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Mine falls apart like everyone elses but I called eskimo and they sent me 6 new poles
If you are a fatfish owner who has not had problems with the rods coming out of the hubs yet then you are lucky but I would be wary. Don't get too in love with your unit. If you keep it past the date when you can return it and then have tons of rod problems... well don't tell me I didn't warn ya!!!They were all made the exact same way with the exact same materials and design. The quickfish series has been around a long time now, people have used them for years... and you do not see the hub / rod related issues w/ the quickfish series. That is because they are built well and are not flawed. I have fished from mine for 3 years now and many times each year. Never had a rod problem once.3rd Trip in my fatfish and I had issues. A lot of people are having issues with them when they are relatively new. In my opinion you shouldn't pay 350$+ for a hut only to have it literally fall apart on you shortly after buying it. Hopefully they will go make a change to either the materials, design, or manufacturing process on their next batch. I don't see how they could keep selling something so faulty.The 949i in particular seems to be the worst of them all. It is heavier due to the insulated material and therefore the rods come out more easily.
If the rods were busting, or if the shelter had quality issues, then it would be unacceptable and of poor quality. I would hardly call a pin sliding in a rod, a big issue. Realign the pin, hit it with a little gorilla glue, and put it back in the hub. The Fatfish 949 is a great shelter.
Fair enough. I agree I don't think it is likely a rod will come out when it is up. However. If one falls out while in transport /storage (like they are prone to do) and you set it up you likely won't know you have an issue until you try to "pop" the shelter up. So you can either try to fix it with the hut up or take the time to remove all the spikes, and fix it folded up. (Can be tough to do alone.. in strong wind). It is not an ideal situation. Having to fix each individual rod that comes out w/ gorilla glue. Although it might be a legitimate fix. Guess you could be proactive and pop them all out and gorilla glue them. I personally think Eskimo should be doing something like that though, not the customers. While I was impressed with most of the other features of the fatfish, including the very nice quality of the insulated material. It is very roomy. I just don't like buying things I have to fix immediately. That is rewarding Eskimo for producing a flawed product. I don't do that. One more small note: I found the fatfish949i to be not as sturdy and stable in the wind as a smaller more compact quickfish3. You give up some rigidity when you have such a large pop up shelter.
Has any one called or E mailed Eskimo Most companies are customer service oriented?. The reason I comment my quick fish three is at least five years old and will one day need to be replaced so I hope you guys get all the bugs worked out.
The quickfish series by eskimo is fine. Unless they have changed materials or design in the last couple of years. They are great. Cheap too.Sturdy, durable and easy to set up.I'd love to have my quickfish 3 covered in the 949i insulated material!!!
While I am definitely not disputing what others experiences have been with the fatfish line mine has been fine. Mine seems to be a good one so far. I have set mine up probably about 12 times so far and no signs of any hub or pole failure. I do have one side that seems to want to pop back in on it's own before I stake it out it's definitely not a deal breaker. My coating is not flaking inside but I do see lines of separation along fold lines from storage. I hope it doesn't get any worse but I will keep an eye on it. I do hope the trend continues for me on this one and I'm hoping Eskimo gets the issues sorted out. I guess if this one goes south I'll buy a quickfish 6 since I have my Scout TC for times when I'm alone. I'm too used to having the extra space now to go smaller.
I had one pole pop give me fits with a pin sliding and coming out of the hub. This is how I feel, I like the hut so much that I have gone through the trouble(which isn't that hard) and taken off each hub cap and checked them. Which when it's still rolled up all the hubs are right next to each other and with a 6 inch cresant wrench you can have all five caps off in about thirty seconds and can look at each pin. Ok ya we spend a lot of money on these shelters (sorry gemcity not sure where your getting the $300 prices for these shelters but I only paid $215 for the 949) and we shouldn't have to do this. Maybe that's our mistake, I have always been told to never buy a product it's first year out to give it a year or two. Anyway all my other pins looked fine none of the others had moved, but I still put glue on all of them so I shouldn't have any problems again. All in all it took me about 5 minutes to check them and put glue on them and I already had the glue so no more money was spent just a little time. I guess all I am saying is Eskimo made a small mistake and missed something. I don't think it's worth all the bashing on them because of one thing. Ya it sucks but dang. They are trying to make a better product to make fishing more enjoyable and they made a mistake, there human give them a break or not and get pissed about it. I didn't I just took a little time and probably fixed the problem on a product I love and am glad I bought it cause sure has made my ice season more enjoyable since i got it.
I emailed ESKIMO today to the direct link to this page. Hope they go and see it. lol. if they had brains they would post something to reasure the community that the isseu is being dealt with.
We have the same taste in shelters. Very satisfied with all three of mine.(Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)