sledging instead. Amazing to see the variety of
> things used as sledges; rubble sacks, estate agents signs, road signs, small
> surfboards, wheelie bin lids, trays,
>
> Built her the sledge from some scrap timber. Runners are 6 x 1 with
> aluminium strips.
>
> Wasn't as fast as I thought it would be, mind you, despite eating like a
> horse she doesn't weigh much.
>
> The plastic sledges seem faster. Is the idea to have narrow runners or are
> you better off having wider ones to ride on top of the snow?
>
> Any Eskimos on the group?
>
> --
> Dave - The Medway Handymanwww.medwayhandyman.co.uk

have you had a search back on here? sure this came up last winter?

Jim K

in 1005316 20101201 142337 "The Medway Handyman" <davidno-spam-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Couldn't get to my job today, on top of a steep hill on an ungritted back
>road.
>
>Took my granddaughter sledging instead. Amazing to see the variety of
>things used as sledges; rubble sacks, estate agents signs, road signs, small
>surfboards, wheelie bin lids, trays,


Nothing beats an inflated truck or tractor inner-tube.

On 01/12/2010 15:01, Jim K wrote:

> have you had a search back on here? sure this came up last winter?
>

Yeah, but this year the regular 'air conditioning' thread failed to take
flight - and this is to make up for that.

Actually, I remember last snow season (Feb?) hearing a few horrible
stories of kids killed on make-shift sleds, including one made out of a
upturned roof removed from an old Ford Transit van.

Be careful out there!

--
Adrian C

On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:31:38 +0000, Mike Clarke wrote:

> That depends on if you have the right sort of snow or not. If it's soft
> and squashy then wide runners are probably best but if it gets frozen
> hard then narrow ones would be better.

Agreed, the snow we have is deep dry powder, only very slightly
sticky. Even after being underneath a sledge with a 13 stone on top,
it'll still break up into powder. Great for skiing but useless for
building...

As to sledges we have a plastic barrel cut in half length wise and
Weez II plastic ones. The 1/2 barrel is more fun, faster, less stable
but easier to steer it needs deep snow though, there was about 12" on
our hill yesterday. The Weez II's tend to just go in straight lines
but I can imagine on harder shallower snow they would be very good
and the 1/2 barrel
uncontrollable.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Weez-Snow-Sled...on-/2507347770
99

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:12:58 +0000, Adrian C wrote:

> Actually, I remember last snow season (Feb?) hearing a few horrible
> stories of kids killed on make-shift sleds, including one made out of a
> upturned roof removed from an old Ford Transit van.

IIRC a Land Rover roof and the mistake was not to make sure the
bottom of the hill had a decent run off area and did't have a wire
fence across the bottom of it...

--
Cheers
Dave.

Mike Clarke wrote:
> The Medway Handyman wrote:
>
>> The plastic sledges seem faster. Is the idea to have narrow runners or
>> are you better off having wider ones to ride on top of the snow?
>
> That depends on if you have the right sort of snow or not. If it's soft and
> squashy then wide runners are probably best but if it gets frozen hard then
> narrow ones would be better.
>
How about a multigrade design. V section runners should present a narrow
strip on harder snow and ice and the wider part should help it from
digging into soft snow too much. Might have to play with the angles -
say about 120 degrees included to start with. Adjustable would be really
posh.
No sign of snow here in Southampton
Bob

Adrian C wrote:
> On 01/12/2010 15:01, Jim K wrote:
>
>> have you had a search back on here? sure this came up last winter?
>>
>
> Yeah, but this year the regular 'air conditioning' thread failed to
> take flight - and this is to make up for that.
>
> Actually, I remember last snow season (Feb?) hearing a few horrible
> stories of kids killed on make-shift sleds, including one made out of
> a upturned roof removed from an old Ford Transit van.

Did you ever see the episode of Le Salvager where he built a boat from a
Transit GRP roof?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk