Parts of a Sled – Labeled Runner Sled and Dog Sled

All 14 parts on the diagram

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Runner sled 4

Runners They touch the snow. On a steerable wooden sled they are thin steel, and they bend a little when the sled is steered.
Deck (slats) It is made of long wooden slats, held above the runners.
Steering bar Pushing one end with a hand or a foot turns it. The front of the runners bends that way, so the sled turns.
Pull rope It is for pulling the sled back up the hill. A rider sitting up can also steer with it.

Dog sled 10

Handlebar (driving bow) The driver, called the musher, stands behind it and holds on. It is also called the driving bow or handle bow.
Basket It is the framed space between the runners, behind the brush bow. Gear goes in it, and so can a tired dog.
Stanchions They are fixed to the runners. With the runners they make up the skeleton of the sled.
Brush bow It works like a bumper at the front of the sled. So it has to be very strong.
Sled bag It is made of heavy canvas or nylon and holds the gear. A tired or hurt dog can ride in it.
Foot boards The musher stands on them, one foot on each runner.
Brake The musher steps on it. Its metal claw digs into the snow to slow the sled.
Snow hook The musher stamps it into the snow. It holds the team when the sled is stopped.
Bridle The pull of the dogs comes onto the sled through it. That is because the gangline is fastened to the ring.
Gangline It runs down the middle of the team. Each dog is clipped to it by shorter lines. It is also called the towline.

How this list was compiled: Part names checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only when two of these use it for the part. Runner sled: (1) Wikipedia, text only: Sled, Flexible Flyer, Toboggan (runners, the wooden cross piece and its rope). (2) Makers' and sellers' printed descriptions of steerable sleds, full text on the Internet Archive: a sled maker's advertisements in The Youth's Companion (1907, 1913) and Boys' Life (1933), the Sears Christmas Book of 1935, https://archive.org/details/per_sears-christmas-book_sears-christmas-book_1935, and a toy maker's 1938 catalog, https://archive.org/details/garton-toy-company-1938 (steel runners, steering bar, seat slats). (3) Passages from the Internet Archive's full-text search: The Sled Book (2007) for deck and steering bar, and a memoir for the rope on the steering bar. Dog sled: (4) Wikipedia, text only: Mushing, Dog sled (runners, basket, handlebar, brake, snow hook, gangline, sled bag, stanchions). (5) Passages from the Internet Archive's full-text search of lending-library books: Hood, A Fan's Guide to the Iditarod (1996); the Iditarod Fact Book; Cary, Born to Pull (2009); Collins, Dog Driver: A Guide for the Serious Musher (1991); MUSH! A Beginner's Manual of Sled Dog Training (brush bow, stanchions, basket, driving bow or handle bar, foot board, brake, bridle, gangline, sled bag, snow hook). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry, a composite of no one make; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A sled slides over snow on runners. These drawings name 14 parts on two kinds: the wooden sled a child steers down a hill, and the dog sled a team of dogs pulls along a trail.

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The runner sled

The first view is a wooden sled from above and from the side. The rider sits or lies on the deck. Turning the steering bar bends the front of the steel runners, and that turns the sled. The rope on the bar is for pulling the sled back up the hill.

The dog sled

The second view is a dog sled, front to the right. The musher stands on the foot boards at the back and holds the handlebar. The load rides in the basket, inside a sled bag. At the front, the bridle joins the sled to the gangline, the long line the dogs pull on.

A sled with no runners at all, just a flat smooth bottom, is called a toboggan.
On a dog sled the brake slows the team and the snow hook holds it once it has stopped.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a sled called?

A wooden runner sled has two runners, a deck of slats, a steering bar across the front and a pull rope. A dog sled adds a handlebar, stanchions, a basket, a brush bow at the front, a brake and a snow hook.

What are the blades on the bottom of a sled called?

Runners. They are the long strips the sled slides on, and they cut down the rubbing between the sled and the snow. On a steerable wooden sled they are made of thin steel.

How do you steer a wooden sled?

Push on one end of the steering bar with a hand or a foot, or pull on the rope tied to it. Moving the bar bends the runners, and the sled turns.

What is the front of a dog sled called?

The brush bow. It is a strong curved piece that sticks out in front of the basket and works like a bumper.