Issue with poles in Eskimo Fatfish 949i.....Pics Included

[Farklefish]

I have been using a Eskimo Quickfish 3 for a couple of years. I had some problems with the hubs until I lubricated the inside of the hubs with Vaseline. Easy to do by removing the allen wrench screw (when the tent is collapsed) removing the round coverplate and exposing the insides of the hub. I applied a small amount of Vaseline to the ball joint type attachment at the hub end of the support rods. This little bit of lubrication makes the hub work smoother than the metal on metal joints. Hope this will help for the Fatfish shelter also. In heavy winds I always secure the upwind hub with a rope and ice anchor. No more problems with the shelter sides collapsing inward.

[cichlid_baby]

The Fatfish is a different monster with some unique challenges than the proven Quickfish models.

It's clear the the hub panels popping in all too often on the Fatfish units is a result of a design flaw... there needs to be a revision on this house and I am sure it will be much better.

The solution isn't to tie down each panel and anchor all around.. or pack the hubs with some form of lubricant.. perhaps to refabricate a different kind of hub that utilizes different materials... instead it should be to demand a better designed or manufactured house that can withstand reasonable conditions without the end user having to modify the poles or any other such thing..

If the poles were of the correct size, length, or grade material... if the hubs were designed to have a wider degree of rotation or designed to not have binding areas.. then most of the issues would be non-existent from the get go.

In my most recent experience.... in some very cold conditions I might say but isn't this exactly why you need and bought a shelter in the first place? To protect you from the elements during the season of cold, snow and wind?... with one of this years double hub non-insulated production houses.. a brand new unit with it's first time out on the ice... upon struggling to get the unit finally popped open... I notice that the shelter was not square.. it was twisted beyond anything that would be considered acceptable.. the bars were an "S" shape and even some were bowing in rather than out.. the house looked like a clam shell and almost ball-like and had very little fishable area unless you went out and pulled out and staked not only the corners but also the center panels.. my point here is that it does not appear to be fuctioning as designed or expected.. and it would not make any sense for me to always have to pull the house and stretch it and stake it every time in order to use it in the outdoors.

Now.. if you take the house indoors and set it up in the basement and heat the tent up and warm up the bars.. then the house relaxes and fabric becomes pliable and will stretch and the house then looks more normal and will even look to have the space that you expected it to have... but what good is it.. if that only happens in a heated indoor room or garage?

That is poor quality and a product that does not meet it's intended purpose... and it shouldn't be the end user's job to figure a way to be able to use fix it in order to use it.

Demand a better product.. for your money.