DanD

Thanks for the info. Dan.

What is the health unit going to do after these people are squealed on and caught? They are not breaking any law; self-isolating is a recommendation; it's not a law is it? It is something I completely agree with; they should self-isolate; but how can that be enforced? Start building concentration camps; like we did to the Canadian born Japanese (who were innocent of any crime) , that were hauled off to, during W.W.2? Lets not go there again. Sorry But I don't want someone calling the health unit on me, because I have a smoker's hack. Dan.

I have my guys wearing gloves as soon as they walk into the shop. I ask them to change gloves when they go to a different vehicle, come into the front office or waiting room. When the vehicle's servicing is done and parked outside for the customer; I then have them wipe down the inside of the vehicle with disinfectant cloths, of anything and everything that they may have touched. We then put a sticky note on the steering wheel explaining the bleach smell. I'm thinking of closing the shop for the duration. Not just because its been recommended; but it's costing me big time to stay open. People have a lot on their minds; servicing their vehicles isn't one of them. We've mostly been getting breakdowns; where the customer has to bring their car in. I know there's more important things then money; but me at 60 year old, if I loose this shop; I'd be screwed. Dan.

We were going to hold a celebration of life for my mother in-law this weekend. The hall that we booked to hold this, just called us saying they are cancelling all engagements; until this issue is under control. My wife is now trying to get a hold of approx 200 people to tell them.; not to come. A lot of work for a maybe situation; but better to be safe then sorry. Dan.

Oh man that sent a shiver down my back! Dan.

Just thinking out of the box here; you have a quad right? If so maybe get a 12 or 14 foot tinny, with a 9.9 on the back. A tilt & load trailer that you can customize for on & off road use (oversize balloon tires, rollers instead of bunks ect). Why a tilt and load trailer; you really don't need a ramp to launch or retrieve your boat with one. When I had my 14' tinny; I'd launch it in the Thames river, from the bank and never got the wheels wet on the trailer. Yes that could mean a pick up to load the quad onto and to hook the boat to for highway use. Or it is legal to double trailer tow here in Ontario. I haven't read all of the regs on doing this; but what I did read was you cannot go over the towing capacity of the tow vehicle with both trailers attached. There are other ways that you can carry/tow both toys. A hitch mount quad carrier with side loading ramps, a ball mount receiver attached (welded) to the back of the carrier, a weight distribution hitch to carry the tongue weight of the boat trailer. A nice small package to go down the road with? Just thinking out-loud? Dan.

It should work; but he'll be shortening the life of all the batteries. The 8 volt battery will never get a full charge due to the cart's charger, charges the batteries as a pack; adding up to approx 36 volts. So that 8 volt battery will only get a partial charge. The 6 volt batteries will also get cheated in charge; for the same reason. The charger looks at total voltage not the individual battery(s). What he'll likely notice is the the range of the cart will continually become shorter after some time. Dan.

It wouldn't take a lot of bartering from a board member to get me to drop another $500.00 for this vehicle. I'm a mechanic and run my own shop, my wife is a service adviser at a GM dealership. This truck got looked after; happy wife happy life; even for the guys/mechanics that she works with. It doesn't burn a drop of oil between oil changes and as far as I know everything works as intended. Not sure where you're from (I'm in London) come and get the Envoy and drive it for a week; if you don't want it bring it back and no hard feelings. Dan.

Yea but do you have a warm place to drive out with, (Sally's heater works great) a warm up shack that you can strip down to a tee shirt in, 110 volts (generator) to power up engine block heaters or the microwave oven to warm your meals, a BBQ and camp stove to cook meals? With this rig I can use my permanent "Blue" fish hut as a base camp. Now I can use Sally and Bob (sled) and be mobile. Find an area I want to fish and then move base camp. Yes a lot of work, then what maybe needed to fish; but I also enjoy being comfortable, doing so. Shane. You will always be welcome In my fish hut, warm up shack or Sally! I like the way you speak your mind. Even as demented as it is. LOL You've helped me in the past!!!! Dan.

People are people; if there's a way to screw up a good thing, we'll do it? Dan.

