Need help with deciding on the clam bigfoot xl4000t

I’m thinking of getting a clam bigfoot xl4000t, but a lot of reviews say the zippers break pretty easy and the poles and stitching are a bit sketchy.
Is there something comparable out there that’s better? or is Clam the way to go?

I did a search an IDO on this topic but didn’t find anything, but I might not have been looking in the right spot.

Here is my little review on the XL4000T…

I ordered the XL4000T in December, and received it around Christmas time. Set it up in the yard the day that I got it, which happened to be around 0 (or 32…I’m Canadian, so excuse the Celsius temps). Setup nice and easy, really spacious. Loved it.

First day I went out fishing with it, it was super cold…like -34 (-31 fahrenheit..) without the windchill. Took it out, tried setting it up and the roof wouldn’t stay up….kept collapsing. It was too cold to brave the elements and fish outdoors that day, so I went home feeling defeated.

I called Clam and told them my problem, and it seems its very common. One (or more) of the poles is too long, and has to be removed and trimmed. The same can be done to supposedly fix the tight zipper problem. However, the response I received from Clam was somewhat troubling, in the sense that I was essentially told that if their products were actually all built to proper spec, they’d have to be more expensive. Needless to say, I thought that was a pretty weak excuse.

Now, that being said, after getting the pole trimmed, the XL4000T is quite lovely. We had four adults fishing in it comfortable last weekend, and just today, I had my four young nieces, and four adults in it supervising, and we all managed to fit (although it was tight). It sets up easy, stitching looks really good, seems quite durable, and is substantially warmer than my old non-thermal hub shelter. I looked at the Eskimo Fatfish 949i as well, as they’re really popular up here, but in my opinion, once the pole issue was taken care of the XL4000T seems superior to the Eskimo (in my opinion).

the old ones did and do which i have. my friend bought the new one and it has been fixed. the problem was the zipper tab was plastic and broke in bad colds its now a fabric holds up i has to redo all mine now its all good.

i fished outta my buddies for the first time this weekend. now i will say i am not a huge fan of pop ups so my opinion is a little biased. i thought it was OK. the thermal material was nice enough. he did mention that the zippers are crap. Personally i am not a fan of the clam company so i dont think i would consider one but if you can get one on sale it will probably suit your needs at a reasonable price

Because of the tension exerted by the poles on the fabric and transferring that to the zippers, it’s kind of the nature of the beast that zippers are more stressed. On my clam thermal summit I use a product designed for lubricating zippers and also spray silicone on the entire length of the zipper. No zipper failures in 4 years and minimal icing and they work slick.