Choosing the right sled for your pulk can be more of an art than a science. The proper choice depends on what you are hauling and what kinds of trail you will be using.

Sled shape

1. The depth of the sled is important to keep the sled floating above the snow. While 5-7 inches is essential, substantially more than that is only important if you plan to haul a lot of loose stuff, or will be navigating through rough terrain with lots of obstructions like polar ice blocks.

2. Width is another critical issue if you expect to be traveling on any fresh snow. The wider the sled the more snow you have to plow. This may not be an issue on a packed snowmobile trail, but it is critical in fresh snow. Most people like sleds between 14 to 22 inches wide. Narrower sleds/toboggans ride better in a snow shoe “float” or trail. Wider sleds plow more snow but are more stable in resisting rollover.

3. Length is important in determining maneuverability. The shorter the sled the more maneuverable it will be, but trying to carry the same amount of gear from a long sled on a shorter one will require packing the load higher and will result in less stability and more frequent rollovers. Rollovers are one of the most discouraging aspects of traveling by pulk. If your sled is rolling over a lot- get a longer sled or leave some stuff at home.

4. All sleds utilize some form of runners on the bottom to help the sled track straight. These also give the sled bottom rigidity. Adding skegs, fins or long shaped ridges on the bottom of the sled will reduce side hill slip and sleds swinging into a fish tail on a downhill. From the negative perspective they will add friction in some snow conditions.

5. The most important characteristic of a sled in deep snow is the shape of the front or leading edge of the bow. Using the analogy of a ship - you are looking for a shape like an icebreaker hull that rides up on the ice rather than the shape of a tanker that slices through the water.

Materials & Construction

6. Besides determining durability, the sled material is important in both determining how well it will glide (low coefficient of friction) and in how likely it is to ice up in variable snow conditions. The icing problem and weight has resulted in very few modern metal pulks. Fiberglass or other composite shells offer the greatest strength to weight but they are easily damaged by rocks. Due to the strength and cost of composite sleds, you usually find this material in larger expedition style pulks. Most sleds for short to midsized pulks use some form of high density polyethylene.

Common molding processes are thermo-formed from flat sheets, injection molded from liquid plastic or rotationally molded from plastic pellets. The sleds that are durable enough for pulks usually have about 1/8” of thickness or more. Our experience with injection molded sleds are that they have excellent glide and rigidity but are a little more brittle in cold temps. Thermoformed sleds glide well and do not seem as brittle but they are thinner on the bottom of the sled where the greatest wear is. Rotationally molded sleds glide well, are not brittle, have no thin spots but often are slightly heavier than the others.

7. Rigidity is important in protecting your load and maintaining the proper shape to float above the snow and track well. While some of the rigidity is inherent in the sled material, much of the rigidity comes from the sled’s features and rims. Some sleds gain rigidity from wide flat rims and others use rounded narrow rims. Sometimes the wide rims give the impression of a bigger sled. Take, for example, this view of the 59x19x6 inch Paris sitting in the smaller shell of the 56x18x7 inch Snowclipper.

In another example, most casual observers would suggest that the Wilderness Engineering sled is significantly bigger than the Jet Jr but this view demonstrates that looks can be deceiving.

The end result is that there is no one best sled. Make your decision based on what aspects are most important to you.

Recently, Filip from Colorado asked our help in creating a tandem sled that he could pull by himself at times and split into two pulks at other times, so that his wife would have her own sled.

This wasn’t the first time we had been asked to assist with this concept.  Hoop, who runs the WinterTrekking.com site, asked about the same concept a couple years ago.  Don Kevalius from Four Dog stove has also told us that he likes a tandem sled as an alternative to toboggans.  His perspective was that it would be possible to pull a large tandem load on the flats and split the load into two trips over very steep portages. Our friends who do a lot of ice fishing have also been asking for more storage space than we offer in our sled based systems.

A double sled or tandem pulk has about the same, or more storage space than a more traditional toboggan. It pulls as well as a toboggan on lakes and flatter terrain.  It would excel in steeper terrain with sidehills and downhills.  By splitting it into two sleds, no route would be too steep to tackle.  Since we have never tried a tandem sled ourselves we knew we had to put more time into  experimenting with this concept to be more educated in answering our customers questions.  After several hours of experimenting some things became very apparent.

