I was reading an article on the different training techniques used by the coaches of Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell, and noticed that both of them love weight sledges. So I thought I’d get one, but then realised they are £75+ for just a few bits of metal!
So being an engineer I decided I’m going to make my own, I’ll probably make a few extra for my club and for athletes I know who want one.
I’ll probably get them laser cut as I don’t think I’ve got any 6mm steel at work, but I’ll still need to fold the end and weld on the bar to hold the weights, but it should be pretty easy, and much cheaper than buying one!
Here’s a design I drew up earlier of what I’m going to make…
Haha, at 6mm plate, you probably wont need any weight…
I made one with 0.6mm zinc alum, its light as a feather… Well, feather?
Ive made two more out of 10x10mm angle mild steel to fit a 10kg plate perfectly. Its heavier, but stacks very flat as there is no centre rode to hold plates. On flat n smooth grass, they all perform brilliant. On rougher grass, ill use the old Zinc plate, as it holds the plates better.
Yee I only drew that many plates on it to get an idea of how tall the bar would need to be, in reality I think it will only need to take a maximum of 2 plates.
We have loads of 3mm mild steel at work, but I wasn’t sure how to attach the bar securely, but I guess there won’t be that much force on it as long as it’s not jerked around loads so 3mm might be a much better option.
I’ve already sorted the harness, padded belt off eBay for £10, 10m of low stretch marine rope for £6.50 and a couple of heavy duty stainless steel caribiners for £4.50.
If I make these out of the 3mm steel I have at work it will probably cost me no more than £30 for exactly the same thing that can cost up to £150 online!
I see you are into saving money. Very Cool.
How about making a 2nd one slightly modified or just use a tight band on the first for Travel and saving even more money (gas)?
Make the 2nd one so that one can put 2-3- 2L bottles (coke or pepsi) filled with dirt, sand, etc. on there.
It would look a Jet Pack if faced the right way
Looks good, with one exception. The front for the attachment. I would make it a round hole. If you have a slot, the rope/chain may slide to one side and the sled will turn slightly sideways, which could cause issues. You want the sled to track straight. If you have a laser cutter, you could make your slot v shaped with the v pointing forward so the rope/chain finds its center as you pull.
Aah I should have explained what the holes were for…
The big slot is for you to carry it by when you’re not towing it. The two smaller round holes at the sides are for caribiner clips to hook through, or just to tie a rope through.
I use a sled made from a wire tray that I found connected to a piece of rope attached to a $10 belt. You can just chuck the weight plates in the tray. You could easily get about 40kg on there if you wanted.
Another sled I used at my place in Melbourne was a trampoline frame. The advantage of this was the rope was attached waist high. Also, you could use it with blocks and it slid right over. Disadvantage was that you couldn’t travel with it, so I was limited to 10-15m block starts in my backyard…
Now there’s a good idea, having something that would clear a set of blocks would be useful.
Although I’ve got a pulley system setup at the track so I can run down the track, but the tyre gets dragged parallel to the track on the tarmac (we’re not allowed to do tyres on the track as it wears it out too fast)
