ski tobbogan build

[rowerwet]

living in New England, we look forward to the first good snow fall, just waiting for the great sledding and sking to start. we have a great hill nearby but it is tough on the usual cheap sleds, you go so fast on a plastic sled it is hard to steer, you can end up sideways and flip in no time, inflatable vinyle sleds get popped in nothing flat, and the tobbogan is slow unless the snow is frozen, even with a good wax job, and hard to steer when the hill is frozen.
I decided to build some fast tobbogans based on downhill skis, I'll be using some build ideas learned from this site, now I just can't wait for the snow to fly!!!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 212&type=1
starting with this

[Fenlason]

I am interested in following this. To see what you do and how it works for you.

[starleen2]

New to New England - following as well

[rowerwet]

Three years into the snow drought for southern NH, northeastern MA, and this winter is the worst, we have had no snow since thanksgiving! I guess this is like when you buy new skis, snowshoes, snowmobiles, snowblower,or plow, the best way to make sure you can't enjoy them

[Fenlason]

Three years into the snow drought for southern NH, northeastern MA, and this winter is the worst, we have had no snow since thanksgiving! I guess this is like when you buy new skis, snowshoes, snowmobiles, snowblower,or plow, the best way to make sure you can't enjoy them

Yeah it kind of sucks here also. Not too far North… or West of here they have more useable snow. We have just enough to make it not great for anything… bare ground I could trail ride, and do trail work.

We at times get a lot of snow.. then rain. We are below zero today, and tomorrow they are saying 40 and rain.

[rowerwet]

winter finally woke up the snow machine!
right now we're riding out the "Blizzard of 2015" not that there is much to ride out besides a few feet of snow. Yesterday while the storm approached and crazy people panicked all the milk, bread and gas from the stores, we went sledding. We got a small storm on saturday and this was just enough to sled on.

the tobbogan worked very well, it was very fast going down the hill, though my steering system didn't always quite work, the faster we went the more the sled bounced over the rough ground, making the steering loose effect. Version 2 will have the steering/brake levers on the sides, I already have the design mod in my head, mostly adding a 1x3 2/3's of the way back on the sled, wider than the sled to support the brake lever hinges, and a wider prow to fair the handles into the sled, so nobody gets nailed by the protruding hinges.
The fun part of our big local hill (keay park, Groveland, MA) is how the hill suddenly becomes much steeper for the last third of the hill, then there is a small hummock running across the bottom of the hill, making a natural jump (which always gets enhanced). I rode over the jump a couple times, thanks to the boat cushions the landing was rough but not painfull.
The only other mod I see is a strap to hold the boat cushions down.