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Sledge design
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 |
Sledge design
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. -- Mike Clarke |
Sledge design
The Medway Handyman 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 |
Sledge design
On Dec 1, 2:23 pm, "The Medway Handyman" davidno-spam-
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 |
Sledge design
in 1005316 20101201 142337 "The Medway Handyman" 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. |
Sledge design
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 |
Sledge design
On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:10:23 +0000, Bob Martin wrote:
in 1005316 20101201 142337 "The Medway Handyman" 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. Agreed. We've got a wide variety of sledding devices here (I'm in northern Minnesota, where it's snow-bound for at least 5 months of the year) and inflatable tubes are by far the fastest and go the farthest. Just take a few puncture-repair patches out with you just in case! The sleds that look like surfboards aren't too bad either, but they tend to split and tear up underneath quite quickly and become useless. cheers Jules |
Sledge design
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. |
Sledge design
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 |
Sledge design
On 01/12/2010 16:47, Dave Liquorice wrote:
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... ISTR that the wire fence (since removed) was half way down a steep hill rather than at the bottom. |
Sledge design
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 |
Sledge design
"Huge" wrote in message ... On 2010-12-01, The Medway Handyman 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? Agreed. Aluminium is wrong. Its specific heat capacity is too small. Mild steel is fine but, of course, will need rubbing down before each use. Lawrence |
Sledge design
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. Be careful out there! It was in Rotherham last Feburary. One girl died. Don't more people die every year by going into ice covered water to try to save their dogs than in sledging accidents? -- Adam |
Sledge design
Bob Minchin wrote:
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. Vee section sounds great! Getting the curve at the front would be interesting.... No sign of snow here in Southampton How about now? :-) -- Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk |
Sledge design
On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:31:38 +0000, 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. Last one we had was the only one locally that would run on an inch of fluffy snow. It was a sheet of varnished ply (can't remember th dimensions as it was about 50 years ago) with thin ply nailed under the front end and held up in a curve with string. A small length of pointy batten in the middle of the back end would have made it easier to steer (like a skeg) but not on such shallow snow. It went rather fast and took some controlling to stop it turning and acting as a shovel. -- Peter. The gods will stay away whilst religions hold sway |
Sledge design
On Dec 1, 2:31*pm, 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. If you've got a one day flurry of soft snow in a big park (i.e. not all trampled) then a cheap moulded plastic sledge beats grandad's beautifully hand-crafted wooden one with narrow runners. |
Sledge design
On 01/12/2010 16:56, Bob Minchin wrote:
No sign of snow here in Southampton Not on topic, but how do you find road signs that tell you how to get out of the city? Daughter lives just down the coast in Portsmouth and we paid a visit there some years ago and I couldn't find my way out. It reminded me about visiting Glasgow many years ago, I had the same problem there, so I picked a road and drove along it until I found some road signs to take me back to New Cumnock. Dave |
Sledge design
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Bob Minchin wrote: 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. Vee section sounds great! Getting the curve at the front would be interesting.... No sign of snow here in Southampton How about now? :-) About 120mm this morning. I think the last time we had this much was 1985 Bob |
Sledge design
On 01/12/2010 14:23, The Medway Handyman 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? Old car bonnets go like stink... -- Ron |
Sledge design
|
Sledge design
In article ,
