Sled/Pulk Harness ?

[jime]

I have finally settled upon a tow sled design that works for me, at least for now, but I'm not very happy with the harness's that I've come up with. The best so far are a padded hipbelt or a fanny pack that the sled bars are attached to. It's okay, but I hate that jerky (not the dried meat) feeling on my hips and going uphill is a bear. I've thought about using some sort of system that will get my shoulders into it but haven't found anything that I'm happy with. Any ideas? What do you use? Most of the threads I've found seem to deal mostly with sled design and recommend a hip belt of some kind.

Please...help me find the "holy grail" of sled harnesses.

 

[sardog1]

The Holy Grail of pulk harnesses is from Fjellpulken in Norway.

Mountainsmith's Strapette system is very effective on their lumbar packs, notwithstanding the utterly silly name. I use these straps constantly on my lumbar pack and I've used it with a pulk as well. It's the closest I've experienced to what Fjellpulken's system does. (Note: The Strapettes are far more substantial and comfortable in front where the weight and pulling is borne, than what might seem from looking at the back straps in the illustrations.)

An Internet search on "pulk" and "harness" will reveal others.

 

[DougPaul]

This has been discussed a number of times--a search on the word "pulk" will bring up 34 threads, many of which deal with the construction of same. There is info on attachment systems in some of them.

Doug

 

[jime]

Strapettes

I think that the Strapettes are probably the most cost effective way of doing this and I already have a Mountainsmith lumbar pack. I'll give that a try unless there are any other ideas out there. Thank you!

 

[SAR-EMT40]

The Holy Grail of pulk harnesses is from Fjellpulken in Norway.

Mountainsmith's Strapette system is very effective on their lumbar packs, notwithstanding the utterly silly name. I use these straps constantly on my lumbar pack and I've used it with a pulk as well. It's the closest I've experienced to what Fjellpulken's system does. (Note: The Strapettes are far more substantial and comfortable in front where the weight and pulling is borne, than what might seem from looking at the back straps in the illustrations.)

An Internet search on "pulk" and "harness" will reveal others.

sardog1,

I had one of the Mountainsmith lumbar packs and brought it back. Thought it was a really neat idea but in practice I found it uncomfortable with the amount I was trying to carry and if I am going to have shoulder straps then why not just use a backpack? At least that was my thinking. Of course maybe I was just carrying too much. I can't really help with the pulk. Mine (homemade) I attach to my belt or the belt area.

Just my $.02.
YMMV,
Keith

 

[sardog1]

Some of the Mountainsmith lumbar packs are too temptingly capacious. When I overloaded mine the first time, I knew that I would need the Strapettes, just as I had suspected. But even the Strapettes won't make it capable of carrying all the weight that you can cram into the compartments and side pouches, IMO.

In the pulk context, the pack with Strapettes works great as an enforcer of the maxim, "Why carry it when you can/should be dragging it?" In that context, I put the shell clothing, extra gloves/mitts, snacks and hydration fluids in the lumbar pack. The rest goes in the pulk where it belongs. When I want to take a day trip away from base, the lumbar pack is at the ready.

I should add that the lumbar packs are not really designed for pulling a pulk. You'll want to make alterations to the belt portion so that it's up to the task.

 

[TomD]

I made a pulk from a kid's sled from Sports Authority (one of those blue sleds made in Canada); some fittings from Home Depot, pvc poles and biners attached to the gear loops of my Kelty Flight waistbelt.

I'm not towing a kid, just camping gear and I'm on skis. This rig works fine for mild rolling hills on a road; it's a bit unstable on cross-country snow, but the belt arrangement works fine.

If you are wearing a pack anyway, like I am, attaching the poles to your waistbelt seems to me the easiest way to do it. Not the fanciest way to do it, but much cheaper than some of the dedicated systems I have seen.

 

[sleeping bear]

I usually pull mine with two webbing straps girth hitched around the hip belt of a medium sized pack. I have found that if I attach the sled to the pack itself, or go any higher than the hips I feel very off-balance.

I've seen sleds that have bungee cords at the ends near the harness that are just a little longer than whatever straps are actually securing it. That way you get a gentler ride with a heavy sled. You've gotta get the moster bungees through- not little hood quality stuff. I intend to add bungees to my sled this winter.

 

[jime]

I usually pull mine with two webbing straps girth hitched around the hip belt of a medium sized pack. I have found that if I attach the sled to the pack itself, or go any higher than the hips I feel very off-balance.

I've seen sleds that have bungee cords at the ends near the harness that are just a little longer than whatever straps are actually securing it. That way you get a gentler ride with a heavy sled. You've gotta get the moster bungees through- not little hood quality stuff. I intend to add bungees to my sled this winter.

I think I get the idea. You actually tie them to the cord to create a bight? That sounds like a good idea! I really hate (dread) the tug on my hips and this might help solve the problem. I'm thinking that this combined with the mountainsmith/strappette idea is worth a try. Thanks!

 

[Ed B]

Dreaded Tug on hips

HI Jime-
In my opinion the biggest factor causing the dreaded tugging on the hips is the amount of slop between your hip belt and the actual poles. Shoulder straps will not help out a lot until you get rid of that. Check out the loops on the photo belts on my web site to see one version. www.skipulk.com Mountainsmith uses a similar setup with a loop through a slot in a block of plastic and Granite Gear uses a pin in a bracket approach.

Once you have reduced the slop in the hip to a minimum adding the shoulder straps is definate improvement. The holy grail of hip belts in my opinion is the Granite Gear harness. To see their harness you have to check out their web site under packs. I have also picked up a line of excellent harness from Great Outdoors but I do not have any pictures on line to help you with your construction project.

To build one yourself- you will want to attach two inch webbing to the back of your hip belt in a way that it crosses in the middle of your back on the way over the shoulder. You could scavenge padded shoulder straps from an old pack to attach to the 2" webbing and then you Use 3/4 or 1 inch webbing to attach these shoulder pads to the front of your hip belt with the normal adjustable tension buckle.

Unfortunately you will rarely find a company that will sell you a top notch harnesses without the whole system. Someone told me that Granite Gear quoted them $180 for their harness. (It is a very good harness)

My downloadable booklet at the above site does go into a bit of info about attaching an old day pack to a good hip belt... but from my perspective - while helpful - this is less important than the attachment point to the hips.

When loads get up over 70-80 pounds and the terrain is steep then excellent shoulder straps do become etremely important... Good luck on your project and adventures.
Sincerely- Pulky Ed

 

[BillyRay]

I once met up with a pair of old timers who were making great time up the Wilderness Trail and Franconia Brook Trail using old climbing harnesses to drag their load. They had nothing on their backs (just the empty harnesses - very light)

They had their sleds strapped right to their backpacks with the pack straps exposed, so they could shoulder their entire load with a moment’s notice... without detaching the sled. As soon as the terrain leveled off, they could lay the pack/sled back in the snow and continue. It seemed to work very well - they were quite proud of their riggings. They did the usual PVC tube with nylon lines and carabiners (Always cross the poles/tubes to get corrective behavior when you swing your hips to yank the sled back in-line.)

 

[jime]

Great Responses!

Thanks for the feedback! We were coming out of the Bonds a couple of weeks ago and thought how nice it would be if we had some snow and could take a leisurely trip up the Wilderness Trail with our sleds! Can't wait for snow!!!!!