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Author Topic: hub style shanty review  (Read 1231 times)

Offline icepick454

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hub style shanty review
« on: Apr 04, 2015, 06:36 PM »
Hey everyone, I know Shappell isn't a shanty sponsor, at least I don't think it is anyway,but they are made here in Michigan, and being a michigan man I had to try them out. I bought a Shappell Ice house 6500, yes its the big dog, with huge entry doors and lots of room for the family, I ordered it from Franks in Linwood and in a day and a half it showed up on my door step. Holy cow incredible fast shipping Go UPS. any way my son and I headed out to a spot that we wanted to try pike spearing and got this rig set up [awesome] everything went off without a hitch. the next day we went gull to go smelt fishing with some friends and we were comparing notes, he had just bought an eskimo round house and had never set it up yet, i told him how easy they set up and started to show him the shappell when all of a sudden crack one of the poles splintered, my heart sunk and as I continued to set  the rest up- snap goes another, I was furious,I have been hunting out of pop-ups for years and never have I seen anything like it, fortunately nothing else was damaged,  we were an hour from home and we were going to fish tonight if killed us. the following Monday I called Shappell biting my tongue out of fear of what I might say. and to my surprise a kind gentleman answered and with no excuses or sarcasm, genuinely asked me what I thought may have caused it. so they could improve their product we talked almost a half hour trying to figure out what caused it. long story short he replaced both poles and also sent some extras just in case. I have to applaud Shappell on their customer service. this truly is a great company and a pleasure to deal with. Oh and we never had any problems with anything else the rest of the season. great product and great company :icefish:

Offline DR.SPECKLER

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Re: hub style shanty review
« Reply #1 on: Apr 04, 2015, 07:04 PM »
ive had my shappell widehouse 6500 for 3 years without a problem.its a fish all day palace on ice  with only 2 guys setup in it.easy setup and easy to put back in its bag.tons of room and can stand up to stretch once in a while too.

Offline smeltbuster

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Re: hub style shanty review
« Reply #2 on: Apr 04, 2015, 08:59 PM »
Shappell  is known for great  customer service.  I have had several hub style hunting blinds, built by other companies,  that have done the same thing &  have had terrible results w/ C S, when they found out I was using them for ice fishing.  That's when I moved up to my  current hub (Clam, Jason  Mitchell 5000 Thermal). No issues  here.  Icepick, Gull is wide open, & I will be out there  in about 8 hrs., to see if the smelt are in the creek. If they are , pics on FB !
"Yes officer, my chocolate lab did shoot me,with my brothers 12 gauge"!  11-8-87,true story!          "Sorry were late mom,Chris & me just got done with a cow hunt,we each got a big black Angus with our muzzleloaders"!  (the Christmas eve cow hunt w/ my son; 2004 !

Offline 3300

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Re: hub style shanty review
« Reply #3 on: Apr 04, 2015, 10:16 PM »
i bought one this ice season too. one of the poles came out of the hub. mike from shappell (probably who you spoke with) tried to get me to reglue it. i told him i have no glue and he sent me a replacement pole with the end glued on that fits into the hub and he said just keep the bad one and get some glue to fix it later.

what i find easy to do is not put your hand on the center of the top section your trying to pop out and that causes extra stress on the poles being over bent/stressed.

on their fx100, the tub corners were collapsing in the cold and mike replaced it free of charge and said keep the old one. they made a design change in the mold to make it thicker. the newer tub weighs much more.

shappell does have a one year warranty so they have to take care of you anyway. just glad they are pleasant about doing it.

i own three shappell shacks now and enjoy them all. i buy shappell because they are from our state and use 600 denier fabric and have nice shacks and stand behind their name!



Offline Chris338378

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Re: hub style shanty review
« Reply #4 on: Apr 05, 2015, 12:14 AM »
That's good to know Shappell made it right for you. 

Offline buddlakemusky

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Re: hub style shanty review
« Reply #5 on: Apr 05, 2015, 12:48 AM »
try killzone shacks they are great and have free shipping

Offline P Meyette

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Re: hub style shanty review
« Reply #6 on: Apr 05, 2015, 10:32 AM »
this is great to know about shappel

Offline chasdc1

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Re: hub style shanty review
« Reply #7 on: Apr 09, 2015, 09:00 PM »
Got a Shappell 6500 Widehouse in March cause I got tired of freezing my azz off in this ridiculously cold Upstate NY winter.
Grew up in Belleville MI, moved to Rochester NY decades ago and have not seen any Shappell products on the ice around here.
Sizewise, the Widehouse fits me, my two grown sons and my wife just fine-plenty of room for four people, holes, equipment, etc.
Put it up for the first time on the ice and had absolutely no problem with set-up.
Takedown is extremely easy and the oversize bag allows simple repacking without having to try to stuff the thing back into an undersize bag.
Learned real fast that in a wind, the hubs tend to pop in and, as a result, the hubs need to be staked down.
Shappell provides hub lines but only four anchors, so if any of you buy one of these shantys, order four extra anchors at the same time.
Last time we were out, hubs and skirts were properly anchored and the shanty effortlessly withstood 25-30mph.
Inside, we had no sense of what was going on outside and were fishing glove and jacketless without having a heater.
I'm a real fan of this unit and if Shappell has any staff monitoring this forum, I would urge you to look into being a sponsor of this website.
Your product rocks!

 



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