1.  A tandem pulk never tracks and turns quite as well as a single one, but with a good setup it can track reasonably well and provide a great source for extended storage.
2.  Single pole tandem connections create the optimum turning radius but provide little control for the second sled.

3.  A double pole straight connection is the worst configuration for tracking as the connection is too rigid.

4.  The best configuration for tracking is split tandem crossed poles.  We started with short poles in the 12-24 inch range but found that longer lengths in the 3 foot range offer better tracking. It seemed that  longer lengths than this did not help much.

5.  We tried attaching the poles to the rear back (photo above) of the leading sled but found that it was not as good as attaching the poles to the rear top (photo below) of the leading sled.

6.  After deciding on the location, we worked to create a plate that would allow them to be mounted on the back corner in such a way that they would not interfere with our covers.

7.  By extending the threads on the shaft of the balljoint – it created more range in the fitting allowing tighter turns.

Our experimentation verified the practicality of a tandem sled approach to situations where you have to take more than you can fit on a single sled.

We do not normally manufacture special poles for tandem sleds because the stress you normally encounter in this location does not require the durability or expense of our base pole systems, but we can make some as special orders if requested. (Since the manufacture process would be almost the same, the price would be $5 less than our full length base poles and would include the channel kit for the rear of the leading sled).  

One of the most difficult jobs in traveling with a pulk is attempting to go up steep terrain while hauling a heavy load.  At the point that your ski wax loses its battle with the uphill slant, it is either herringbone in deep powder or switch to skins.  Skins (which basically imitate the one-way grain of animal fur i.e. seal/ horse or mole hides) give the skier much greater uphill purchase.  Good skins attached on the full length of the ski will give you plenty of uphill grab for most inclines.  As it gets really steep, or if you are using shorter kicker skins, you have to remember that by using a pulk, you have taken most of the weight from your pack off of your body and your skins now have to use the downward force of only your body weight to also keep the heavy pulk from sliding backward. In this case it may make some sense to place some more weight in your day pack to lighten the pulk and give you more downward purchase on the snow.

After attempting a large uphill climb there is little question that it is a real slog.  Before condemning the pulk behind you, think about how hard it would have been to climb the same terrain with all that weight on your back.  Besides, now that you are on top of the ridge and taking a breather with no load, remember that your buddy with the pack is still dealing with his heavy load.

A few years ago I had a discussion with a customer (Steve Cain) about making retractable fins for the Paris sled.  We both had the same idea of a semi circle curved piece of metal with a bolted pivot point and a second series of holes or slot that would allow the curved metal to slide down and then bolt in place.  I decided against making a commercial version of this for a couple reasons.

I was concerned that the sloped sides of the Paris sled would mean that the fins will be slanted inward and thus be prone to bending with heavy loads on a hard surface like ice. I also didn't think the tooling cost to stamp the fin out of metal could be recouped by the limited number of people who would purchase it.

Steve continued on with the concept and made a great retractable and adjustable fin that he loves. He also made a pretty slick drag brake for resting on hills.  Check out the photos

Question from Andy - Ashland OR

By the way my purchase led to the purchase of two of the fiberglass sleds by Crater Lake National Park. I'm on ski patrol there. It's a small world and they are a help. Thanks for doing your business!

Answer from Ed

The polyethylene sled is the same as an inexpensive (non sintered) ski base.  While it doesn't have to be waxed most of the time; in the right conditions waxing certainly helps.  That is why I started selling Maxi Glide.  It is more of an issue with fiberglass but in the right conditions it is an issue with poly as well.  There are several paste wax type items out there- I really do not know which is best but I have heard good things about Maxi Glide so I became a dealer with them.  Another product I played with was a spray on coating for snow shovels.  I really don't know yet which is best as we seldom have the right snow conditions in MN when I have time off.

I have heard of people planning to bend the front rim of the Paris up or down but have not heard back from them. You can not cut it off (customers have tried that with no success) as it is required for rigidity, but it can be bent (you will need a heat gun). Let me know how it works for you.