This DIY Motorized Tow Rope Makes Sledding Fun

Literally every single person on the planet loves sledding down a snowy slope. It is a blast! But that’s just the actual sledding part of the activity and there is a second, much less pleasant part: trudging back up the hill for another go. Ski lifts were invented for exactly that reason, as nobody would ski for fun if they had to climb a mountain before each run. John Boss couldn’t get the permits to build a ski lift, so he designed this DIY motorized tow rope for sledding.

Systems like this are already on the market. The Zoa Engineering PL1 seems to be a popular example. But the PL1 Complete Package costs a whopping $1,995 USD and for that much money, you could probably just hire a guy on a snowmobile to ferry you up the hill every season for life.

Boss came up with a design similar to the PL1, but far more affordable. It is essentially a rope ascender, but for dragging the user up a snowy hill instead of a sheer wall. Tie the rope to a tree, string it down the hill, and sled to the bottom. When you want to go back up, you attach the device and squeeze the trigger to start it pulling.

On the electronic front, it is almost exactly like an electric skateboard or scooter. It has a big Flipsky brushless DC motor with a Flipsky VESC. Because Boss is clever, power comes from a Milwaukee power tool battery pack. That lets him share batteries with his tools and swap them quickly if they run out of juice.

The big challenge was designing and fabricating the mechanism that grabs the rope and pulls. Boss initially tried to make a capstan winch, which was a great idea. But it always ended up slipping. So, he switched to something similar to what is in a conventional ascender: just a grippy wheel that the rope makes almost a full loop around.

That proved to be the winning formula and it works great. Now Boss and his son can enjoy sledding without any of the physical exertion that would ruin the fun. Oh, and it also works for skiing, if you're into that sort of thing.