[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 4][#502800]The Ice Kicker and Ice Kicker 2 look pretty impressive. Has anyone tried one of these? I'm considering buying the Ice Kicker 2 adaptor since I already have a 7" Lazer auger and an 18v Makita drill with 2 batteries. Do they work as well as they do in the You Tube videos?
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If U fish thin ice maybe U will get it to punch U enough holes, but U won't be movin and drillin wantin to search for fish. Personally I say our temps will be to cold and our ice too thick. I would save your money and get something different.
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Several years ago, I made a simular adapter for my electric drill as the Ice Kicker 1. I cut the end of of my hand auger handle and welded it to a 1/2" bolt shaft.
I spun it with a DeWalt 18 volt drill and it did OK, not great, but OK. It was able to drill through 12" of ice about 6 or 8 times per battery and I had 3 batteries so it worked fine for me. It did tend to catch at the end of drilling the hole or would cut sraight through and not have enough torque to break the ice out fully. I would have to do this with a spud, which was fine for me.
My first attempt at making the thing, the bolt would spin in the chuck of the drill, to stop this I ground the bolt into a triangle so that it sat firmly in the jaws of the chuck and would not slip.
The other problem with these kind of adapters is that you tend to hold the auger bit near the top and close to the drill chuck. It is possible and I had it happen a few times for the whole thing to come out of the chuck and if the auger has punched through the ice it will continue to spin and dissapear into the hole never to be seen again. That is what the bar that is sold with the ice kicker is for, to stop the auger from going down the hole. I sarted out with a bat type of auger stop but didn't like the bar spinning around hitting me. I instead fashioned a stopper out of a round piece of plywood. It worked much better and the second generation was made from the top of a 5 gal paint bucket, which was lighter and worked better.
The following year I saw a drill adapter for a meat grinder at Cabela's bargain cave that had a 6:1 gear ratio on it. I bought it and adapted it to run off of my drill and power the auger simular to the Ice Kicker II. It works fantastic and at my drills high speed can drill about 12 to 15 holes per battery in a foot of rock hard ice.
In closing I would not recommend the Ice Kicker 1 unless you have a 24 volt frill. I would say that the Ice Kicker 2 with it's 2:1 gear reduction would work well in most conditions for the better part of the day, based on what I have built myself.
I should note that I swing an 8" strikemaster auger with my set up. Do the math for pi x R2 on a 7" and you will see that you are cutting a less ice than an 8" and it may work better.
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I was thinking of making an adapter but found the Ice-Kicker I at Bass Pro in Chicago a couple weeks ago. I hope it works, i think it will at least for the early hard deck but the late season Berry ice may to too much.
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I bought one when they first came out about 6-7 years ago.
The directions on the ebay auction said not to use it with anything more than a 7" auger. I went ahead and used it with my 8" and it toasted 2 14.4 porter cable batteries before breaking through the first hole (ice was about 10-11").
Last year I drug my generator out on the ice and took my corded drill, it still wouldn't work right, it was not drilling a straight hole. I looked at it to find that it had a bent shaft. If I had not used it on such a big auger it may have worked a little better.
I do love the idea though. Even if I have to carry a portable generator out there (or even a deep cycle battery with an inverter) at least you have some equipment that can be used for something other than ice fishing. Think $350 for a gas auger vs. $300 for a generator + $50 for a good drill, then you can plug in a heater/coffee pot/electric blanket/etc. for the rest of your time on the ice. Then you have a good drill and generator that can be used in the summer months. (some generators won't weigh much more than a gas auger)
Just make sure you are staying within the manufacturers recomendation for the maximum auger size.
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Here is a link to a video clip that has some good info,
[url "http://icefishingtoday.com/...drill_ice_augers.php"]http://icefishingtoday.com/...drill_ice_augers.php[/url]
If you are interested in spending more money, here is a better one.
[url "http://www.cabelas.com/fryprod2-1/1136697.shtml?type=product&WT_tsrc=CSE&WT_mc_id=GoogleBaseUSA&WT_z_mc_id1=1136697&rid=40&mr:trackingCode=164C3EF4-1ADB-DF11-9612-001B21631C34&mr:referralID=NA"]http://www.cabelas.com/fryprod2-1/1136697.shtml?type=product&WT_tsrc=CSE&WT_mc_id=GoogleBaseUSA&WT_z_mc_id1=1136697&rid=40&mr:trackingCode=164C3EF4-1ADB-DF11-9612-001B21631C34&mr:referralID=NA[/url]
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[#000000][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 4]Thanks guys for all that good info. That Keko adaptor looks like a good one, but costs over twice as much as the Ice Kicker. The Keko is $45. The regular Ice Kicker is $20, and the Ice Kicker 2 is $75 - - that's the one with a 2:1 gear reduction. I've emailed the manufacturer but haven't gotten a response yet. I'll definitely post again after I've ordered something and tried it out. It should at least be fun to play with.
They recommend not using an auger larger than 6" with the regular direct-drive adaptor. The Ice Kicker 2 uses a chain-driven reducer to turn the auger at half the speed, giving much higher torque and hopefully longer battery life.
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