Here are a few pics of the skies I built for the fish hut/old sled. My first attempt was to make them about the width of a ladder; actually the frame was from a ladder. LOL My thinking was the width would keep the hut on top of the snow; Yea it did but the drag was way to much; even with the ladder rungs covered with light weight sheet metal. Before I built the hut I was just using them on a sled behind the ski-doo and it pulled like I had a 10 ton load. When I built the hut with the lowering axles; I knew a had to lessen the drag of the skies. Hut lowered to the frame. At this point the wheels can be lifted (by hand) high enough to put the skies under the wheels. Once skies were in place, winch the hut's springs down and raise the hut. Hut raised for towing, down the road or out on the ice. Decided on these and so far they have worked pretty good. Gets the hut up off the snow and the narrow rails are no where's near as hard to pull. Going to redesign the skies that I used on my 3' X 4' tag along trailer; to become Sally's new drive-on skies for the front.. Going to lower the back, so I can drive Sally's front tires into them and then ratchet strap then together? The curved portion of both set of skies are actually trailer fenders, turned upside down to create pockets for the tires to sit in. Dan.

Forgot I took this short vid. It's not much but shows our set up. My brother has had those tip ups for decades; couldn't count the number of fish they have caught over the years. Dan

yea I think that Sally will be getting a new pair of shoes; a set of drive on skies. Wanted to try the chains and I think they'll still be better on bare ice for steering. But I dob't think we would have got stuck on that crusted over snow back if she had skies on? Instead of the front tires breaking through; I think Sally would have stayed on top and floated over. OK I'm stubborn and wanted to try it my way first. LOL Dan.

First off, it was good meeting you Josh. We didn't have a lot of time to talk; but it was pretty neat meeting another Londoner and board member!!! Lakeshore Suits was just as porkpie said it was. Lots of parking for the vehicles and trailer. The rooms are not fancy but very clean, big and super warm. When we got to the Lakeshore suits we drove by looking for Sunset park. It was less then a mile away; with very easy access to the lake. Went back to the suits and asked if we could unload and leave the trailer there. "NO problem just park it there and you'll be good". Every nice people running the place. Unloaded the trailer, hooked Bob and Sally together and off we went; down Lakeshore to Sunset park. Wasn't sure if we were legal driving on the street; but a cop went by giving us a thumbs up? It's North Bay and he knew what we were doing; I guess? Sally and Bob worked like they were meant to be. On the hard packed snow close to shore, I left Sally in high range and she pulled Bob easily in first gear. Once we started into some deeper snow I had to switch to low range and when the engine revs were right, shift into second gear. What a little trooper she was; start into a snow drift, you could hear the RPM starting to drop. Stick my foot into the throttle and she'd dig down through the snow. When the track's cleats hit the ice, she just started pushing forwards and through. We did get stuck once, I didn't see that the drift was that deep. When the snow came up over the top of the front bumper and the front wheels broke through the hard crust the tracks were just spinning in air. Pulled the winch out, connected it to the rear of Bob. Drilled a hole in the ice and set the anchor Pulled ourselves out and off we went again. About a 15 minute deal to get moving again. The fishing was slow; but we did get a number of keeper Walleye and a couple dozen or so of jumbo perch. There was a pressure crack that we didn't want to cross that kept us away from the water depths I wanted (25-30 feet); but we made due. We were about 1 1/2 miles out to the crack and the Manitou islands were another 2 miles. Would have liked being in that 20 to 30 FOW between the crack and the islands. Even with the 45 Klm winds we were able to stay warm inside Bob with the buddy heater going. We also put a wind break tarp up between Sally and Bob that helped a lot keeping us sheltered. Only took a couple of pics; to frigging cold and my phone didn't like it?

Heading out tomorrow morning for Nipissing. All loaded up, fueled up and crossing fingers that we're ready to go? Also hoping that the MTO has a bit of forgiveness. Maximum width is a 102 inches, the trailer is legal but the skies of the bobsled measure 109". Oops officer I didn't realize , I had 7 more inches then I thought I had? (I could only wish) LOL Anyway we're off later tonight and will let the cards fall where they will. Dan.

