Noticing a shift in thinking.

[limeyangler]

Hi all,

Just thinking out loud here.

I have noticed a real shift in thinking towards using cordless drills for cutting holes in ice. The concept has been used for years but I'm noticing that lots of people are making the switch this year. Does not seem like the Jiffys, Strikemasters and Eskimos of the world have a good response so far. I would think that if those big traditional brands with their BIG traditional augers need to hop on the emerging band wagon quick. I think they should at least design and market auger brackets for various motorized vehicles,  as portability and miniaturization, like everything else in the world,  seems to be the way people's thinking is going. It just seems strange to me that  companies that make ice fishing gear seem to be oblivious or willfully ignorant of what people want , and the practicalities of using equipment on the ground(ice), I have had loads of conversations with fishermen that go something like.................." has the person that designed this ever been fishing?" 

Edited January 21, 2018 by limeyangler

[ketchenany]

Misfish probably has a patent on that, but he is not saying

[Sinker]

I still like my gasser jiffy. At least 20 years of drilling with no failures. ......I use a digger mount on my sled to carry it around. Love it. 

 

S. 

[limeyangler]

I like my jiffy too Sinker, has had the bejeezuz knocked out of it for 11 years and still going strong. But portability is an issue just seems weird that everyone I know has had to here jerrymonger their own rack systems,

Edited January 21, 2018 by limeyangler

[DanD]

I was just out on Simcoe's perch grounds. I have a Jiffy and an older Eskimo auger; I left the Jiffy at home. The Eskimo has never failed to start, with very little effort'; the Jiffy needs to be fused with, once going it's fine. Out on Long Point Bay, a week ago, we had a guy stop at our spot and showed us his electric drill assembly. Looked every impressive, other then that the battery died half way through drilling a 6 inch hole: through 6 inches of ice? OK It could be just his equipment; but gas and horsepower still has it's edge on electric. This is just my opinion on this: there's so many things that make electric appealing; But I'm still hauling gas out and drill as many holes as we want.

Dan.

[misfish]

I listened to a gasser this morning. Dude, get new blades. I had my 3 holes done and my flip up  set in 2 minutes.  Sipping on a cup of java while this noise went on. Blimme.

 

Simon,

If you are going to go this route, do it right the first time. I did my trial and errors.  IMO, bottom line is the power first.  Milwaukee fuel 2 brushless drill.  Second, the clam plate. Now for the auger. Lots of discussion out there about the best. I started with the finbor 3 line. Six and now the eight. I run the eight with no problem. Clam does have a reducing box, but have yet to hear any good things about it. If you clear the hole as you cut, you will be fine. This past Friday, I drilled 15 holes. 18" of ice. I came home and had 3 bars left still on the 5ah battery. With the 8" .  The nice feature of the new gen 2 is, it will cut out if it gets over loaded. Saves the drill from burning out. I have a vid from Friday. It,s in my post here.

[porkpie]

I never would've thought I'd consider selling our gas auger, but I'm thinking about it.  I was using a standard Milwaukee homeowner drill for the last couple of seasons, and the first couple of trips of this year.  I then saw the hammer drill with 1200 inch pounds on for a great price, and I couldn't help it.  I always wanted a cordless hammer drill anyway.  I'm going to try it out with an 8 inch bit, and if it works well which I think it will, and I can talk my fishing buddy into it,  maybe we'll sell the gasser.  I don't have call for an 8 inch hole much anyway.  It doesn't hurt that I have a bunch of Milwaukee cordless tools already so it fits right in around the house.  I'm using a set of mad dog gun racks for the auger on the front of the bike.  The system is so light that it works perfectly.

Edited January 21, 2018 by porkpie

[misfish]

 

[Tom S]

I wouldn't say that they companies you've listed aren't listening to what fishermen want as much as they are being very slow to respond. And that doesn't surprise me much based on the cost of the augers. The commercially available electric models (which there are a few of) cost about the same as a gas or propane powered model. If you're going to drop that much on a piece of equipment, wouldn't you want the reliability and long life of a gas model instead of going with an untested electric model?

I'd bet that if a manufacturer wanted to they could produce a nice ice auger with a brushless motor, metal gearbox, long-lasting battery, and an auger designed to work well with it. The question is can they survive the 5 years it's going to take for the market to decide that it's a good product, since it's so different from what's out there and accepted by everyone.

