Collapsible Ice Fish House Base with Pivotal Ski Arms
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional ice fishing shelters are heavy, difficult to transport, and require extensive materials for durability, leading to issues with abrasion, weight, and setup challenges in remote locations, while existing portable solutions often compromise on stability and ease of use.
Innovation Solution
A collapsible ice fish house base with a pair of skis and pivotal arms that allow for easy setup and transport, combined with a quick attach tow cord coupling and an ice auger receiver, enabling the shelter to be rapidly assembled and disassembled without tools, and supported by a lift assist spring for improved stability and maneuverability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If traditional ice fishing shelters use extensive materials for durability, then strength and stability are improved, but weight increases making them difficult to transport
Solution Approach 1:
The shelter is divided into multiple modular components including collapsible walls, a separate roof assembly, and detachable ski base. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function while reducing overall weight compared to a monolithic structure, and enables transport in smaller increments.
Solution Approach 2:
The shelter employs dynamic, collapsible wall structures that can be folded or disassembled for transport and erected for use. The ski base is designed to be detachable and reconfigurable, allowing the shelter to transition between a stable, grounded configuration during fishing and a collapsed configuration for transport, thus eliminating the need for excessive structural materials.
2Stability of the object's composition
If traditional ice fishing shelters are designed for stability on ice, then they maintain position well, but they become difficult to transport and require larger vehicles
Solution Approach 1:
The shelter uses a dynamic ski base system that can be easily attached and detached. The skis are designed to provide stable grounding on ice surfaces when needed, but can be quickly removed or folded for transport. This dynamic configuration allows the shelter to be stable during use yet simple to transport without requiring specialized large vehicles.
Solution Approach 2:
The shelter incorporates self-leveling or self-adjusting features on its base that automatically adapt to uneven ice surfaces, providing stability without requiring complex adjustment mechanisms or multiple people for setup. The design allows single-person deployment while maintaining stability on diverse ice conditions.
3Ease of operation
If portable ice houses are designed for easy transport, then they can be moved to different locations, but they compromise on stability and ease of setup
Solution Approach 1:
The shelter is segmented into pre-assembled modular components that can be easily transported and quickly connected on-site. The wall panels, roof sections, and base components are designed as discrete units that maintain their structural integrity during transport but assemble into a stable configuration through simple connection mechanisms, thus achieving both portability and stability.
4Duration of action of stationary object
If ice houses are left out all winter, then they provide continuous shelter, but snow and ice build up inside making the floor slippery and removal becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The ski base design allows the shelter to be easily lifted and removed from the ice surface as a complete unit. The skis provide a interface that enables the entire shelter assembly to be extracted from the ice without breaking it free, thus preventing the shelter from becoming permanently frozen to the lake and eliminating ice buildup issues inside.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a lightweight, easily transportable ice fishing shelter that can be quickly set up and taken down, maintaining stability on diverse surfaces and allowing convenient towing by various vehicles, reducing exposure to harsh elements and improving accessibility to fishing locations.
Implementation Method 1
supported by a lift assist spring for improved stability and maneuverability
Implementation Method 2
A collapsible ice fish house base with a pair of skis and pivotal arms that allow for easy setup and transport
Data Source
AI summary
An ice fish house base has at least two skis, each coupled through at least two pivotal arms to an ice house base. The pivotal arms are pivotal between an elevated position and a lowered minimum position. The lowered position is stable when the ice house base comes into solid contact with the ground, thereby limiting maximum rotation in this ice-house-base-lowered position. In the upward position, a rotational pivotal arm stop prevents the pivotal arms from rotating further, so that the separation between ice house base and skis is just less than maximum. The weight of the ice house will also hold the ice house base at this fully rotated position. A quick attach receiver is provided for a bifurcated ice auger mount and several alternative accessory supports. In addition, several alternative trailer hitch couplers are disclosed that use a tensioning strap for securement.