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Product Description
Amazon.com
 The 6-foot Mountain Toboggan is large enough to carry four adults. |
 The curl at the front is big enough that an adult can tuck their feet up in there. |
- Dimensions: 72 x 17.5 x 16 inches (L x W x H)
- Weight: 15 pounds
- Weight limit: 600 pounds
- Age range: 5 years and up
Care of Your Sled
Wax the bottom of the sled for best performance (though you'll find that it flies down the hill right out of the box). Ski wax is preferred, but in a pinch you can use paraffin or candle wax. After using the sled, bring it inside to dry. Use furniture oil to protect the top surfaces of the sled. The sled is warranted to be free of defects in workmanship or material for one year.
The Mountain Boy Story
Bruce Hoskin's lifelong fascination with wooden sleds became a way of life when he moved to the high mountain town of Silverton, Colorado. He was able to combine his woodworking experience with his love of sledding to create innovative, beautiful sled designs. Mountain Boy sleds give new meaning to the term "functional art"--they are known for their durability, speed and craftsmanship. Hoskin's wooden sleds hearken back to a century ago, when craftsmen made sleds by hand out of fine wood and steel. While Mountain Boy sleds complement any home, they are also made to last. Each sled is an individual work, designed to be passed from one generation to the next.
Environmental Commitment
Mountain Boy works hard to minimize the impact of all of our operations on the environment. Some key elements include:
- Using only recycled cardboard packaging
- Choosing only fast-growing, common, sustainable hardwoods such as birch, willow and maple
- Ensuring that every part of the wood is used. Smaller pieces are turned into kicksled slats or Christmas ornaments, and the smallest bits end up in our woodstove or in the wood-drying kiln.
- Just as important, making products that last! We think it makes sense to buy a sled (or wagon or scooter) that will last for years, rather than buying a cheaper sled that won't last nearly as long.
Lead Free Finishing
All of our sleds are made with non-toxic finishes, and we have them regularly tested so we are sure that they are lead-free. We use wood dyes to bring out the color and figure of the wood, and then a clear lacquer or polyurethane on top. We put on four coats of lacquer or three coats of polyurethane to create a marine-grade finish.
Sled Manufacture
Mountain Boy make limited quantities of specialty sleds in its Silverton, Colorado workshop, including the Elegant and Royal Flyers, Bambino Superior, and Silverton and Double Kicksleds. Other Mountain Boy sleds, wagons, scooters and ornaments are designed in Colorado and made in Huangyan, China, by our good friend Yu Guanglin and his crew.
In his small, family-run workshop, he makes sleds the same way we do - by hand, paying attention to the beauty of the wood, selecting the best materials, getting all the details right. He buys sustainably harvested birch logs, and has planks cut from them to just the right thickness. All the little pieces are used to make ornaments, and the sawdust is used to fire the wood-drying kiln, so there's very little waste. In his shop, he carefully prepares all the materials: each plank is planed by hand, and each willow branch is peeled and sanded by his crew. When he assembles the sleds, he makes sure that all the parts match and have no flaws.
Mountain Boy sledmaker Brice Hoskin is fluent in Mandarin, and travels to China to inspect sleds several times a year. In our long relationship working with Mr. Yu, Brice has been able to closely monitor not just the quality of the product, but also working conditions and the way the workshop is run.
Product Description
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Customer Reviews
Please don't believe the references to craftsmanship or to superior materials. This sled is not made in the US, but China,and has their characteristic lack of quality construction. The description says the wood is knot-free, but the sled arrives with knots aplenty. The screws look like they are all placed by hand without benefit of a drill press, They are too deeply countersunk, not driven in far enough and project above the wood, and cockeyed all at the same time. The wood is not sanded at all as witnessed by the presence of the carpenter's original pencil marks, and the visible wood plane grooves and the rough surface. This should be smooth and glossy.The planks do not lay flat against each other,have cracks along the edge. Good luck trying to wax them., The radius of curve of the boards in front is not uniform. The cross braces are not entirely screwed down flat. None of the wood penetrations such as the screw holes and the rope holes were sealed after the pre-finished boards were screwed together, and this will allow moisture to penetrate into the wood. The wood sealer could use a few more coats.
