Slee Sled

Slee Sled review

It has been a while since I have done a product review as I have been working on a number of projects that have taken my time away from product reviewing for fieldsports  but this is a product I really know will be in the thoughts of many a stalker and keeper out there so I really wanted to review it for you all.

For the last few months I have had the pleasure to have in possession of a Slee Sleigh ATV sled for extracting deer and general use on the estate, I think the Slee Sled is worth a review and I believe it will be useful information for all the other stalkers and keepers if they are thinking of buying one.

Lets get the geekiness out of it all first with the dimensions etc.

Weight – 30kg

Maximum Load weight – 450kg

Depth – 250mm

Width – 900mm

Length – 1400mm

Construction – Frame and towing arm is made of Galvanised Steel as well as the lower runners. Main body is made of a heavy duty plastic.

First impressions out of the packaging, this is a bulky product and heavy, very good quality and well-constructed piece of equipment. Bare in mind this has to uphold everything you are going to throw at it from Clearfells to marsh so it has to be. This is not light by any means and at 30kg it is a consideration if you are having to manually handle it by yourself. but, in saying that it is designed to be put on the back of an ATV which when attached it feels weightless, unlike towing a trailer.

My first outing with it was in heavy snow, I have out of season and night licenses over my properties and low and behold the first night in the wood I had a couple of stags on it, the extraction was effortless compared to what I was used to. No having to awkwardly lift a heavy stag onto the back and front of the bike on my own, I just dragged it straight onto the Slee Sled and I tied it in using bungee onto the tie downs on the sled and off I went. For me this was a game changer as I work on my own and the estate I work on requires the removal of every part of the beast and grallochs to be put in a specific place, so as anyone will tell you manually lifting a fully grown stag fully in tact is not easy at all. I had to travel around a mile in the snow with the two stags on the back and it was effortless, One thing I have to make clear though is the sled did tend to fill up with snow but that was no issue to me, all I was bothered about is how easy it was to extract. To combat this problem with filling up with snow there is tarps etc, that you can buy to cover the carcasses to prevent the sled from filling up behind you with whatever.

After the first night I seen how useful this was to me, the removal of the beasts were so easy that I felt confident that this was an ideal tool for the job and over the last couple of months I have worked with it and I have done over 100 extractions with it and adapting how I use it on some occasions.

The version I have on test is the fixed hitch version, I have had this on heavy clearfell and it will go where the quad will go, its lack of flexibility does mean that in the more dense of clearfells you have to limit your extraction load as the tilt and pitching of the sled did make it difficult, I spoke to the guys at Slee Sled and they have said to combat this they have a tilting hitch that makes it more compatible with the more challenging clearfeall and rutted areas. I personally have not been bothered about this as for me the sled has made dragging off cleafells far safer, having extra weight on the quad in tough terrain is dangerous. The sled takes the weight off the quad and has a low snag risk and with no weight on the front or back racks of the quad it reduces the risk of me couping the quad and doing myself some harm. In the more difficult extractions I just find a closer ride or flat area to extract individual beasts and do multiple trips then load to capacity once in a safer area, its never really that time consuming but it is safer.

The most amount of deer I have had on the sled weight wise was 5 Red hinds all weighing  around the 70 to 80kg mark larder weight so a lot more when they have been on the sled and the sled coped with it very well. I dragged them across bog and moor and had no issues with the sled, even when I got the quad stuck all I did was unhitch the sled, got the quad unstuck, tied a rope to the sled to pull it over the hole and re-hitched it back on to the quad again, not having to unload the deer at all. You will not believe how many times over the years I have had to remove carcasses from the bike to get the bike unstuck and then reload carcasses back on to the bike to get them extracted, it is not fun I can tell you and it is exhausting.

Lets go through the Pros and Cons.

Cons – weight, this is not a light piece of equipment, moving it about is difficult by hand when storing or loading onto a trailer to get to places but when on the bike it is weightless feeling, just remember this.

If you are not using a cover on it, it will fill up with snow or mud or whatever the bike kicks up behind it, it can be over come as I said with a tarp or cover.

Static hitch can make the sled more bouncy in rougher terrain like Clear fells but there is a tilting hitch option albeit I see no need for it, it is solely down to personal preference or hardship.

Pros – This is a well made and hardy and will cope with everything you will throw at it.

Price – at around £350 this is a lot of equipment for the money.

Safety – This has made my life a lot safer and saved me a lot of lifting in the field as it is at ground level. Even if you get your machine stuck you can unhitch it and re-hitch it back on without having to remove all the deer.  Turns a two man job into a one man job in some cases.

Flexibility in use – I used it for deer extraction but remember it doesn’t have to be deer you can use it for, you can also use it for logs, gravel, trees for planting etc it has a number of uses.

The one thing I did not mention which I will now as part of the pro’s, is that it has very little land disturbance and because of this it can go over even the boggiest of terrain leaving little impact if none, which is important if your doing things like Peatland restoration or working in area of SSSi where you have to do low impact on Fauna.

All in all my over all opinion of the Slee Sled is very positive, none of the cons cannot be over come easily. It has been a game changer for me and I would recommend it to anyone, what I will add is that think about how much you might have to move it from place to place as that I see for some will be the only issue, I don’t have to move it far and store it on the state at an easily accessible location so it is straight on the bike and away so it’s a win win for me.

Thank you for reading the review more product will come as the seasons progress.