i'm thinking about making snowshoes with a plastic base, something for shoulder seasons when you're not sure if you should bring them or not. bringing 4 pounds of snowshoes you don't need sucks, and not bringing them and getting bogged down in snow sucks more.

i'm thinking about getting a 1/4 inch sheet of plastic, and using a router to cut a grid in the bottom (much like yowie snowshoes) and then baking it a little to mold it into a traditional snowshoe shape.
problem is i don't know what kind of plastic to use.
i've written maybe a dozen plastic suppliers, went to all of the plastic suppliers in town, and no one can tell me anything.
i'm thinking an ABS or LDPE, but i really don't know.
any thoughts?

Edited by chiefcrazytalk on 11/22/2008 16:58:35 MST.

Try using the orange construction site fencing for snowshoe webbings.

Yowies use a proprietary copolymer developed for the cold.
But you could try Lexan. LDPE may last a while too.

Cheers

lexan is pretty expensive...

i guess this is going to be a trial and error thing, so i might as well start with ABS, which is pretty cheap.

I tried cutting up a plastic beer crate I think HDPE and attaching bits over my Kahtoolah crampons, under my shoes. We don't get the right snow often in England. They worked in Scotland, trial only one day, but were not big enough for very soft stuff.

that's kinda what i had in mind... if a snowshoe has a binding and a crampon, and you need to bring crampons anyway, why not combine them?

I found these at the local farm supply store. They were selling them for $20. They are made by some company called Paris. If you search for "Paris Snowshoes" in google you might find them online. By the way, I have not used them, and they don't have crampons.