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Looking for your thoughts ...... My old knees and oversized gut makes it hard to get to my favorite ice fishing spots. I'm torn between an atv which I can use year round and a sled. Without getting into tracks for the atv, how are they in deep snow.
Thanx in advance
:santa::santa::santa:
ATV's are ok for up to a foot of snow, add chains to the rear and you can go a bit deeper. I toyed with the idea of tracks, then reality set in. The cost is pretty steep, they cut down your speed, eat a bunch more gas and are a little less manouverable. They also add about 14 inches to the width of the ATV and about 2 feet longer. Might not fit your trailer. If you go in powdery snow, you'll look like a snowman.
I general, Eastern Ont is seeing winters with less and less snow accumulation. Some winters the local trails have so little snow coverage they are only good for only 3-4 weekends all winter. Most guys I know drive up north of Petawawa on the weekends to do any serious sledding ( poker runs etc) .
Lots of guys have sold their sleds and now use ATV's all winter.
If you fish larger lakes most times an atv will be okay. If you plan on going inland to smaller lakes you need a snowmobile.
An ATV with tracks will provide you with a 4 season vehicle. You can probably buy a nice one with tracks for what a decent sled will cost you.
Up to a ft of snow will be really hard on an ATVs drive system and rear end/front end gears. I wrecked a drive shaft on my Honda 350 trying to use it on a lake. What really ticked me off was that I had a perfectly good ski-doo liquid 500 Grand Touring sitting in my garage.
The second you get into any depth of snow the undercarriage gets hung up and its push or walk from there.
Do other fishermen break trail to your favourite spot? If so you are good with an ATV. Usually, the snow on a lake is wind blown and not that deep in comparison to what you would find in the bush. Additionally, a lot of clubs are grooming ATV trails during the winter months now so truly a 4 season machine.
You live in Eastern Ontario so should be good to go if you fish in this area.
Both. Lol . Cant believe no one suggested it by now.
I have a sled and if theres snow on the lake I have no problems for the most part but when I gotta ride a good distance to get to the lake and theres not much snow to be had it gets difficult to steer or maneuver to the ice. my dads got an atv and its the complete opposite of the sled. we fish simcoe mostly and theres been a couple times I had to push him out of some drifts. to me I think an atv will give you more bang for your buck if you use it year round. I think if you had to invest in a set of tracks your further ahead because you get best of both worlds. throw the tracks on for winter and tires for summer. my neighbour had tracks on his atv and loved it. he recommended power steering though if he were to buy another machine, I guess its a bit of a bear to steer the atv if you don't have some forward motion. or like hunterjohn said.....BOTH.lol. that's my 2 cents......
Snowmobile everytime I take my atv out in the spring to break my trail for maple syrup I wish I had a snowmobile, once you get into some deep snow its a struggle to get free. Mind you I only have a 350cc atv but fulltime 4x4.