DIY Ski and Board racks for your sled

No backpack snowboards for me.
Sledding to the secret spots is not easy.
Then Riding tandem on a snowmobile takes some skill, no need to make it harder by getting hit in the head by your buddy's board.
If my friends don't have the CFR Rack, I generally carry their gear on my sled with CFR rack.

my 2 cents

I have been doing this for a few years now. I would share a few thoughts. Time is money: Sleds are expensive, operating them is expensive, gas is expensive, daylight is short. I get a little annoyed with my freinds who do not have racks. They cost us ride time. Expensive ride time. I know it is about fun, not money. However we all want more fun. Backpacks are bad for carrying. They take time to load, they are awkward to ride 2 up. They can twist and throw riders off, especially thru the trees. DIY racks can be OK. Pride and expense are good reasons to build yourself. Choose your priorities. If you make one make it durable, and make it operate simply and fast. I have a CFR. Expensive, but fast, well built, and hold the board in a good aspect for riding, and safety. I love my CFR rack. It also holds a gas can well. The time I save alone is worth the expense I associate with it. I have 3 years on my rack, and have replaced 1 strap. It looks to hold up for another 5. I call that value. What are your priorities?

Maxco tells it like it is. If u have The $ buy a solid board rack. If u have the time make a soild set up. Durable and easy-to- use are key goals. f'in around in the BC with poor gear is wasting everyones time.

Ski Racks

The inherit problem with any mounting system that places boards or skis high on the side of the sled (near front or back) is that you stand the risk of getting tangled in the equipment if you fall off, get bucked, roll, etc. Also your equipement stands a great chance of getting trashed. Then again maybe you just ride groomers to the base of some hill and skin up. Fine: put the gear anywhere you like. But, where we ski, it's a challange to get a sled there with or w/o gear attached. I have hand made frames that have a narrow "gun hanger-like" attachment near the rear of the sled. Volie straps hold the skis in place and only one ski mounts to each side. The shovel of the ski goes inside or just behind the boot well .............. still plenty space for your boot, usually it's not in the well anyway. Some do the reverse with shovel rearward. Very little stuff hanging out from sled to get hung-up on if sled rolls (and rolls) skis are tight to side and don't get torn off of broken. If you use Tech binding like G3's/Dynafit the ski brakes lock in their retracted position and thus the ski easily lays flat as a pancake along side the side of the tunnel. Don't like "flimsey" Tech bindings like Dynafit and G3, funny: it's the bindings the guys who ski things like Everest use - Pre-release you die.

Riding two-up with skis? Don't or make two trips. Skiing will be good and you're going to want to pack out a good approach anyway.

Dennis

dennis said:

The inherit problem with any mounting system that places boards or skis high on the side of the sled (near front or back) is that you stand the risk of getting tangled in the equipment if you fall off, get bucked, roll, etc. Also your equipement stands a great chance of getting trashed. Then again maybe you just ride groomers to the base of some hill and skin up. Fine: put the gear anywhere you like. But, where we ski, it's a challange to get a sled there with or w/o gear attached. I have hand made frames that have a narrow "gun hanger-like" attachment near the rear of the sled. Volie straps hold the skis in place and only one ski mounts to each side. The shovel of the ski goes inside or just behind the boot well .............. still plenty space for your boot, usually it's not in the well anyway. Some do the reverse with shovel rearward. Very little stuff hanging out from sled to get hung-up on if sled rolls (and rolls) skis are tight to side and don't get torn off of broken. If you use Tech binding like G3's/Dynafit the ski brakes lock in their retracted position and thus the ski easily lays flat as a pancake along side the side of the tunnel. Don't like "flimsey" Tech bindings like Dynafit and G3, funny: it's the bindings the guys who ski things like Everest use - Pre-release you die.

Riding two-up with skis? Don't or make two trips. Skiing will be good and you're going to want to pack out a good approach anyway.

Dennis

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I see what you are saying, but neither of my two sets of skis (wider twin tips) will fit up into the well of the sled and definitely get in the way of footing. I've rolled my sled with hellbents on a couple of times and they were fine.

I don't know if you guys saw but I built a new bulletproof rack for mine.

http://www.snowestonline.com/forum/showthread.php?t=299074

Lushbomb said:

I broke one of the arms in the V shape that holds the board.. I think this was after a few dozen roll overs over a few years

shoot, i need to get another set! winter is creeeeeeepin!

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I used the same rack. Snapped each V holder within 800 miles. I think snowboards just are too wide for that setup and put too much force on the V arm. I never rolled the sled, just lots of whoops and small jumps. Just might have to pony up and buy a CFR.

The cutting board is genius. I'm copying this right now.