ARWadsworth wrote: 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. Be careful out there! It was in Rotherham last Feburary. One girl died. Don't more people die every year by going into ice covered water to try to save their dogs than in sledging accidents? Talking of ice covered water... wtf: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...indscreen.html (the bit at the bottom with the canal) Darren |
Sledge design
On 02/12/2010 18:19, Terry Casey wrote:
In , says... On 01/12/2010 16:56, Bob Minchin wrote: No sign of snow here in Southampton Not on topic, but how do you find road signs that tell you how to get out of the city? Daughter lives just down the coast in Portsmouth and we paid a visit there some years ago and I couldn't find my way out. Didn't you know where you'd come from ...? I'm sure I've found plenty of signs when I've been in Portsmouth and A3, A27 and London have a sort of 'gets-you-out-of-town' feel to them ... I think he means he visited Southampton. Portsmouth has signs that say Out of City. For Southampton, I usually need the sat nav if I'm not simply back tracking the way I came in. Colin Bignell |
Sledge design
On 01/12/2010 14:42, Huge wrote:
On 2010-12-01, The Medway 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? It is quite a sticky metal, I would guess because it is covered in aluminium oxide. I suspect that the best design for the powdery snow I've seen today is a flat surface, to spread the load, a slightly curved front edge, to ride over the snow, and small ribs underneath, just deep enough to provide come directional stability. Much like the moulded plastic ones, in fact. A sled with runners probably need packed snow or ice to run on. Colin Bignell |
Sledge design
On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:23:37 +0000, 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? Road signs are the DBs for speed. Though not manoeverability (sp?) http://alderbridge.net/features/201001_snow_days/ (videos at the bottom of the page) -- John Stumbles My karma ran over my dogma |
Sledge design
In article , "Nightjar \"cpb\"@"
"insertmysurnamehere says... On 02/12/2010 18:19, Terry Casey wrote: In , says... On 01/12/2010 16:56, Bob Minchin wrote: No sign of snow here in Southampton Not on topic, but how do you find road signs that tell you how to get out of the city? Daughter lives just down the coast in Portsmouth and we paid a visit there some years ago and I couldn't find my way out. Didn't you know where you'd come from ...? I'm sure I've found plenty of signs when I've been in Portsmouth and A3, A27 and London have a sort of 'gets-you-out-of-town' feel to them ... I think he means he visited Southampton. Portsmouth has signs that say Out of City. For Southampton, I usually need the sat nav if I'm not simply back tracking the way I came in. Colin Bignell "Daughter lives just down the coast in Portsmouth and we paid a visit there some years ago" says Portsmouth to me ... -- Terry |
Sledge design
On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:47:47 +0000, Dave Liquorice wrote:
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... I remember as a kid that was the whole object of going down our preferred hill - to duck at the appropriate moment so that you didn't get decapitated by the fence, crash through the few bushes just beyond, and land on top of the (hopefully frozen) pond just beyond that. (I think I must have been incredibly lucky not to have severely maimed myself when I were a lad!) Makeshift sleds we often used to make from thick sheets of cardboard wrapped in bin liners, by the way. cheers Jules |
Sledge design
On Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:36:35 +0000, D.M.Chapman wrote:
In article , ARWadsworth wrote: 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. Be careful out there! It was in Rotherham last Feburary. One girl died. Don't more people die every year by going into ice covered water to try to save their dogs than in sledging accidents? Talking of ice covered water... wtf: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...d-police-stop- snow-covered-car-pensioner-struggles-peer-windscreen.html (the bit at the bottom with the canal) Heh :-) It all freezes pretty solid over here for several months - here's a pic of one of the local lakes in mid-winter, with vehicles and ice fishing houses on it: http://www.patooie.com/icelake.jpg I remember as a kid in the UK regularly walking along frozen canals with my dad, though. What with the milder winters, I didn't think they ever froze up enough to even do that any more - let alone try to drive a car on them! cheers Jules |
Sledge design
On Fri, 3 Dec 2010 01:10:36 +0000 (UTC), Jules Richardson
