This Electric Fan-Propelled Sled Is Perfect for Having Fun in the Snow

Winter sports, like skiing and snowboarding, aren’t for everybody. That’s particularly true if you live somewhere lacking in mountains, like Ohio. But, just because you’re not shredding gnar on the slopes, that doesn’t mean you can’t still have some extreme fun in the snow.

Peter Sripol went about that in just about the best way we can think of: by building an sled propelled by a repurposed electric plane prop. That, along with the electric motor, batteries, and ESC (electric speed control), was pulled from a pretty amazing dual-prop electric ultralight plane that Sripol also built. The logic is pretty straightforward: if that is powerful enough for a plane, it’s probably powerful enough to push a sled across the snow.

The sled itself is one of those flimsy vacuum-formed plastic jobs, so Sripol started by reinforcing the whole body with aluminum tube. That same tube was used to create a superstructure onto which the electric motor and propeller were mounted. All that was left to do was add a rudder for steering, and Sripol was zooming majestically over the snow.