Polar Bird hub shelters…

crappie55369 wrote:

the one issue ive found with the polar bird so far is it doesn’t prevent your drunk cousin from falling down a hole. It happened about 10 minutes after I told him he was cut off and his reply was “no I am not”. LOL well I guess going B**** deep into an ice hole ended that discussion.

On a side note, when he fell he crabbed onto the side of the house and the poles and they held up quite well! strong materials. lol

LMAO, that is awesome! and a true testament to the durability of the poles. I saw video of guys trying to break the poles to win a free shelter. It was cool to watch the disbelief on their faces when they bent the poles to the point where the tips were touching. Drunk friend really know how to find the weak points in any product… …if they have one. Cheers to Polar Bird!

Terry Heese wrote:

What’s the procedure for drilling the holes with the floor? Looks like you
would have to scoop out all the shavings before re-installing the floor?

I lay the floor out, without the shelter erect, scribe an “X” in the center of each hole area, then i remove the floor from the ice, drill the holes, setup the shelter and install the floor. That way no sliding, folding, or anything. We basically use the floor as a template. we have tried all methods and found this to be the fastest, easiest, and least stinky. I’m sure their are better ways, but this works for us.

crappie55369 wrote:

for those of you that bring your dog fishing with you the floor is a really nice feature for them. my buddy brings a dog bed out for his dog in his clam hub and that thing is a 50 pound pile of wet mess by the end of a day fishing

My three dogs sometimes join me on the ice too, and the floor is a godsend! no more dogs in the lap and wet car. They just sit on their beds by the heater and let me know when they want to go “check tip ups”. My wife likes the floor too. Truly a versatile and durable shelter.

Yes, the comment so far are pretty close to right on with these houses. I got mine about 2 weeks ago and have used it maybe 4-5 times.

A few notes. These houses are the most structural pop up I have seen so far. Comparing it to a Clam pop up which I have, and some eskimo pop ups I have fished out of, PolarBird knocks them out of the park structurally. You can lay the house on its side or top (not sure why you would ha but I have) and the hubs don’t even pop in under the weight of the house.

I have also found that I don’t have to anchor it in high winds (up to 20mph) if you are sitting in it. However. if you are in and out it’s always a good idea to anchor.

For drilling holes (if using the floor) I just set the whole thing up and mark the holes by drilling about 1-2″ into the ice. Then you can slide the complete house over and drill the rest of the way.

They also claim you can drag the house (popped up with floor in it) with up to 100lbs of gear in there. Though I have not tried this yet.

The windows actually didn’t bug me, the are small and placed high up, but with the lower height of the houses (71-74″) the windows are eye level for me when I stand up.

The light through the fabric is great and so far I have found that the house, even sitting in water from the holes when packing up, doesn’t soak the water up like the clam and eskimo fabric does. I don’t know if I would call it water proof, but it seems to be that way so far.

The floors is also very tough, I have worn my ice spikes in it every time and I am yet to gouge a hole or even make a mark.

Last note on the bag, I do prefer a zipper more when the conditions are nice, however, that is not always so. The straps work well, but I usually have to strap them with bare hands. I think it would work better with bigger metal latches for grabbing with gloves on.

I know they are also the main sponsor at the up coming Brainerd Jaycees Ice tourney so if you haven’t seen them yet you can check them out there.

I am a little over 6′ tall and was wondering if I would easily be able to stand up in the house? I’m stuck between the Eskimo quickfish 3i for $199 or the Polar Bird 2T.

busse3775 wrote:

I am a little over 6′ tall and was wondering if I would easily be able to stand up in the house? I’m stuck between the Eskimo quickfish 3i for $199 or the Polar Bird 2T.

