Question for pop-up owners about tight fabric

[XIThetaIX]

Hello all,

I've owned a couple of the Clam Vista Link shelters for a few years now, and while they have worked great, I wanted to get a "true" double-hub pop-up shelter that was entirely insulated (only 1 of my Clam shelters is insulated, so the other "half" when linked sweats like crazy when you get it nice and toasty and full of people). I figured I'd order a shelter now even though the season is essentially out here in ND so I could work out any kinks and get everything all set up in it for next year.

Boy am I glad I did.

I was looking at either the Eskimo FatFish 9416i or the Otter Monster Lodge. I ended up ordering an Eskimo FatFish 9416i (mainly because of the price, amount of time its been in production, and because I couldn't find the Otter in stock anywhere) directly from Eskimo/Ardisam and brought my 3 y/o and grandparents out to a small pond near where I live to try it out. The panels were difficult to pop out and a couple collapsed when while I was popping others out, but I chalked that up it it being brand new.

Once we got the shelter all set up and climbed inside, I noticed the poles were really torqued. All had an S shape to them, and some were so bad they weren't even touching the fabric. I tried wrestling them into a proper position, but they'd pop right back. One panel was so tight it actually popped back in and almost took my boy out. We fished for awhile without any more collapsing incidents, however the poles remained ominously torqued.

The next day, I emailed Ardisam support and sent pics. The tech I was working with said that there were "sowing issues" and that the shelter would need to be replaced. They sent me out a new one right away and I recieved it a couple days later. To be certain I wasnt going to have more issues, I set it up right away in my back yard. Same exact torquing in the poles.

I called Ardisam this time and got a different tech. I told them what was going on and after talking to a supervisor, they informed me that this is how their shelters ship and that the fabric just needs to stretch. She said that after ~15 or so trips, it should stretch and the poles should settle.

I have the shelter set up in my back yard now with the tie down straps as tight as the ground will allow without the anchors tearing out, and I'm hoping that after a week or 2 the fabric will stretch out and I won't run into any more issues. The poles are SO torqued though, that I don't know how the fabric can stretch as much as it'll need to for the poles to sit how they should.

I figured in the meantime I'd reach out to others that have had this experience with pop-up shelters to see what kinds of outcomes people have had. Has anyone had experience with this before? Did the fabric finally stretch out? Any tips/tricks on speeding the process up? I thought about spraying it down with the hose periodically while set up to see if that helps. I never had any problems with my Clam shelters, but from what I've been reading online, others have had similar experiences with Otter and Eskimo products. However I haven't been able to find much on others' outcomes. The FF9416i has really good reviews, but I wasn't sure if this is an issue with newer manufactured shelters (both of the shelters I recieved were manufactured end of 2020).

Thanks for any help/piece of mind you can provide!

http://imgur.com/a/48iYPTw

[slipperybob]

While true that the material may stretch out, thus it wouldn't do so while cold.  It's like a need to iron out the fabric to stretch it, but being a winter item no one is going to do so.  Yeah I hate to damp the fabric that's highly resistant to water and stretch it out under a warm 100 plus degrees.

So that leaves a sewing issue.  The primary culprit is the actual position of the hub.  It's not centered correctly among the material.  One can tell almost immediately just by looking at the hub and comparing it with the position of the reinforcing square sewn in patch.  If not that, then it's the pocket for the pole and the actual material cut/sewing.  It's probably short.  The last thing is probably the pole length or the point where it's glued into the hub assembly.  Thus there's too much length since it's not seating fully into, maybe.

I sure hate doing post production fix.  It happens.  With the huge rush and demand for ice fishing shelters, there has been more inconsistencies with finished product. 

Most of all, they just need to cut the material like an inch longer or so.

