By popular demand, here's my brief JetSled(model large) review. Here's the glamor shot...
Note the sexy angular lines. JetSled was doing sexy before the Cybertruck was a gleam in one idiot's eye, and you can have this black beauty for $60, as opposed to the $100k asking price of the Cybertruck. You tell me which is the better deal.
This is the small nylon cleat I installed under the gunwale using a scrap piece of ash as a riser, cause as we all know, ash is the traditional material for canoe gunwales ;^)
I picked these due to the cheap price, light weight, and low profile. There's other things that can be installed that would allow locking off to the cleat, but there's tradeoffs with everything, right? These seem to be working well, and at this point, I'd get them again.
Here's the other side of the screws. I bought 1.5" first, but they were too short, so I got 2". 1.75" would have been ideal, but TSC didn't have them. The screw studs catch gloves. Once I'm sure I'm happy with everything, I'll saw off the excess, and/or install cap nuts. Note the corrosion resistant washers. You can't buy one for 1¢, and they're easy to make.
This is the front. It came with the holes preinstalled. I used crappy hardware store rope with a stopper on one side, and a bowline on the other. I want everything to be modular, and adjustable, so I clip the pull rope to the loops.
This is my pull rope installed. It used to be crappy hardwarestore rope, but I switched it to ⅜" Promaster with spliced eyes. The biners are small Chinese biners from amazon. I paid $12 for 4 of those, and 10 keychain biners. The 4 are rated 12kn I believe. Cut that in half cause Chinese, and it's still more than up to the task.
This is my tiedown rope. Again, it used to be hardwarestore rope, but I almost burned through the butterfly Sat, after only 3-4 cinches on a trucker's hitch, which is ridiculous. It has a spliced eye on one end that goes around a cleat, a butterfly to cinch with, and a biner to prevent wear, and run smoother. Side note on the ⅜" Promaster. I *highly* recommend it as a utility line. Can be used for many things, is cheap, tough, and easy to splice. I asked before about a good "hardwarestore" rope, and this is it.
This is the sled loaded, but not yet tied down. The stack can be a little tippy, but it doesn't matter. Just keep it over the sled body. It'll take bigger branches, but I didn't have any left. Keep the butts at the pull side, and you can leave any length trailing off the rear. This is a moderate load. Not that heavy, not super light. How much you load it depends on terrain, length of pull, hills to traverse... You can stack this very high, but if you have a sidehill to go across, it can tip over if stacked too high. Also, is judgment call of fewer slower/heavy trips, and more lighter/faster trips. I tend to favor lighter trips. Walking is easier than pulling hard.
and here it is cinched down...
I took it ~150' out back, up a small hill, and tossed it on my pile. I'll break it down for kindling when I feel like doing it.
I debated awhile between the lg and xl models, I'm glad I got this. While the xl is bigger platform to pile things on, it costs twice as much, and it would be easy to overfill it, and be a real bear to pull. You could load this sled with just about anything(branches, rounds, tools) that would be too heavy to pull, so the extra room wouldn't get you a whole lot.
This works well for hauling debris, climbing gear, tools... Where it really shines is tiny stuff. Saturday when Mike and I cleaned up, we had little twig piles that had to be hauled 300'-400' to the dump site. Fill the sled with debris, and it was an easy pull getting it there. The sled slides great on pavement or other hard surfaces. It slides good on grass, and I imagine snow would be best. Pavement is of course gonna wear the bottom out fairly fast, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?
I was telling Mike this thing would be worth $10 for me to rent for a job. If I was dragging crap by hand, and someone stopped and asked if I wanted to rent a JetSled for $10, I'd jump at it. Definitely worth it, and that means it's paid for after 6 jobs. Everything after that is free. I think it would last 6 jobs dragging 100% on pavement, so there's no real way to lose.
Obviously, this is less interesting to highly mechanized outfits, but it'll handle material that's hard to get machines to. It can be kept in a truck bed to put saws and whatnot in. Keeps fuel and oil from getting everywhere. I think it's worth $60 to most people. Saves a lot of work and hassle around the house and jobsite.
