Monday, November 06, 2006

hauling with a sled

You are already struggling to lug a 40 pound bag of dog food home from the pet store. Now Old Man Winter is preparing to add extra obstacles to the effort. Or is he?

From another point of view, his generous, frozen hand offers a distinct advantage to heavy hauling. That heavy load that currently hangs off you body could also glide effortlessly over the snowy ground on a sled! The combination of snowy weather, winter recreation plastic technology, and a little DIY rigging to meet your needs makes winter the perfect time to haul heavy loads, and without over-heating in the process.

While we prefer the inexpensive and readily available red plastic sled, Kifaru offers what they claim to be the best sled made in America.


If you usually push a shopping cart home, this patent may someday develop into the solutions to your winter shopping woes.


This write-up on winter sled camping provides good info on building a camping sled. The suggestions are easily transferable to hauling a sled full of groceries, kids, or firewood around town. The best bit is the DIY harness made from an old backpack belt.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alas, Ann Arbor doesnt' have too many days when the route to the grocery store (for example) is going to be completely snow-covered.

A graduate school officemate used to ski to work occasionally in the winter. I think that was only possible a few days a year, and required getting up early enough to beat the snowplows. I was always jealous, though!

Scott said...

Too true, Bruce. I'd argue that we should maintain some packed-snow trails for sleds and skis, but most winters go from slush to ice without many good snow days.

It would be intresting to know if there are any useful snow trails around town.

Anonymous said...

Clearly it's time for an anti-snowplow movement. I can see the protesting skiiers and sledders laying in front of snowplows.

But then we'd have to figure out what to do about the snowmobiles.