[ICEHOLE]

I have a 949 and my poles look similar to yours "s" shaped. Some more then others. Also can have walls pop in while trying to pop out others, and I always have lines  to the ice from the outside of each hub so they don't pop in with a bit of wind. When they pop in they do have some force..so I think u are good but hard to say for aure

[XIThetaIX]

I have a 949 and my poles look similar to yours "s" shaped. Some more then others. Also can have walls pop in while trying to pop out others, and I always have lines  to the ice from the outside of each hub so they don't pop in with a bit of wind. When they pop in they do have some force..so I think u are good but hard to say for aure

Any chance yours is a newer hub? Or is it one of the older models? It makes me wonder why the reviews are so high for these - seems like bad craftsmanship. Shouldn't have to worry about one of your walls popping in with little to no force for the amount of money you have to shell out for one of these things. This is the first hub that I've been around that has this type of issue. I would think too that if their expectation is that you're going to tie down every wall everytime you use it to keep it from popping in, they'd include straps for every wall. Don't know how many yours came with, but mine only came with 2 tie downs. I assumed their logic was "use the grommets in the skirt to anchor down the shelter, then tie down the 2 walls that are facing the wind". So I was a little irked when they expect you to set it up so it can stretch out when they don't give you all the tie downs to do so.

I've only ever heard good things about Eskimo/Ardisam products and support, and was excited to jump on the band wagon. I've gotta say thus far I'm not very impressed...

Thanks for replying slipperybob and ICEHOLE! Really hoping that leaving it set up and tied down for a week will alleviate things because I REALLY want to like this shelter, but based on what I've been reading I think I'm kinda setting myself up for disappointment.

[slipperybob]

One of the original hub shacks was made by Eastman.  They made the Ice Cube and one thing that was really good was that they designed a type of compression stabilizing strap from corner of the the shelter to corner on two sides of the shelter along the ridge of the roof.  The shelter was designed to be slightly loose - so no bents poles.  Then when you have it set up, you cinched down the straps and it tightens up the corners.  It stabilizes the shelter when it's windy, less wobble.  I also use the straps to hangs stuff on too.  Of course the Ice Cube was made rather cheap in quality and material but it was very well designed in some aspects.

What other manufactures have done is made their shelters a bit tight.  It bypasses what Eastman has done to address that.  So as it goes, the results are sometimes, bent poles on the shelter from out of the box brand new after set up.

[bearnoob]

I have a Fatfish 747 bought in 2014. The roof poles have an s shape to them when it is set up. Never actually noticed before this post. Have had no problems.

Sometimes I have had issues where wind (or maybe me moving the shelter by one corner) has caused it not to sit square and then the poles do weird things (like cover the doorways) but pushing out the corners usually fixes the issue.

[XIThetaIX]

One of the original hub shacks was made by Eastman.  They made the Ice Cube and one thing that was really good was that they designed a type of compression stabilizing strap from corner of the the shelter to corner on two sides of the shelter along the ridge of the roof.  The shelter was designed to be slightly loose - so no bents poles.  Then when you have it set up, you cinched down the straps and it tightens up the corners.  It stabilizes the shelter when it's windy, less wobble.  I also use the straps to hangs stuff on too.  Of course the Ice Cube was made rather cheap in quality and material but it was very well designed in some aspects.

What other manufactures have done is made their shelters a bit tight.  It bypasses what Eastman has done to address that.  So as it goes, the results are sometimes, bent poles on the shelter from out of the box brand new after set up.

Just goes to show, sometimes you shouldn't fix what's not broken... 🤣

I have a Fatfish 747 bought in 2014. The roof poles have an s shape to them when it is set up. Never actually noticed before this post. Have had no problems.

Sometimes I have had issues where wind (or maybe me moving the shelter by one corner) has caused it not to sit square and then the poles do weird things (like cover the doorways) but pushing out the corners usually fixes the issue.

Yeah the roof panels seem to be OK on mine as well - they have that S shape, but they sit flush to the fabric and have enough outward force that the panels don't pop in easy. With some of the side panels (especially the door like you mentioned) that S shape likes to pop a good 3-4 inches away from the panel or infront of the door 🤦‍♂️. Seems like the panel will stay popped out as long as the pole runs in front of the door, but if it sits out away from the panel, I think that's what causes it to collapse. Wouldn't be so bad if I could twist it into place so the S sits flush to the panel, but follow the countour of the door... that would actually be pretty nice I think. I did try pushing out on that bottom corner like you mentioned (had to do that from time to time with my Clam - sometimes that corner likes to dig into the snow while setting up and messes with the poles) and I even went as far as running around the skirt and anchored it down straight and that dang pole still won't sit nice.