Note the sexy angular lines. JetSled was doing sexy before the Cybertruck was a gleam in one idiot's eye, and you can have this black beauty for $60, as opposed to the $100k asking price of the Cybertruck. You tell me which is the better deal.
This is the small nylon cleat I installed under the gunwale using a scrap piece of ash as a riser, cause as we all know, ash is the traditional material for canoe gunwales ;^)
I picked these due to the cheap price, light weight, and low profile. There's other things that can be installed that would allow locking off to the cleat, but there's tradeoffs with everything, right? These seem to be working well, and at this point, I'd get them again.
Here's the other side of the screws. I bought 1.5" first, but they were too short, so I got 2". 1.75" would have been ideal, but TSC didn't have them. The screw studs catch gloves. Once I'm sure I'm happy with everything, I'll saw off the excess, and/or install cap nuts. Note the corrosion resistant washers. You can't buy one for 1¢, and they're easy to make.
This is the front. It came with the holes preinstalled. I used crappy hardware store rope with a stopper on one side, and a bowline on the other. I want everything to be modular, and adjustable, so I clip the pull rope to the loops.
This is my pull rope installed. It used to be crappy hardwarestore rope, but I switched it to ⅜" Promaster with spliced eyes. The biners are small Chinese biners from amazon. I paid $12 for 4 of those, and 10 keychain biners. The 4 are rated 12kn I believe. Cut that in half cause Chinese, and it's still more than up to the task.
This is my tiedown rope. Again, it used to be hardwarestore rope, but I almost burned through the butterfly Sat, after only 3-4 cinches on a trucker's hitch, which is ridiculous. It has a spliced eye on one end that goes around a cleat, a butterfly to cinch with, and a biner to prevent wear, and run smoother. Side note on the ⅜" Promaster. I *highly* recommend it as a utility line. Can be used for many things, is cheap, tough, and easy to splice. I asked before about a good "hardwarestore" rope, and this is it.
This is the sled loaded, but not yet tied down. The stack can be a little tippy, but it doesn't matter. Just keep it over the sled body. It'll take bigger branches, but I didn't have any left. Keep the butts at the pull side, and you can leave any length trailing off the rear. This is a moderate load. Not that heavy, not super light. How much you load it depends on terrain, length of pull, hills to traverse... You can stack this very high, but if you have a sidehill to go across, it can tip over if stacked too high. Also, is judgment call of fewer slower/heavy trips, and more lighter/faster trips. I tend to favor lighter trips. Walking is easier than pulling hard.
and here it is cinched down...
I took it ~150' out back, up a small hill, and tossed it on my pile. I'll break it down for kindling when I feel like doing it.
I debated awhile between the lg and xl models, I'm glad I got this. While the xl is bigger platform to pile things on, it costs twice as much, and it would be easy to overfill it, and be a real bear to pull. You could load this sled with just about anything(branches, rounds, tools) that would be too heavy to pull, so the extra room wouldn't get you a whole lot.
This works well for hauling debris, climbing gear, tools... Where it really shines is tiny stuff. Saturday when Mike and I cleaned up, we had little twig piles that had to be hauled 300'-400' to the dump site. Fill the sled with debris, and it was an easy pull getting it there. The sled slides great on pavement or other hard surfaces. It slides good on grass, and I imagine snow would be best. Pavement is of course gonna wear the bottom out fairly fast, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?
I was telling Mike this thing would be worth $10 for me to rent for a job. If I was dragging crap by hand, and someone stopped and asked if I wanted to rent a JetSled for $10, I'd jump at it. Definitely worth it, and that means it's paid for after 6 jobs. Everything after that is free. I think it would last 6 jobs dragging 100% on pavement, so there's no real way to lose.
Obviously, this is less interesting to highly mechanized outfits, but it'll handle material that's hard to get machines to. It can be kept in a truck bed to put saws and whatnot in. Keeps fuel and oil from getting everywhere. I think it's worth $60 to most people. Saves a lot of work and hassle around the house and jobsite.
