Anyone have experience with a Clam ice fishing shelter?

[Janet Planet]

Those super fancy Shift-Pod playa shelters look like a redo of a Clam ice fishing shelter.
Has anyone tried one of these on the playa?
http://clamoutdoors.com/store/clam/shel ... p-hub.html
they make a thermal one:
http://www.basspro.com/Clam-Jason-Mitch ... _THUMBNAIL
I am curious about how they do in wind and rain.

Advantages: easy set up, dark inside.
Of course you would have to make a floor out of billboard vinyl.

[Jovankat]

Some of the East Bay Burners crew did a comparison between the clam, a kodiak and a regular dome test the other day. Here's the link, the group public so you should be able to see it, if not let me know and I'll copy it all over. Click through all the pictures as there is a bunch of info in each of the captions that I missed the first time.

[Janet Planet]

Thank you Jovankat!

I totally get how to make a floor for it (I would use billboard vinyl rather than blue shreddie tarp).
But I'd like to hear suggestions for waterproofing it.

[Ratty]

Do you already own one?

[Janet Planet]

I don't. I'm thinking about getting one.
It would be great if it allowed me to sleep later in the morning. My current tent heats up and gets light inside before the sparkleponies have galloped home.

[candybomber]

Hi! I am interested to hear if anyone has put a floor in your clam shelter, and if so: how? Thanks!

[clementsbauer]

We used the Clam XL6000 this year. It worked great! Absolutely made our burn more comfortable. We put a tarp down as a floor, and added some rugs I salvaged from a job I was working on. We got a bunch of foam pads from Home depot and made one side of it a giant bed, poked a hole through the side of it for a swamp cooler. I'd wake up mid afternoon surrounded by 7-10 others who had snuck in for a cool nap.

Photos were taken during set up, so excuse the mess!



I would highly recommend building a swamp cooler if you choose to use this shelter. The insulation kept the heat in even with the tent in a monkey hut shade structure (obviously intended for colder climates). It also kept the heat in at night - which was great! (you win some, you lose some).

One last note on the size. The Clam XL6000 claims to have an 8'x14' footprint, but it's in fact a bit larger due to the bowing nature of the design (don't remember the exact measurement). Also - the walls bowing out make the space required even larger (despite the footprint being smaller). Our modified monkey hut had a 20'x30' footprint and the Clam shelter fit snug taking up about half of the shelter.