Making bodies ride the sled

A few weeks ago I posted about wrapping dummy bodies in sheets for Hunger at Lifeline Theatre. Once we tried to bring the bodies onstage we had a problem. 

The characters are supposed to be dragging the dummies around on a toboggan, but there wasn't enough room backstage for the sled to sit flat on the floor before dragging it on.  We had to be able to store the sled with the dummy vertically, and then lay them both down as the actor was entering. The dummy couldn't be strapped permanently to the sled, because the actors needed to dump the body onstage.

I used half a piece of PVC screwed to a small length of 1x4 to make a shallow hook. 

I then used gaff tape to solidly tape the hook to the frame of the dummy.

Even once the dummy was wrapped in the sheet, the hook was easy to locate and use. 

I added an extra piece of 1x4 to one of the slats on the sled to give my hook something to hold onto. 

And here is an image of how the hook and the 1x4 fit together.

With the hook in place, the dummy could store vertically backstage until needed, and could be easily lowered and dragged out by one person.