Staff Writer

Charlie Coffin stands at the corner of his custom-made, self-propelled bobhouse. (Citizen Photo/Rich Bergeron)

RUMNEY — For most ice anglers, moving a bobhouse to a different place can require a lot of work. A truck, snowmobile, or four-wheeler may ease the transition, but hauling around an ice shack without any of the above can be dangerous, downright exhausting and extremely hard to handle without a few helpers.

Charlie Coffin, on the other hand, just needs to reach out the window of his mobile, hydraulic bob house to get to another spot and take his house with him. His multi-purpose house has its own suspension and a spare tire.

Coffin’s powered bobhouse is designed to move across the ice as he stays warm inside and steers. A wheel of sharpened spikes made of Re-bar provides all the power by biting into the ice and nudging the shack along at a walking pace.

The house is also fitted with hydraulic wheels. Once the moving fishing shack reaches a destination, the wheels settle the house onto the ice gently. The wheels also lift back up and carry enough force to separate the house from any ice’s grip. All this can be done without Coffin stepping outside at all.

Coffin said he once saw a fisherman struggling to chip away ice that held his bobhouse, preventing him from even budging it. The man started kicking at the sides of the house and was soon hurling expletives through the air. "He was chopping away, he was frozen in real good," Coffin explained about his laketop neighbor.

Meanwhile, Coffin simply pushed a button to activate his hydraulic wheels. Released and ready to move again, he noticed the noise subside for a few moments. When he looked out the window again, the man had reduced the stuck bobhouse to a pile of rubble.

Charlie Coffin’s bobhouse is a light weight, practical machine down to every minute detail and highlighted by a hyrdraulic drive system. (Citizen Photo/Rich Bergeron)

"It probably didn’t help him to see me," said Coffin.

Ironically, Coffin’s masterpiece was inspired by the same sort of problem. He loved ice fishing but hated having to move his bobhouse. The 68-year-old construction company owner can now enjoy his hobby with no difficulty at all.

"There’s no trailer, jacks, or winches," he explained.

The house he built in 1991 doubles as a trailer and can be quickly detached from a truck. It is then fitted with a new set of front wheels that slide right into place and make the house ice-worthy in seconds.

The five-horsepower motor, a Caterpillar Industrial battery, and a solar panel attached to the roof provide all the juice necessary to keep Coffin moving, warm, and entertained on a fishing trip. The battery can be charged through the cigarette lighter of his truck or through the trailer wiring as he tows it somewhere.

"I had to have something different. I’m an inventor," he said about why he created the hybrid house.

He also brings his house to construction sites to take breaks in it, and he even takes the rig on hunting trips. A propane heater fixed to the wall makes the interior temperature toasty warm in just a few minutes. There are fish traps set up at four corners with small doors, and he has four windows to look out to view tip-ups outside. A stove and sink counter from an old pop-up camper provide an open cooking area with plenty of storage underneath.

The shack is registered as a trailer, but Coffin said he always jokes with Fish and Game officers that his house could be classified as an off-road vehicle. He took the mobile masterpiece to the Hopkinton Fair this past summer, and he joked that it was the only time the shack needed an air conditioner.

He relishes the Meredith Fishing Derby every year for the chance to start the house up on the ice. He said people always want to know what it is and what it does. Some people even want their pictures taken with it. He’s been offered as much as $3,000 for it and the Smithsonian Institute asked him to bring it to Washington, D.C. once.

He has put about $1,500 into the whole project, he estimated. It is always subject to improvement, as he pointed out. This year he plans to add another piston to apply downward pressure to the wheel to provide better grip on the ice. Sometimes the spikes that drive the shack slip and have to be manually pushed back down into the ice.

He tells prospective buyers, "No, I have too much fun with it." Besides, he explained, there is a history of work wrapped up in his home away from home.

The custom craftsmanship includes hydraulic parts that can’t be bought today, he explained. He had initially developed a mechanical design with a gear ratio that was less than practical. His drive system soon became hydraulic, which is what he said he knows best. "It happened to come out right," he said. "I sacrificed speed for power."

Coffin said he invented a hydraulic sander when he was working for the state and had a design for a quick-mount snow plow in 1984, before Fisher had developed its system. He tried to patent the idea with limited success. "I think somebody at Fisher got wind of it," he said. The relic is still in his garage, along with a custom-built motorcycle carrier that connects to the trailer hitch on his RV.

Not surprisingly, the inventor and construction worker is meticulous. His immaculate shop features an array of tools and machinery. Everything is carefully placed.

He uses the shack to hunt out of, too. A giant buck head decorates the den of his house and a set of oversized antlers from another buck hangs in his garage.

He recalled getting into ice-fishing because he didn’t often work in the winter and his only hobby was skating. He said the "comfort and warmth" of his bobhouse experience is much better than snowmobiling, which is much too cold for his bones.

Instead, he’s happy to bring his grandchildren on the ice. "My grand kids love to fish," he said. "They like granpa’s bobhouse."