“There are some small issues with these shelters. Nothing some small thought can't figure out. I am a perfectionist so I made a 2x6 wood base for the shelter. I made it within half an inch of 12' x 24'. I screwed all the legs down to exact measurements. That doesn't work. This thing needs a little bit of flex. Eventually I unscrewed all the feet, assembled the unit and then screwed everything back down within an inch of where they should have been. What I learned is that is this is a big unit. Welding and sewing is not perfect on something this size. Within an inch is good. Overall, if you give or take an inch, it is a good unit. If you want perfection, it will cost you a lot more. As multiple reviews have stated, they give you a lot of string for the door openers. I completed both door openers with only the string from one of the packages. Now I have to figure out what I can do with the other bunch LOL.”
Hi Mike,
Thank you for your thoughtful 4-star review! We appreciate your insights regarding the assembly process, and it's great to hear that you were able to find a workable solution. Understanding that a bit of flexibility is important with large units like this helps future customers too.
If you need further assistance or have more feedback to share, we’re all ears.
Warm regards,
The ShelterLogic Team.
“Good quality materials, could be better, but good nonetheless.
The design is good, probably the best part of the entire setup, there are plenty of anchor points to get the tightness - taut fabric - across the roof, sides and ends.
Unfortunately, tightening the corners caused the seams (actually the fold in the seam carrying the tightening straps) to tear, I'll add reinforcements to stop the tearing where it has progresed to, but, the angle simply forms a shearing that knifes open the fold in the fabric that carries the tightening strap and where it exits to be picked up by the cam-tightener. An angle that is so acute it knifes into the fabric and causes it to fail. A heavy reinforcement at that point where the strap first enters and meets the fabric would go a long way in strengthening that system used to gain tautness across the ends, and is also used again for the roof canopy and so is prone to the very same shearing of that critial point to maintain canopy tautness.
However, the biggest issue, by far, is the Directions. Clearly trying to save on translation costs, there are very few English language sentences, and while the pictograms are sometimes helpful, they are also often confusing. But, primarily, the lack of language means there are very few stated Warnings, and those that are provided are so very late in the defined process as to cause a lot of backtracking to correct what you had to assume at the time was necessary to move forward, but turns out to be an issue later in the process of setup.
I would recommend the Very First section of the directions to be the "Warnings" or Advisements section that lines out ALL of the 'gotcha's' that should be avoided, such as not permanently anchoring the legs before the VERY LAST step, especially not during the preliminary tightening of the ends and roof canopies where anchoring seems to be the goal, and which, that section coming late in the process (just preceding the lower rail installation) and reading/studying through the entire document, anchoring the legs is not noted anywhere, therefore this seems to be a natural point at which to carefuly measure and anchor the legs, but, of course as there is no Measurement to guide what the correct gap is between legs and end posts, you will be un fastening and readjusting those legs in order to have the spacer bars correctly set between the posts. And this is just one of the TIME CONSUMING problems of erecting these canopies.
Which leads to the next issue. There is NO reason for the amount of time it takes to put these up. It is all pretty straightforward. IF the directions were sufficient, and they are not. Which is why it takes SO LONG to put these up. If you were erecting several, I'm sure by the time you got to the third you'd be putting these up in the amount of time that sufficient directions would have allowed you to do so, the first time.
If anyone asks, I would tell them I would Not recommend a Shelter Logic product unless they were prepared to deal with sparse, at best, directions of assembly. But, aside from that, I would recommend the product as the materials are 'good', the design and engineering better, and worth the effort if the initial cost did not exceed other options available, which at times has been significantly above what I now know I would pay for what is provided.
Lastly, erecting more than one unit. I needed two and purchased this unit as well as another 'Custom" unit. Which leads to the next problem. While each box was packaged well, the problem came in sorting which box was needed for which unit. NO OUTSIDE markings allowed for this. The model numbers marked on the outside were NOT included in any documentation online, either the invoice, the product skus, the pdfs provided, etc.....
Which meant each box had to be opened to determine which unit the box belonged to, the 20 foot or barn-style 24 foot unit. As these were wrapped with straps that had to be cut, the contents were now free to flow in whatever direction of least resistance and became unwieldy in the extreme. Each box being too heavy to move by hand meant that each had to be unloaded and carted to the different locations, and, of course, meant carting the contents back and forth as it became clear that one box or two was not part of the 20 or 24 foot units. Of course, this also added to the exhaustion of actually getting these erected at all as God-only knows if the right parts went to the right location and what was going to simply get lost with all the movement that had to be suffered to get in a position to even get started. What a g***d**** waste of time and unnecessary damage to the product, poles and connectors.
Between the lack of care for the directions and other documentation on Shelter Logics part, in this regard, no wonder Shelter Logic has the reputaiton of a 'decent' product but marginally worth the time and effort. I now know why these sentiments have merit.
In the end I am satisfied with the results I was able to obtain, I would have been more impressed and therefore good with parting with the money I spent, if it turned out I was actually happy.
Short list,
1. Reinforce the corners where the tightening-tape exits the fabric and forms an acute angle.
2. Put some effort into sympathizing with the actual experience of putting these together and improve the documentation accordingly, which includes documentation OUTSIDE the packaging, of which boxes go with each specific unit. It is not a 'good look' for a company that relies on their reputation to be so far off the mark on documentation, especially when it is a Core aspect of the product's usabilty and performance and therefore Customer satisfaction.
3. Improve documentation with additional language, don't rely on pictograms so exclusively, add additional language (nowadays, translating English into any language is as common and easy as using a smartphone, you can even add a QR code for translations)
4. Inform of Warnings and potential problems first, and I would then also include those warnings again in the section they are most helpful.”
Hi KW,
Thank you for taking the time to provide such a detailed 4-star review! We’re glad to hear you found the materials and design of the ShelterCoat Custom Peak Shelter to be commendable. Your feedback on the anchor points and overall setup is valuable, and we'll definitely take your insights into consideration for future improvements.
We apologize for the difficulties you faced with the seams and setup instructions. It's important to us that our customers have a smooth experience, and your suggestions on enhancing the documentation and reinforcing critical stress points will help us do just that; we'll certainly work on making those improvements.
We truly appreciate your thorough input, and we’re glad that despite the challenges, the results have met your expectations. If you have any further suggestions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
Thank you once again, and happy sheltering!
Best,
The ShelterLogic Team