What fond memories I have of the 3rd generation Camaro. LOL They were a great vehicle; on the standpoint of a mechanic/garage owner; always something going wrong with them. There is one that stands out in my mind. It came in with a brake issue; set it up on the hoist and started lifting it. It was about a foot off the ground and all I heard was a very loud pop and glass flying everywhere. The thing flexed so bad that it blew the rear hatch glass out of it. I was not a happy camper; a hundred dollar repair job; cost me about 8 hundred for a new rear window. Dan.

When Long Point Bay (St. Williams) use to freeze over and we could leave a hut out there, for the season. We use to clean our perch, out there on the ice; leaving the remains behind the hut. Next time out, there was never a scrap left. The one time I guess the Mink (or Ferret?) wasn't willing to wait for us to leave. He/she came in the hut through one of the holes, in the floor. Jumped up on the bench beside the wood stove and just sat there? Wouldn't let us touch him; but wasn't afraid of us either. Fed it a bunch of the minnows and when he/she decided it was time; it jumped down to the floor and out the hole it went. All of us just sat there thinking what the hell; I guess warmth and food concurs all? Dan.

That's what it's all about. I bet he'll never forget his adventure with you; it'll last him his lifetime! I still have kids (Some are now in their 40s and 50s) sit with me reminiscing about the days they came out ice fishing with us. They ranged form 6 to 12 years old back then. My biggest fear having them with me, was if they got board; during the slow times. So I'd have kites for them to fly; almost always enough wind on the lake for that. They had a blast and so did I; but talk about exhausting. LOL Dan.

With the bit of snow we had on the weekend I was able to get Sally out to the back lot here at the shop. Driving through foot + deep snow banks wasn't an issue. Then I tried climbing a 3-4 foot pile that the snow plow left. Got 3/4 the way over and the now wet tires started to spin inside the tracks. So back to the drawing board and came up with these cleats. One side is about an 1/8 inch down to grab onto the tire. The other side is about a 1/4 inch to dig into the ice. Had a few minutes to put the chains on the quad; so it's read to go as the back up vehicle if Sally craps out? We're going to look like the Nipissing Hillbillies have come to town. LOL Even Rosco my basset hound is ready to go; but my wife says I can't take him with? Dan.

John. Thanks The help of the other members here has been great. Will try and get some pics and or a vids of this weekend and Sally’s triumphs and or down falls. Sally’s first date with a frozen lake; not sure how she’s going to react? Dan.

Good info Snowball will use the carts for sure. Dan.

Got a room at the Lakeshore; cheaper then where I booked. The kitchenette will work out great Thanks again for the lead porkpie. Sunset Park will fit the ticket great; just down the street from the Lakeshore. Billy Bob's opens at 7am; which should be about the time, we'll be getting there. Thanks guys!!!! Dan.

Holy crap Billy Bob's is still around; last time I was there has to be at least 30 years ago. The guy serving us could have been Kenny Roger's twin brother. LOL porkpie. I will give Lakeshore a call and see if they have any rooms left. Yes I'm also taking my quad; I think Sally is ready but you just never know. Especially on her maiden trip, out on the ice Thanks both of you for your advise. Dan.

If things go as planned, a few of us (3-5 guys) are going to try Nipissing this weekend. I have booked a room for Saturday and Sunday nights in North bay. Can I use the government dock (Waterfront Marina) area to access the lake? If so what direction should I head out at; towards the Manitou Islands? What depth of water should I be looking for to drop our lines? I have never ice fished this area and going out blind. Last question for now; is there anyone going out from there that I could maybe tag along and follow out? Any advice would be very much appreciated. Just thought of this; where is a bait shop to get minnows close to the lake access? Not looking for anyone’s “special” spot just general direction of where and what to do or not to do Dan.

Try connecting a couple of jumper wires between the charger's electrical tabs and then to the battery's tabs. Then connect the voltmeter across the battery's tabs and take a voltage reading. Now plug the charger in and before the charger kicks off take another battery voltage reading. The battery may be on its way out and can only take in a surface charge? If so that surface charge will spike quickly, causing the charger to think it has a fully charged battery and turns itself off? Dan.