When you grew up in a snowy local weather, chances are high you’ve ridden a sled or toboggan whenever you had been younger. The downhill a part of sledding is nice enjoyable, however dragging the factor again up will get boring rapidly. [Luis Marx] had been dreaming of sledding uphill since he was a toddler, and determined to make his dream come true by constructing himself a motorized sled (video, in German, embedded beneath).

The sled is powered by two DC electrical motors driving a steady observe, like a rudimentary snowmobile. The motors had been initially designed for electrical bikes, and may develop 30 newton-meters of torque every. [Luis] designed and 3D-printed a customized set of drive wheels to hyperlink the observe to the bike motors. Two motor controllers allow fundamental pace management, whereas a beefy battery carries sufficient juice for a number of journeys up and down a slope.

The motorized observe is mounted on a intelligent body that may swing up or down and is held in place by two spring-loaded pins. This manner, you may merely carry the system off the snow whenever you’re prepared to slip downhil, and swing it down once more whenever you need the sled to do the pulling.

With winter nearing its finish, the snow close to [Luis]’s residence in southern Germany was too tender to get a lot traction, however subsequent exams in a ski resort up within the Alps confirmed the system working completely. It even had sufficient traction to drag a second sled behind it. Maybe some correct suspension may make it go quicker on the downhill run, too.