I have the 4T model. my friend is 6’3′ and he can stand up straight in the middle of the house no problem. not around the sides though, but all hubs angle in like that

Yes the 2T and the 3T are the same height, which I believe is 6′ in the middle, I can stand in mine and I am 5’11”, 6′ with boots. However, I can only stand straight up right in the middle.

busse3775 wrote:

I am a little over 6′ tall and was wondering if I would easily be able to stand up in the house? I’m stuck between the Eskimo quickfish 3i for $199 or the Polar Bird 2T.

You may have to hunch a little in the 2T and 3T, but the 4T shouldn’t be a problem. I am 6’1″ and i can stand up in the middle of the 4T. I own both the 3T and 4T and love them both. I think you would be happy with any of them honestly. They don’t make the shelters too tall because they were going for efficiency for insulation and reduced wind affect from what i understand. I know a lot of the other brands put lots of colors and “features” to lure us in, but i like that Polar Bird sticks to function over all else and doesn’t get caught up in the “look at me” marketing. Seems like they really did their research and cut out all the crap nobody needs or that would eventually fail.

I really like the propane hole idea

Saw these in person at the novi, Michigan fishing show. If you are going pop up I’d say this is the one. I have an Eskimo fatfish and an otter pro cabin, this falls somewhere in between. We use hubs with three guys and the flip for two guys. If it was available when I bought the Eskimo, I would have done it in a heartbeat.

jarrod holbrook wrote:

Saw these in person at the novi, Michigan fishing show. If you are going pop up I’d say this is the one. I have an Eskimo fatfish and an otter pro cabin, this falls somewhere in between. We use hubs with three guys and the flip for two guys. If it was available when I bought the Eskimo, I would have done it in a heartbeat.

I concur, definitely worth a look if your in the market for a hub.

If anyone wants to see a Polar Bird in action catching some back water crappies, here you go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2rbSOslOUM

Cool video, Evan.

Thanks AL!

Evan, dont you have another video pulling it across the ice with weight on it?

Andrew Byers wrote:

Evan, dont you have another video pulling it across the ice with weight on it?

Yes Andrew, here is the video you speak of!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnbRRf0Ijaw

Awesome! Thank you for sharing man.

I’d probably jump on buying one of these especially at the current price but not sure I care for the blue/yellow material. What’s up with the off yellow color? I’m sure several of the colors are patented by other companies but I think they’d sell a lot more if they were blue/gray or something other than yellow. Maybe it’s for light penetration. Just my opinion. I know functionally they are great. Another thought is maybe heavier webbing for anchors straps(like Clam) and quick clips on storage bag rather than D-rings? Just some thoughts.

sorry double post

the light yellow color is used to allow light in I imagine. works well. I too, felt it wasn’t the most attractive house id seen but im all for practicality

I was told the lighter fabric for solar passive heating and better visibility within the shelter. The colors are not too bad when you get used them and they are very sharp out on the ice. I like that they avoided the normal cookie cutter look and focus on practicality. These things are super warm and durable.

Just wanted to give this thread a bump, as I finally was able to get out and use a 4T this weekend. My wife and her friend and husband came out on Saturday with a high of around 0 and moderate winds. We setup the Polar Bird while the ladies were in the truck, and it is a piece of cake (like all popups). x2 on laying the floor out to mark the holes. The floor locks in so well with the Velcro that we didn’t even stake it down, and I never felt like it was close to coming loose. It is super warm, as we had the big buddy on pilot most of the time once it was warmed up. I was very impressed, and my wife was even more so, which is worth a lot! FWIW I fished in a similar size insulated Clam recently, and that was very nice too. However, the floor makes a huge difference, and also allows for not needing to stake it unless in super winds. Only complaint is the floor is very slippery when coming in with icy boots, but I will be experimenting with solutions for this.

how slippery is the floor for kids? like the idea of the floor but don’t want little farts falling in the hole.

Once your boots are not frozen and ice packed, it is not slippery at all. When you are coming in from being outside for a bit, it’s fairly slippery.

I wish someone local would start carrying polar bird so I could check them out in person.