Otter house assembly

[spentshell]

I just emailed the questions below to Otter Customer Service but figured I may get a quicker response on the forum. When I put my Clam together I used a bunch of extra screws on the plastic tarp/tub seal, is this advisable to do on the Otter too?

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I just bought an Otter Resort Thermal and have a couple of questions relating to the assembly.

Is the bottom pole set that sits on the ice supposed to lock in when the house is set up? It appears to be too long to do so. I heard of some issues with the poles being mislabeled in the instructions but am unclear on exactly what that issue is, can you clarify that also?

In the parts kit there are 15 small plastic buttons but there is no instruction as to what they are or where they go. Can you tell me what these are for?

Thanks!

[BradHawthorne]

In all of my Otters over the years I've never had to put more screws in the shelter seal. Just put the ones in it came with and you should be fine.

[spentshell]

Thanks, it appears the Otter tarp/tub interface is a better design due to the seal strip being attached to the tarp and then clipping onto the tub. The Clams rely on the screws to keep the tarp from pulling away.

[spentshell]

No response from Otter Outdoors yet, I stopped at a retailer today and the smaller shacks did have the bottom poles "locked in". I wonder if I need to swap the bottom poles out with the top or front set.

Anybody out there with an Otter resort who can give me some clues?

[BoxMN]

I added some extra screws to my Otter Cabin, even though it didn't come with any at all. Several years ago though, so style might have changed. Mine was first year of the square tubes. I just put a small self tapper in both ends of the rear sliding seal "clip", because it looked like a lot of pressure at the ends. No problems before or after the screws.

[gquist]

I have the same house, I just bought it a month ago, Good luck with Otter's customer support On mine the aluminum seat braces won't slip over the tub on the one end of the sled, either the sled is to wide in that area or the brace is too small, I have called 3 times and sent 2 email's and been waiting for over 2 weeks with no answer to solve my issue, I guess I will need to sit on a pail in a $1000 portable, Lol

As far as your questions about the lower pole, mine latchs in place just fine, Make sure you fabric is pulled tight around the tub, any issues there would limit the amout of slack available for the lower poles to latch.

As far as the plastic buttons, they are used under the screws that hold the poles together to keep the tarp from rubbing on the screws and chaffing.

[gonehunting]

I would give them a call again and tell them about the poor customer service you've had. I had just the opposite experience three weeks ago. I purchased an otter lodge. I went to put the plastic seat mounts on and they were off by a half inch and made the sled bulge out when I pushed them down. I followed the direction to a T. In four days I had a new sled at the retailer to pick up. Cannot say enough good things about my new otter lodge. Although assembly took awhile.

[otterman91105]

I have had the same with otter. Nothing but good luck think they have good customer service. Bought a new lodge and everything went togeather good.

[gquist]

I wish I could say the same, I researched the purchase carefully and purchased it because of their reputation, I have been very polite with them and the last time I talked to her she told me that she was going to talk to someone at Otter that happened to be in the same room as she was, she took my phone # again and I never heard back, that was Thursday.

[spentshell]

Thanks for all the replies, glad to know what those black buttons are for. They must have added these to the list of materials later as the do not have their own number like all the other parts.

I am going to set it up again tomorrow and see what is going on with that bottom bar.