Choosing The Affordable Dog Sled

Choosing the affordable dog sled by sprint musher Lynn Orbison

I have a hard time comparison shopping for dog sleds. To me, the joy of dog mushing is the dogs. The dog sleds, the harnesses, the hooks, and the lines are all just equipment that makes dog sledding either harder or easier (and sometimes both!)

So, I guess, I'll just tell you about the dog sleds I have and how I choose between them. Not whether it is the affordable dog sled or cheap dog sled.

My first sled was a Tim White toboggan. It is small and lightweight. It has been used hard and beat up a lot and rebuilt by my husband a couple of times. It is good for giving rides, going out bushwacking to cut a christmas tree, or to haul stuff around the dog yard after a big dump of snow before we get the trails plowed out.

My next sled was a Star Line Sled. It was a used sprint sled built by Ray Mackler. I loved that little sled. I raced with it for years, and finally gave it to a friend when I had access to three or four other sprint sleds.

My Extrapole dog sled was the one that let me give up the Mackler. This sled was designed and built in France. It is fast, light, and very easy to drive. But it is a sprint sled and I took it out camping and totaled it flying over a beaver dam (which is why affordable takes a back seat usefulness!). I was skittering across overflow and glare ice.Now it's in pieces in the garage and my husband bought new runners for it. Maybe someday I'll put together a modified version, but it won't be an Extrapole.

I won a Risdon Pro Tracker (talk getting an affordable dog sled!) in a raffle one year at the Tok Race of Champions. I race this sled in the smaller classes. I hear there are open drivers racing this sled, but I just don't feel comfortable on it behind a big string of dogs. My husband built a mat drag for it, but I also have trouble with the sled bag coming unattached and the hooks falling off it. I don't know as if I've ever loaded a dog in the basket on it either.

The sled I'm training with the most right now and will likely race in the 8-dog class with is not very pretty. It's an OT sled, which I think is made in Scandinavia. It's taken a lot of hard use. I've repainted it once or twice and my husband has done myriad repairs to it. It takes a beating and keeps going. It's a little heavier than my Risdon, a lot heavier than my Mackler, and a lot clunkier than the Extrapole. But I trust it. It has good hook holders, and the sled bag is durable and easy to use. These are things I consider in an affordable dog sled these days.

And the last sled in my stable is my Wages. A big, heavy, homebuilt toboggan given to me by the maker, Rick Wages (the ultimate way to get an affordable dog sled). This sled is aka The Boat I can fit six kids in the basket, with or without the sled bag. But it takes six dogs to move the thing when it's practically empty!

The rigging on the Wages is not very good. My husband has redone it a couple of times, but there is still something warped. The sled tracks poorly and I find myself fighting to keep the whole party out of the right hand ditch all the time. Come to think of it, my Tim White was tracking funny the one time I've taken it out this season.

Oh, at some point I should mention that I started out running dogs with a bicycle (scary but doable)

...a tricycle (BAD idea...just don't do it!)

...a kick sled (a blast and cheap, if you have the right sort of dog)

and that old standby

...the little plastic kiddy toboggan you can buy in the grocery store. (The most affordable dog sled) You should buy two or three because if you run them on anything other than perfect snow, they wear out quick.

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