wrote: Makeshift sleds we often used to make from thick sheets of cardboard wrapped in bin liners, by the way. There weren't such things as bin liners when I was a lad... Coal sacks, perhaps :-) -- Frank Erskine |
Sledge design
On 3 Dec,
Frank Erskine wrote: On Fri, 3 Dec 2010 01:10:36 +0000 (UTC), Jules Richardson wrote: Makeshift sleds we often used to make from thick sheets of cardboard wrapped in bin liners, by the way. There weren't such things as bin liners when I was a lad... Coal sacks, perhaps :-) And the challenge was to get through the legs of the milkman's horse. -- B Thumbs Change lycos to yahoo to reply |
Sledge design
On 02/12/2010 22:33, Terry Casey wrote:
In articlem5Wdna9LJo0vcGrRnZ2dnUVZ8g2dnZ2d@giganews. com, "Nightjar\"cpb\"@" "insertmysurnamehere says... On 02/12/2010 18:19, Terry Casey wrote: In , says... On 01/12/2010 16:56, Bob Minchin wrote: No sign of snow here in Southampton Not on topic, but how do you find road signs that tell you how to get out of the city? Daughter lives just down the coast in Portsmouth and we paid a visit there some years ago and I couldn't find my way out. Didn't you know where you'd come from ...? I'm sure I've found plenty of signs when I've been in Portsmouth and A3, A27 and London have a sort of 'gets-you-out-of-town' feel to them ... I think he means he visited Southampton. Portsmouth has signs that say Out of City. For Southampton, I usually need the sat nav if I'm not simply back tracking the way I came in. Colin Bignell "Daughter lives just down the coast in Portsmouth and we paid a visit there some years ago" says Portsmouth to me ... The preceding bit No sign of snow here in Southampton Not on topic, but how do you find road signs that tell you how to get out of the city? combined with the fact that Porstmouth is quite well signposted, while in Southampton I have to rely on the sat nav, suggests Southampton to me. Colin Bignell |
Sledge design
In article , "Nightjar \"cpb\"@"
"insertmysurnamehere says... On 02/12/2010 22:33, Terry Casey wrote: In articlem5Wdna9LJo0vcGrRnZ2dnUVZ8g2dnZ2d@giganews. com, "Nightjar\"cpb\"@" "insertmysurnamehere says... On 02/12/2010 18:19, Terry Casey wrote: In , says... On 01/12/2010 16:56, Bob Minchin wrote: No sign of snow here in Southampton Not on topic, but how do you find road signs that tell you how to get out of the city? Daughter lives just down the coast in Portsmouth and we paid a visit there some years ago and I couldn't find my way out. Didn't you know where you'd come from ...? I'm sure I've found plenty of signs when I've been in Portsmouth and A3, A27 and London have a sort of 'gets-you-out-of-town' feel to them ... I think he means he visited Southampton. Portsmouth has signs that say Out of City. For Southampton, I usually need the sat nav if I'm not simply back tracking the way I came in. Colin Bignell "Daughter lives just down the coast in Portsmouth and we paid a visit there some years ago" says Portsmouth to me ... The preceding bit No sign of snow here in Southampton Not on topic, but how do you find road signs that tell you how to get out of the city? combined with the fact that Porstmouth is quite well signposted, while in Southampton I have to rely on the sat nav, suggests Southampton to me. Colin Bignell No. He is and, presumably, lives in Southampton and says he visited his daughter in Portsmouth ... You can twist that to suit yourself but, unless the OP comes back with some clarification, I'm sticking to my interpretation ... -- Terry |
Sledge design
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian C saying something like: 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. Yebbut, that was a barbed wire fence that did the fatal injuries, not the old roof. Certainly a tragedy, and one which I'd hope not to be repeated, but such things are usually walked away from unhurt or with minor injuries. |
Sledge design
in 1005857 20101203 181012 Terry Casey wrote:
No sign of snow here in Southampton Not on topic, but how do you find road signs that tell you how to get out of the city? Daughter lives just down the coast in Portsmouth and we paid a visit there some years ago and I couldn't find my way out. No. He is and, presumably, lives in Southampton and says he visited his daughter in Portsmouth ... You can twist that to suit yourself but, unless the OP comes back with some clarification, I'm sticking to my interpretation ... Read it again. The subject was Southampton. OP (from wherever) said he was visiting daughter (in Portsmouth) and they paid a visit there, meaning Southampton. |
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