Questions for Otter X-Over Owners

Does your fabric seem to have a lot more “saggyness” to it when setup vs other Otter ProXT model years? My ProXT Cabin seems to have a lot of loose fabric on the back wall and the front facing top slope than other model years of the ProXT series? Even the fabric on my sides isn’t very tight, this seems to go against every other Otter I’ve owned where the fabric is more tight than loose and requires months of use to eventually stretch out…I can fix this somewhat by using the wind poles…I’ve put together about 4 otters over the years, so I have the install process down pretty well, it just feels like something is off…

Finally the side frame poles that pivot for the side entry, are yours bowing in/out a bit vs being perfectly straight? Mine seem like they could kink if a decent amount of pressure was used pushing/pulling against them…All of my slide out frame joints are using the first clip hole…

I’ll take some pictures next time I have it setup

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Finally the side frame poles that pivot for the side entry, are yours bowing in/out a bit vs being perfectly straight? Mine seem like they could kink if a decent amount of pressure was used pushing/pulling against them…All of my slide out frame joints are using the first clip hole…

X2 noticed that also

I have a Resort but I also have a lot of extra fabric on the back wall. Honestly just thought I was over thinking it but I defiantly think something is wrong now.

/bump to hopefully get more input from owners

My cabin actually seems to tight around the sled and it pulls up my aprons. Hoping it stretches out but I have used it twice and no luck. I skipped screwing the fabric in, in hopes that it corrects itself but so far no luck. If anyone has any suggestions on getting that corrected that would be great.

As for saggyness, The side fabric where the doors are does seem slightly saggy, but nothing of concern for me.

Same here! Otter xover lodge. Much saggier than my old otter lodge and with bars down for side door entry the wind poles do not fit well at all, puts too much stress on the sewn in loops for canvas. I thought I did something goody but after looking at a few others, I am spot on in my installation, I just think it’s the nature of the new beast.

Same situation here. Brand new cabin xover this year. Followed the assembly instructions to a T and I have noticed the fabric is very saggy when I am fishing, regardless if I set it up to use the side doors or not. I have to set up the support bars even if there is zero wind which is something I never had to do in the past. If the support bars aren’t set up, the drooping in the front of the shack makes it so that you can’t have your heater anywhere near the walls. Very disappointed. I thought if anything, I’d have to wait for the fabric to stretch out as is the case on older Otters.

Has anyone reached out to Otter about this?

i’ll send them an email

Travis wrote:

the wind poles do not fit well at all, puts too much stress on the sewn in loops for canvas.

I thought Clam was the only one with this problem…My Yukon X wind poles cannot be used for this reason…

uninc4709 wrote:

My cabin actually seems to tight around the sled and it pulls up my aprons. Hoping it stretches out but I have used it twice and no luck. I skipped screwing the fabric in, in hopes that it corrects itself but so far no luck. If anyone has any suggestions on getting that corrected that would be great.

As for saggyness, The side fabric where the doors are does seem slightly saggy, but nothing of concern for me.

X@, my X-ver cabin almost seems too tight all around. As a result i only use the top two wind poles, and they are very difficult to get in. I feel like it’s going to rip one day, but hope not

I have a X over lodge. I feel my canvas is very tight. I really have to struggle to get the top to wind poles in. I feel I have to force them in..Also I have difficulty at times with the side door zippers opening and closing easily. It gets to the top round area of the corner and I have to fight with them to close.
The upper corners in the back are very tight to. I loosened all velcro as loose as possible. When I initially set it up I let it sit for a week to stretch, then opened and closed a few times, reset up before secureing fabric with screws. It was still tight but figured it would loosen more. Well Ive used it about 10 times and its still tight. I’ve take pics of corners and zippers in case something gives.

Otter has had some issues with the lodge owners in which the long top fixed wind pole is too long. Contact Otter and they will get you set up with a new wind pole. As for the frame bars having a lot of flex, there is a black plastic cap on the end of the smaller frame bar (the one that slides in and out). The caps will get stuck in the elbow of the frame bar, thus making it flex a lot. If you remove the smaller frame bar and there is no cap, it is stuck up in the elbow. You can poke a hanger through there to get it out and bend the end of the bar in with a punch and hammer, or contact Otter for some new caps. This issue will be fixed on next years shacks.

As for the tight fabric, I’d set it up and redo the trim lock. An inch makes a big difference. Especially if it’s loose in the back. Just take the slack out. The velcro does not always need to be wrapped tight. There is acces velcro there sonit can be used for adjustments. If the front is saggy, make sure the bottom velcro is wrapped tight as this will bring it down more. Also doesn’t hurt to pull the canvas to the bottom of the frame bar when set up.

As for the xt cabin owners with the loose canvas- What I have found out is that I can set it up perfect with everything nice and tight, but the crossover frame bar doesn’t reach the floor clips when I go to switch it over. Not without loosening the front wind pole, which makes the canvas saggy and really loose. Not a problem on the pro model, has to do with the bracket and the height of the pro sled. Otter is working on redoing the bottom frame bar clip to make it offset to the inside and then come up a ways so the frame bar will fit in the upper corners of the canvas. This will also make it so all the bars lay flat like the previous models. Which is a huge deal to the cabin owners because with the way clip sits folded up now, we can’t close our tonneau covers. Otter is aware of this and the new clip should be out for next years models they are hoping. So stay tuned and make sure to hit them up at the beginning of next season.

I contacted otter about my overhead poles. I got a email less then 12 hrs later saying they are sending a replacement that should fix the problem.

Thanks
otter