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Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat
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bonzai272
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 1:39 pm    Post subject: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

I bought a 1972 Westfalia bus a little while ago and recently discovered an issue with the upper cot. It appears the canvas fabric is not wide enough, so it is preventing the cot from fully opening and laying flat/even.

You can see in the photos, this is fully open, that the cot is at an angle. Ive removed the fabric to confirm that the brackets will fully open, so nothing is blocking it. Its just the fabric being too narrow.

Not sure if previous owner got the wrong fabric or what. I see bus depot and other companies sell two different canvas', one for 68-72 and one for 73, but the only spec difference I can see is the length. They appear to both be 22" wide. The length is not my issue, it is the width.

Anyone have any thoughts to resolve, or where to buy the correct width canvas?

Thank you!


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

canvas shrinks and stretches. i bet if you got it wet it would open, however, that makes it prone to shrink when it dries if you then close it back up. maybe wet, open and leave it open to let canvas dry?
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bonzai272
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:55 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

I will give that a try and leave it open for a while to dry. Thanks for the advice!
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busdaddy
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 3:07 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

Yes, canvas shrinks, get it wet and roll around on it to stretch it out (sounds kinky Confused ), let it dry slowly afterwards, preferably with something heavy like sand bags in it.
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 4:16 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

It’s fine. Once someone sleeps in it for a night, it’s stretch right out.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:18 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

The problem is you cant even really sleep in it because its so tight that when you get into it it just folds up on you.

I got it wet but didnt seem to stretch much so I removed the canvas and soaked it in a bucket of water for a while. Then I reinstalled it and put a bunch if weight on it in the form of a bunch of jugs of water. Hopefully this will stretch it out enough. Going to leave it overnight I suppose.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2022 4:09 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

Google "how to stretch canvas pants", I saw something about baby shampoo, maybe a good thrashing in the washing machine with cold water (no dryer) might loosen it up a bit too.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2022 5:02 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

I have this one, it works great!

https://www.busdepot.com/231101
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2022 5:23 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

Yeah if this thing doesnt stretch overnight with it being wet and with weight on it, I will have to assume it was made too narrow or previous owner washed it improperly and it just shrunk too much. In which case I will order a new one from BD.
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volkybus
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2022 7:50 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

Those cots we were made for kids. So unless u are short they really don't work well. Bill
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2022 10:45 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

volkybus wrote:
Those cots we were made for kids. So unless u are short they really don't work well. Bill


You're thinking of a different cot.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:18 am    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

This upper cot can hold me just fine at 170lbs but my 5 year old will be sleeping on it so should be perfect for him.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2022 6:46 pm    Post subject: Re: Westfalia upper cot wont open all the way to lay flat Reply with quote

Soaked the canvas in water. Put 180lbs of weight in it and let it sit overnight and dry out. Didn’t hardly budge. Gonna chalk it up to wrong size or improper washing and order a new one. Thanks for the help all.
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