Then enter the clam drill conversion. You've got a drill sitting around the house anyhow and a couple hundred bucks and you're off to the races. Drills are made in much greater volume than ice augers, so they most likely can be made more economically and are sold with less margin, so using them as a power source is a great idea. Clam doesn't have a ton invested in their product, so they can afford to take that chance.

I bet you'll start to see some really nice electric models enter the market in the next few years.

[limeyangler]

7 hours ago, DanD said:

I was just out on Simcoe's perch grounds. I have a Jiffy and an older Eskimo auger; I left the Jiffy at home. The Eskimo has never failed to start, with very little effort'; the Jiffy needs to be fused with, once going it's fine. Out on Long Point Bay, a week ago, we had a guy stop at our spot and showed us his electric drill assembly. Looked every impressive, other then that the battery died half way through drilling a 6 inch hole: through 6 inches of ice? OK It could be just his equipment; but gas and horsepower still has it's edge on electric. This is just my opinion on this: there's so many things that make electric appealing; But I'm still hauling gas out and drill as many holes as we want.

Dan.

LOL...probably the equipment, sounds like my buddy, his fish finder batteries and auger batteries always run out, he never bothers charging them.

 

 

6 hours ago, misfish said:

I listened to a gasser this morning. Dude, get new blades. I had my 3 holes done and my flip up  set in 2 minutes.  Sipping on a cup of java while this noise went on. Blimme.

 

Simon,

If you are going to go this route, do it right the first time. I did my trial and errors.  IMO, bottom line is the power first.  Milwaukee fuel 2 brushless drill.  Second, the clam plate. Now for the auger. Lots of discussion out there about the best. I started with the finbor 3 line. Six and now the eight. I run the eight with no problem. Clam does have a reducing box, but have yet to hear any good things about it. If you clear the hole as you cut, you will be fine. This past Friday, I drilled 15 holes. 18" of ice. I came home and had 3 bars left still on the 5ah battery. With the 8" .  The nice feature of the new gen 2 is, it will cut out if it gets over loaded. Saves the drill from burning out. I have a vid from Friday. It,s in my post here.

I just bought a 2nd hand hand auger and own plenty of 20V drills, will have to do a bit of messing around with the welder to convert it, but should not take long, might just go the clam plate route but even that seems a bit awkward to pack/unpack.....we'll see. Love the video of yours in action!

1 hour ago, Tom S said:

I wouldn't say that they companies you've listed aren't listening to what fishermen want as much as they are being very slow to respond. And that doesn't surprise me much based on the cost of the augers. The commercially available electric models (which there are a few of) cost about the same as a gas or propane powered model. If you're going to drop that much on a piece of equipment, wouldn't you want the reliability and long life of a gas model instead of going with an untested electric model?

I'd bet that if a manufacturer wanted to they could produce a nice ice auger with a brushless motor, metal gearbox, long-lasting battery, and an auger designed to work well with it. The question is can they survive the 5 years it's going to take for the market to decide that it's a good product, since it's so different from what's out there and accepted by everyone.

Then enter the clam drill conversion. You've got a drill sitting around the house anyhow and a couple hundred bucks and you're off to the races. Drills are made in much greater volume than ice augers, so they most likely can be made more economically and are sold with less margin, so using them as a power source is a great idea. Clam doesn't have a ton invested in their product, so they can afford to take that chance.

I bet you'll start to see some really nice electric models enter the market in the next few years.

 

I don't think the electric augers are untested at all, plenty of folks have been using them here for years. I've used them and they are awesome, only thing for me is dropping $800 on one and the fact they are even wider than the gas ones (handle to handle).

 

[Chuck Enwinde]

That's what I don't understand.  Why can you put one together that's smaller, lighter, and less expensive than what's currently available?  I feel like someone is going to take over the market but I'm still waiting.

[Sinker]

On 1/21/2018 at 1:16 PM, limeyangler said:

I like my jiffy too Sinker, has had the bejeezuz knocked out of it for 11 years and still going strong. But portability is an issue just seems weird that everyone I know has had to here jerrymonger their own rack systems,

The Digger mount works awesome. Auger is always right there ready to go. Only issue I've had is when there is deep snow, the auger gets covered in snow. If that's the case I just tie a bag around the power head and giver. 

 

S. 

[misfish]

Nice hut buddy,

[Sinker]

1 hour ago, misfish said:

Nice hut buddy,

Thanks Brian. Best money I've spent for a while on fishing gear.