A Survey Of Sledding
A Comprehensive Compendium
Entry One: The Car Hood
Yesterday, I was having a scintillating conversation with my dear friend whom resides in the excellent state of Missouri, when an interesting juncture was reached in our dialogue,
"How's the sledding been?" my friend inquired as he has lived in our snowtopia and understands the level of frozen floof awesomeness that we achieve each year.
"Oh, it's great! My friend got me a Dodge Durango hood, "I replied,"Gonna weld a folding chair and a rollbar on that thing!"
"Um, what?"he responded. He sounded as vacant as a swimming pool during a hurricane.
Could it be true? Had my dear amigo never enjoyed the thrill of being hurled behind a friend's F250 on a precipitous cliff-lined logging road whilst astride a piece of American made steel?
"You've never been pulled behind a truck while on a car hood?" I asked in disbelief
"Shockingly, no." he replied. I think there might have been some implied sarcasm in his response.
This admission got me to thinking. Perhaps there were more people out there that haven't enjoyed sledding in the ways that I have. In the vein of community informational sharing I have decided to share some of the various ways and methods that I have flown through the snow for entertainment. It's for the children.
The Car Hood
The basic car hood sledding method is to attach a tow rope to your snow chariot's receiver hitch or loop it over the tow ball on the hitch. Then the sledees grasp the tow rope and sledding occurs. You aren't doing it right if you are going under 30mph. The problem with this method is the best sledding position is lying on your belly upon the sled(car hood), and a lot positive and negative sledding enjoyment factors are dependent upon the skill of your snow chariot driver. Potential minor inconveniences could be your arms getting ripped out of their sockets, you becoming the sled, eating countless mouthfuls of powder, and so on.
Some of the more ingenuous among our clan came up with a genius solution to this set of "minor inconveniences" problem, and soon the welded metal folding chair version of the car hood sled was hatched. It's much more fun surfing a snow covered logging road in a slightly reclined position. I am sure that somewhere there is a picture of a person lounging in a welded to a car hood metal folding chair while drinking a beverage and holding a sled towrope in the other hand. Good times.
The problem with welding a metal folding chair to a car hood is that there isn't much protection for the sledee. Another moment of genius struck people that I knew, and soon the metal chair was protected by a welded roll bar. Redneck engineering never fails to impress me, and I wouldn't be surprised to find a cup-holder mounted on the sledding rig somewhere.
At this point in my life, I would be happy with just the car hood and a tow rope. As I have already been hurtled precariously along mountain side cliffs a top an almost out of control piece of engineered steel, I really feel like the whole death defying car hood section of my bucket list has been attained. However, That doesn't mean that I wouldn't love to take a blistering turn around my road astride a car hood.
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Hehe! Yes, I have been pulled behind car, but it is considered illegal, a little reckless and somewhat dangerous.
Have you ever tried wind sale sledding on a frozen lake? It looks like this, demonstrated by my brother few years ago :)
Half of what I do, especially what I did as a kid, is/was probably illegal, lol!
Sled surfing looks so amazing! Haven't tried that yet, but I'm thinking it needs to occur. Your brother looks like he is having a fantastic ice surf!
Sweet! I mean what could possibly go wrong?!?!!? LOL
Exactly! 😆
Oh yeah redneck innovation at its best. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. Haven’t been on a sled since I was a kid. Great story lots of great images in my head. 🐓🐓
Awe, thank you! However, there is problem in your comment that needs to be remedied! We have to get you back on a sled, lol! STAT! Of course, you do live in Florida, hmmm...A field trip may have to be in order 😊
Chances of snow here are pretty slim. Road Trip! Yeah! I am all for it.🐓🐓
YASSS!!! LOL!
Hilarious! Redneck engineering 4evah!
Word! LOL! Glad I was able to entertain you 😆
As someone who grew up with farm shop welding creations, I am getting the jollies from this mental image.
People do not know what they are missing if they only enjoy Wal Mart sleds. 😄
Ahh, a fellow engineer of excellence...LOL!
Walmart sleds are just not built to handle the way that we sled, you are so right about people not knowing what they are missing!
Brings back memories so when I was young and when the snow truck would pile the snow in one area , it would be a mountain of it and we would take cardboard and try to slide down it :D
Ah yes, snow plow piles are the greatest! Then again, so is a piece of cardboard! When my kids were really little I used to laugh about how they would have far more fun with a piece of cardboard or a cardboard box than with any of the toys we got them, lol! Heavy duty plastic garbage bags work well too!
It sounds like you are a sledding professional😊
hhhhhhh you bring back my childhood memories, i used to do so slide down everywhere .😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Nice! It's way more fun to slide places than walk! 😊
The more of your adventures I read, the more impressed I am that you are still alive! The wildest sledding I ever did was on a wooden toboggan. And it wasn't very wild at all.
Ah, wooden toboggans. We have a legendary family home video of what happened when my father tried to take a wooden toboggan beyond its engineered sled approval level, lol!
I am actually the more sane and safe one of my group, if that can be believed. Of course, for most of my adolescence I was more animal that person, so that might have helped with my survival 😉
Looks like a lot of fun. Nice post.
Thanks @hotrod! I'm all about fun when it comes to hurtling through the snow!!
You had some nice big hills! And maybe less exhaust than back in the day. Where I grew up in western Kansas, we just had the sandhills. Short but steep -- with prickly pear cactus and yucca plants along the way, lol. We had to keep on a narrow path, but getting speared and full of spines was pretty common.
Yikes! Talk about full contact sledding. Do NOT deviate from the path, lol!!! I've drove through your old stomping grounds, talk about some wide open spaces!
The yuccas were worse than the cactus. Their spines can go through a lot of layers! =:O