How-To: Turn your baby jogger into a sleigh

Dressing up as the Grinch and running in the Reindeer Romp 5K this past weekend was loads of fun. It was great to see the efforts that my friends and family directly and indirectly contributed to the project pay off. The costume was way better than races past, and because it was a team effort, more enjoyable as well.

If you’re wondering how you can misplace your sanity and create a sleigh for your baby jogger in order to fill it with a kid you’ve dressed as a dog so you can dress up as the Grinch and run a 5K then let me enlighten you. You’re going to need a few hours, a craft person (should you not be), and about $20 in supplies.

To begin, you could take the time to draw up plans so your project will go more smoothly, but you’ll probably just end up abandoning those plans and getting drunk. I recommend you just wing it like I did. Seriously, it’s not that hard. Get a model sleigh, and then buy supplies to match that example.

To build my sleigh I put my son in the baby jogger and the two of us strolled through the aisles of Hobby Lobby looking for supplies based on the ornamental sleigh pictured to the right.

Supplies

Baby jogger (BOB Revolution SE)
3 sheets of 24×30 inch, 1/4″ thick red foam board
1 wooden dowel, 3/8″ x 36″
2 wooden dowels, 1/2″ x 36″
1 package of 3/8″ acorn dowel caps
1 package of 1/2″ dowel caps
1 roll of red duct tape
1 roll of gold duct tape
Gold paint
Quick-dry adhesive, removable glue, razor, self healing cutting mat, scissors, ruler, pencil, and measuring tape*

*Already owned

Directions

With parts in hand, meet up with your crafty friend and start working.

1. Put the foam board up against the side of the baby jogger white side out, and mark where your sleigh needs to begin (back) and end (front).

2. Lay your foam board on a flat surface and draw the sleigh pattern. When you’re satisfied with how it looks, put it back up against the jogger to make sure that everything looks good.

3. Cut the foam board with a razor. Be sure to put something underneath (like a self healing cutting mat) so you don’t destroy your dining room table. You’ll probably need to retrace the cut one or two times so that the two parts come apart without any pulling (seriously, don’t rip the pieces apart).

4. Repeat the drawing/cutting process for the other side.

5. Using your gold duct tape pull out a piece that is long enough to run the length of your sleigh’s side, then cut a slit at the end in the middle and pull the strip down to the roll. Once you have you’ve reached the roll then cut, not the other way around. This is where a second person really comes in handy because once duct tape sticks to itself it tends to stay that way.

6. Place the halved strip of duct tape along the front side of the foam board. This will keep the ugly slits you’re about to make from showing up.

7. Turn the foam board over and begin to fold the duct tape over the foam board.

8. Using a pair of scissors, cut slits into the tape wherever there is a curve. This will allow you to shape the tape around each curve.

9. Repeat the trim-taping process for the other piece of foam board.

10. Your sleigh frame will rest on the front of the baby jogger so you’re going to need to cut out a piece for the front. Place the two sides in between the tire and the jogger frame as tightly as you can. Measure the distance between the two sides by the front tire.

11. Now, measure the third piece of foam board and cut it to fit. Take it back to the jogger, measure the placement of the cut out (where the foam board will rest on the baby jogger frame), then cut the rectangular piece out. Use gold tape to trim the top, and red tape to trim the bottom.

12. Lay the front piece in between the two sides at an angle. Run a pencil along the inside of the two sides to mark where you will glue the front piece. Cut a piece of red tape to fill the white space between the gold trim and the pencil mark.

13. Cut a 1/4″ runner for both sides. You will use this to hold the front piece in place. Glue the two pieces to the sleigh sides.

14. One side at a time, glue the front piece to the inside of the sleigh frame, then tape it down with red tape.

Now you need to determine where your wooden dowels will go. To ensure stability I used three. One will go on the back of the sleigh. Be sure it’s low enough that your child won’t lay against it, and high enough to zip tie it to something. The second will go in the middle, under the seat of the jogger. I ran mine along a bar so I could zip tie the sleigh to the frame. The third dowel will go along side the front piece of foam board and across the top of the frame.

15. Cut the dowels the width of the sleigh frame and be sure to compensate for the 1/4″ width of each of the sides and the depth of the dowel caps (which varies depending on the width of the dowel).

16. Using a punch down tool (or a pencil), create a hole that is large enough for the dowel. Don’t worry, the dowel caps will cover any minor blemishes. Run your dowels through, add the caps, and make sure everything fits snuggly.

17. Paint the dowel caps gold and let them dry.

18. Run the front and back dowels through the sleigh and glue the caps on. Since you’re going to make the sleigh frame removable, you won’t add the middle dowel just yet.

19. Take the middle dowel and glue one cap on one of the sides of the dowel. For the other side use your removable glue. This will allow the cap to stay on when you need it to, but will allow you to remove it as necessary.

20. Now that your sleigh frame is all done, just slide it over the top of your baby jogger, throw on your Grinch costume, strap your antlered child into the sleigh, and GO FAR!

That’s all it took. No plans. Just a couple of hours, a couple of people, and $20. If you give it a try, leave a comment below with a picture or two, and let me know how it turned out.