Ski Chair - Unsafe at Any Speed

My son found an abandoned wheelchair in the summer and after spending a week having chariot races (i.e. tying ropes to a bike and getting pulled too fast) it ended up in my garage until winter.

As you can see from the image, I have no room for anything in the garage, so I told him - find something to do with that or I'm throwing it out.

A trip to Goodwill and $5 later, we had skis attached to the chair.

Because of the high centre of gravity, this chair feels very unstable, couple that with the complete lack of steering/braking and you're ready for fun on the slopes!

We took it out for a spin at a local tobogganing hill and got large numbers of 'stares of wonder'. This actually goes much faster than most toboggans and it just feels great.

I didn't include full pictures of assembly, because if you can't figure out how to bolt two skis to a chair from the picture, you probably couldn't make this with instructions either.

Have fun, and remember to play safe on the hills

Step 1 Bolt skis to chair

Use round headed bolts and put the nuts on the tops so they don't add excess drag when the ski goes through the snow. You could also recess the bolt heads in the ski, but that would weaken the area where the bolts sit.

Comments

[admin]

This project looks awesome but there isn't enough documentation of you actually making it to be a full Instructable. There are two things which you could do. 1) If you happen to have images of you making your project you can create some more steps, add those additional photos into your Instructable and then republish your Instructable. 2) If you don't have any more pictures of you working on your project, that's ok too. That just means that your project is better suited to be submitted as a slideshow. Your images are already in your library, and you can use the same text that you have already written for your Instructable so it should only take a few minutes to create your slideshow and show the world what you made! Thanks for your submission and let me know if you have any questions along the way.

[admin]

This project looks awesome but there isn't enough documentation of you actually making it to be a full Instructable. There are two things which you could do. 1) If you happen to have images of you making your project you can create some more steps, add those additional photos into your Instructable and then republish your Instructable. 2) If you don't have any more pictures of you working on your project, that's ok too. That just means that your project is better suited to be submitted as a slideshow. Your images are already in your library, and you can use the same text that you have already written for your Instructable so it should only take a few minutes to create your slideshow and show the world what you made! Thanks for your submission and let me know if you have any questions along the way.

[I_am_Canadian]

it would help if it had a steering mechanism, but even without.......

incredibly awesome

[arcticpenguin]

Nice idea. Don't know that I'd downhill with it though. I built a sled/chair very similar years ago when we has a Samoyed dog as a pet. Samoyeds are true sled dogs and pulling is instinct for them. We put a proper dog harness and he would pull us around. He loved it and never wanted to quit. Make sure the harness is a proper pulling harness, one with the padded chest strap. Never use a regular dog collar as it will choke and harm the dog. Keep the dog on a packed snow trail so he has traction. No going on ice. Even if the dog is having a good time and doesn't want to stop, rest him anyway.

[gbosbiker]

if you buy a snowboard and use that as a back ski thing and cut down the skis and use them for steering. like a snowmobile set up. rig it with brakes (more complicated then it sounds) and the steering so it would be an awesome ride.

[papa-g]

I was wondering about the best way to add brakes as I build this. Since there are no "wheels", it means you have to apply friction to the ground some other way. The traditional kids go-kart stick-on-a-pivot would work, but you would need two to balance the force.

[static]

Whom am I to say much, if you're having fun with it. But isn't this a more like sledding, than skiing?

[papa-g]

???? I never said it was skiing. It is a chair with skis...hence ski-chair. This is mostly like sledding, except you sit higher and it is unstable.

[crapflinger]

perhaps finding ways of making this thing "steerable" and adding some breaks would make this a bit more of an instructable...at the moment it's more of a "Look-what-i-did-able" lowering the center of gravity would obviously make this thing more stable..would probably be as simple as cutting down the "legs" to the lower cross member under the seat...then screwing the skis on there... options for steering..if you find a second set of skis...you could cut them down to maybe 2 feet...and add some tubing and a steering wheel that would put those two short skis out in front of the others? (with the current skis this would make this thing into a "stretch limo" of toboggans?) breaking could be as simple as a shovel head on a lever...or a boat anchor for the real adventurous

[Mark H.]

You can use the natural turning ability of the ski by keeping the weight inside the binding area. Put handles on the sides and lean. Lowering the seat will help. I like the idea of using the bindings to disconnect the ski for transport. Maybe cut off the bottom of a boot and connect to legs? How about using the handicap poles to help steer.

[papa-g]

I actually agree with you. This was very simple, but because of it's ease of construction, I knew it would trigger ideas for v2 of the ski chair. We had also thought about keeping the bindings on the skis to make the chair 'snap' into place, making this easier to transport. This is easy to mod, so stay tuned for the next version.

[crapflinger]

indeed...i think with the proper mods this thing could be fun as hell...and alot safer for the kiddies....

[www.totalski.com]

I love it.

I will try and get something added to the video section of www.totalski.com in the movie section at: http://www.totalski.com/totalski/movie.html. Would love this to catch on!

[peepeehead]

WOW! Papa-g i am amazed by this site as a whole and even more amazed that I too just finished making one of these chairs. Instead of a wheelchair I used a "Poang" chair from Ikea. Bentwood with a canvas seat. Worked really well, nice smooth ride and with the skiis freshly waxed it travelled forever. Unfortunatley this sled only lasted a grand total of 10 trips down the hill before the aged wood and cold temperatures conspired against me. The chair ended up in pieces and resulted in cheers and applause from the bemused and bewildered onlookers. My son and I are currently working on V2.0 complete with steering and I was planning to make it an instructable . I will post when it is done. Congratulations on being one of two of a kind!

[papa-g]

Thanks for reaching out as a kindered spirit. It seems that one of the miracles of the internet is finding out that you always have someone to share with. Looking forward to your creation, let me know how you are planning to build your steering mechanism, because at the moment I'm staring at my walls thinking of approaches.

[Myself]

Wow, this looks hilarious! Most of the steerable sleds I've seen use a twistable bar to flex the fronts of the runners. I wouldn't want anything rigid in front of the rider, so perhaps ropes down to the ski tips would work.

Also, look at how a skateboard truck turns the board's tilt into wheel steer. Consider making the rear mountings pivotable, and the front mountings leaf-springs, so as the rider shifts their weight, the skis can turn.

When you're feeling good and suicidal, a coat of wax and a spritz of silicone will make that puppy fly.

[MacAttack]

I think that it would be easy to add some simple steering mechanisms... if you found some cheap ski poles and mounted them to the armrests on a sort of pivot point you could just pull one or the other... it would drag in the snow and possibly turn. Might work for brakes too, I dunno, I'm just spewing, but it looks like a lot of fun!!!

[papa-g]

This is the video of the first run of the ski chair

[StepsoftheSun]

Excellent! Perhaps you should keep track of the wheels you took off; the wheelchair might be needed in its original state if you use the ski-chair too much... Can you take a video of this thing in action before the snow melts?

[papa-g]

We took video of it's virgin run - both from an outside view and a from within the chair during a run. I'll post soon.

[xboxteen01]

Briliant

[Fenwick]

I think you just inspired me to attach skis to the bottom of my old skateboard. I know they make snow-skates, but I wanna do it myself :P. And yeah, Goodwill always has skis.