Otter Medium bent frame

[Sprig]

I recently bent one of the frames on my Otter Medium fish house. I have tried bending it back but it will no longer collapse or expand from the slide. Does anyone know where I can get one piece of replacement frame for the older style round poles? Or do you have any options on how I can fix this?

Thanks.

[Iambjm]

Contact Otter through their web page, I needed a piece that went on my hitch and they sent me one. Customer service is great!

[Tom7227]

I had the same problem and fabricated a replacement out of 1/2 inch conduit. Otter was a bit shakey on whether they still had the material and it was a long ride out to their plant.

If all you need is the side pole you could consider just making it out of the conduit. We made a bend in the conduit and cut the old piece maybe 8-10 inches in from the bend. Connected the two using a piece of copper pipe over both and then pop rivets to hold it in place.

Don't forget to pull the jobberdo that pops out into the hole in the other piece. I cut the aluminum pole just above the piece and pulled it out easily. Put it in the new piece and you're good to go.

All of the sections are about the same so you can decide where you want to put the repaired section.

Finallly, I ran 0000 steel wool over all the sections to clean them up. That got the whole thing working a lot more smoothly.

[harvey lee]

No need to drive to Otter as I'm sure they would ship it to you. The shipping may be a little spendy but it will probably beat the price of gas. As stated above, one can make one also and could save a little jing too.

[Tom7227]

If it's as old as mine the poles are one piece and are 3 feet by 8 feet. Tough to ship that at a reasonable price. Beside, after three calls to Otter I was never really told that they had the round stock to make one. It was pretty iffy on the phone. After about 3-4 calls the guy on the phone said that the 1/2 conduit was going to work just fine.

[DonBo]

I had the same problem. Otter said they could make it "when they had the time." Apparently they no longer carry the round stock. Any boat canvas shop can make you one no problem.

[marine_man]

It all kind of depends on how bad you bent it too...

I bent my last year to the point where opening it and closing it was a workout. I took my time and bent it back, using something small to bend it over and then comparing it to a flat surface. It took some time, but I got it fixed and it works like new again.

Good luck!

marine_man

[PerchPounder]

If you are going to fix it using conduit just about any electrician should be able to help you out in bending whatever you needed as long as its not over 10'. I fixed the bent poles in my old frabill before I sold it using 1/2 and 3/4" conduit and it worked as good as new.