Popup Camper Canvas issue

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synctek

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2018
Posts
10
Hello all!

I bought a 1985 Viking pop-up for $500.  It's fixer-upper but after some time energy and $$ it's starting to come together.

The issue:  When the camper is up all the way, the bottom portion of the canvas is supposed to snap to the frame in several spots on the front and back.  Because of the height, the canvas snaps do not reach and are about 2 inches to high.  If I lower the camper enough to get the snaps to work, the front door will not seat properly and is unusable.  If the canvas doesn't snap, the wind gets in and all the hot air gets out.  Does anyone know of a way to adjust the canvas?

The alternative is to take the door off and replace it with the rubber flap style door so I can get the snaps to work.  I would rather have the door though.

Ideas?
 
Sounds like the canvas has shrunk over time. The choices here seem to be, add a strip of canvas all around, new canvas or simply add a new row of snaps to the trailer, where possible, to allow the canvas to snap down.

I had this happen to me while traveling after putting the trailer down while wet (no choice at that point) and the canvas shrunk. Mine was an all canvas tent (no hard top and I had to lower the supporting brackets to be able to re-snap the canvas to the sides.
 
You can try stretching the canvas over time by hanging weights to it or snapping the canvas down and raising the top till slightly tight and continuing that process, again over time until the top is all the way up.
 
Oldgator73 said:
You can try stretching the canvas over time by hanging weights to it or snapping the canvas down and raising the top till slightly tight and continuing that process, again over time until the top is all the way up.

That's what I would do, and I would wet down the fabric continually during the process.
 
Viking is a Coachmen product, so maybe replacement canvas is available. We replaced the canvas on an early 90s Coleman. It was $600 at the time for all new canvas.

Probably a long shot at this point, but might be worth a phone call.
 
Replacement is kind of a last resort, & rather expensive, but if you get down to that option, Bear Creek Canvas & Canvas Replacements both do quality replacement canvas, but it's not cheap, somewhere in the 1000 dollar range for a complete replacement...they both offer replacement panels as well as complete canvas.
 
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