If this was my product, I would be embarrassed. For a cheap toboggan it is not bad, but do not expect to get the kind of quality manufactured item that you were used to from your childhood. If you want a superior item that you expect to last, I would spend $50-100 more and buy a US or Canadian made product.
My initial score of 2 stars indicates a substantial amount of disappointment with the fit & finish of the Mountain Boy 6-ft toboggan. I am sure that the species and treatment of the various wood pieces are as advertised, HOWEVER:
1. The body is more than a little warped/twisted. I understand that this is a hand-made item etc, however there is a large body of established techniques for putting wood together so it doesn't warp. Much. Heavier slats might help, although I understand that would add to the weight. Also, the slats that make up the sled are not well-finished; it's evident from the roughness that they were treated w/ a water-based product and not re-sanded.
2. The "rustic" cross pieces (sticks) don't help; they are thinner in cross-section than I expected, and I foresee that replacement with sturdier members is likely to be necessary. The sticks are not dimensionally square, although they are roughly shaped; the rough flat surface that bears against the bottom slats is also twisted. Therefore the union where the screws come through from the base slats is not nearly optimal. An equally rustic but far stronger approach would have been to rip sticks of at least twice the existing thickness in half, shape the tops, then use them "flat side down". That would provide more surface contact with the slats, more depth for screws to grab, and more room for error.
3. The screws that fix the base slats to the cross pieces are sunk to various depths, including a couple that are sunk almost all the way thru the slat and thus certain to fail and leave a hole. Others are sticking out proud of the slat base, so they will drag in the snow. Shoddy work. While the driver used to sink the screws very likely had a clutch on it, the fact that the 'rustic' cross pieces vary in dimension and properties would make it difficult to sink the screws evenly without expert care. Also, the screws were not countersunk, and they don't seem to be a brand with a cutting tooth under the head (e.g. Spax)...so the slat wood is pressed up & splintered around each screw head. Since the wood was finished prior to assembly, the splintering reveals untreated wood. This might have been OK if the holes had been sealed - but no. The last clue to poor practice in this area is the fact that several of the screw heads are stripped.
4. The leather loops that secure the tow rope to the sides of the toboggan are way to thin to last. The leather is about 1mm thick, tanned on one side only. The loops should be 1/16" cowhide.
Conclusion so far - I wish I could return it, but it's too late, my 3 small kids have seen it...I thought I was getting an heirloom quality item, I think now that I was taken in by some slick video ads. We'll see - I hope for the best. I will be sealing the screw heads to try and prevent moisture infil & reduce tear out; I'll be waxing the whole thing because the finish doesn't look all that weather resistant to me; I'll be treating the leather; and I will be praying I'm wrong. More to follow as soon as it snows!
AND MORE: I went downstairs to review my notes and make sure I had it all straight, and the nylon tow/grab rope is (1) burned where it shouldn't be - parts of the grab area have been hit with flame or heat and are scarred, damaged, and rough - and (2) NOT burned where it SHOULD be: the ends aren't sealed! Then I took another look at the rope: The screws holding the leather loops have a washer to shield the leather surface, but instead of pan heads which would sit flat against it, this company used the same screws as the base - so they stick up with a sharp edge, right where my kids' mittens can hang up and tear.
Straight up, this appears to be "strictly for the tourist trade" - you know, the kids are bored after the 1st week in the condo at Aspen, and Daddy gets a pretty sled (look, it's "locally made"!) at Ye Olde Mountain Store, it gets used a couple times, and it goes to the local Dumpster, not home on the plane. I completely understand the need for glossy junk like this, in it's place (Ye Olde Mountain Store), but the company has a lot of nerve marketing this thing outside Colorado. I'm leaving this at 2 stars, since I don't feel I can say that "I hate it" without ever using it. I am returning this over-priced gimcrack and finding something honestly cheap.
