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From: AJM
Date: 1/2/00
Time: 8:15:04 PM
Remote Name: 199.190.107.71
boy, do I here you. I also live in western michigan. I went out saturday evening and some of the maintained sections of road were all ice. I use a sort of drag-brake. It is a piece of rubber floor mat that is about 1/4" thick. It is mounted with two hinges to the lower rear crosspiece. I drilled 3 holes and put 5/16", 1 inch long bolts in them. I also used an eyebolt toward the front of the drag pad with a bungi cord so it stays elevated unless I want to use it. It works well in all situations, but especially icy hills. You can stand on it with all your weight and still have a good bit of control. It is effective enough that I can stop a 10-dog team after the first few miles on level ground or just slow them down on the bad sections of trail. If all you have is your brake it can be tough to regulate speed on icy trails and still be able to steer.