I'd like to comment on Maxco if I could. First off, this is a DIY post, so why are you even here hating on people? My priorities are to get as much powder as possible, but spending $500 on a rack that I can make for $40 is just impractical to me. The savings are a solid backcountry set up(backpack, transceiver, probe, etc) or that many more trips(gas). Time is money, but it's my time. Yeah bungeeing boards down sucks and takes a few extra minutes but if its what you gotta do, then it's what you gotta do. One of the main reasons I got a sled and go into the bc is so I don't have to be rushed. If I want to chill between runs, big deal, there's plenty of snow out there.
And if you're doing the backpack thing and doubling up, just put the board so it's vertical in the pack. No hitting the driver that way.

RalleyTuned said:

What broke? Repairable for cheap?

Got my hardware and a board strap, Drilling holes and mounting tomorrow

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I broke these as well. Had them mounted with with some snowboard ratchets over em and the metal on these rusted out and snapped on its own within a season.

Hey, I upgraded my CFR rack to the DD system when I bought a new sled last year and I have a used single snowboard carry CFR rack for sale. $75 bucks plus you pay shipping if anyones interested. If you pm me I will send you pictures.

Does anyone have any success trying to make something coincide with BRPs linq system. I was thinking of using the gun clamps out of the can am parts catologue. Might work great, might not! I'll post some pics when I get them on the sled!

my solution for getting over the running board gussets on the pro climb...
thick uhm cut out on a bandsaw.

http://www.knightriderracks.com/

Call brian. Tough goddam racks.
Or use hockey pucks. They're cheaper than umhw.

Built these mounts last week.

Hey this guy is making some pretty sweet brackets you can buy online to make whatever you want and they are no expensive.

If anyone wants to do their own thing. Thought to throw it out, I saw it at a dealer this weekend Skagit Valley Polaris.

They are cheap too.

www.tinymopros.com

all these mounts look great guys! heres my question. i broke a binding last year do to a close encounter with a tree so i want to change my mount to flat instead of on edge has any one done this?

Dbaker said:

all these mounts look great guys! heres my question. i broke a binding last year do to a close encounter with a tree so i want to change my mount to flat instead of on edge has any one done this?

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You'll have to explain what you mean by 'from flat to on edge'.


Can't picture what you're asking exactly.

Snowboarder trailer for snowmobile

Home-made but seems to work great. Boarders hop on and hop off, no wasted time. It wouldn't be pleasant on a whooped out road and might be hard on the tunnel but riding double has its limitations too. I plan to add a 2nd car so it's a train of 4 boarders.

Heres a short movie (3 seconds). Snow-mo-boarding trailer

This is on a 2010 Arctic Cat M8, 153 tunnel. I used a big UHMW block I bought off ebay for 40 bucks, Some 1.5" angle aluminum from the hardware store, some freebie old rental snowboard bindings from a local shop, and some ghetto rental ratchets. I had to track down some superlong ladder straps that were rubberized but I needed them to fit skis and a snowboard. The rails I got from a sled rack company called vortech. I just shortened and redrilled them.

Overview:



The angle aluminum is riveted into the same holes for my cooler. I drilled those out and put in some steel ones.

Trail breaking mode:



This is the big thing about premade racks that bugs me. Mounting skis along the running boards while ALSO allowing for a double up mount. To me this is absolutely the most important part. I've seen racks that allow you to do this along the tunnel, but then they can't carry another pair of skis. But ski boot SHELLS go in the snowboard binding baseplates while I break trail in my ski boot liners sitting in some old snowboard boots.



But I've ridden all day long like this, rolling the sled out of holes, sidehilling all day, jumping off cornices, hitting hips........ **** is out of the way. You barely notice the skis are even there. This isn't new or anything but I can't stand bobbling around with a CFR rack with a pair of skis hanging way off the back. A friend of mine broke two skis with a CFR (Hi VC! ) when the rockered tips caught just doing little dinky pow turns. I don't want **** hanging off the back of my sled when I'm punching trail in deep snow. Or just banging on a bunch of whoops for an hour down a road.

To help the tunnel mount, I put in a smaller piece of angle aluminum in the footwells to hold the tips, just to keep the skis snug.



Room for go juice



Gettin laps mode. Snowboard boots I rode out in go on, two pairs of skis along the tunnel, not sky high in the air so rolling the beast goes easy and doesn't **** skis up.





Boards go in the deeper slots of the plastic blocks






Still room to grab the bumper






But anyway. That was just shy of a hundred bucks. Used for a while now and I have zero need for a 500 dollar rack that still doesn't do the things I want. The tinymopros and CFRs are good ready made setups but I'd still be changing things on them to get the tunnel mounted stuff setup for riding out in fresh snow.