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Shannon45's avatar
Shannon45
Explorer
Jul 27, 2016

Canvas Upgrade Question?

We have a 2005 Starcraft 18SB and the fold outs have the cords that hold the canvas to the doors, has anyone been able to or seen anyone attach the canvas to the door like on the new hybrid looks a little safer for the kids.
  • I suppose it could be done but it wouldn't be cheap. I'm thinking it would have to be custom made, and you'd have to fabricate the mounts that attach it to the bed wall.

    I will say this, it's not likely that those cords would come off. We had a pop-up that had a setup like that for 10 years and never had an issue.

    A friend of mine rented a pop-up when his kids were little (he has 8 kids!) and not having experience with setup he forgot to attach the bungee cords to the bottom of the bed. One of his daughters fell out of the bunk that night, I think she was 3 or 4 at the time. She wasn't hurt, just startled.

    But that's the point, so long as you double check that the cords are in place you will not have a problem.

    Just go camping, don't worry about it, and have fun!
  • Not really worried about it just thought if I could do it for cheap would be a nice upgrade.
  • the pre-attached canvas ends are engineered differently.

    you would have to order the newer style bunk doors and the newer style canvas ends.

    i'm on 5 different Hybrid forums and have never seen seen anyone that's done this type of mod.

    doubt if there's a way to do it on the cheap.
  • I had an 18SB for three years and my kids (now 7 and 4) leaned, slept, kicked, and everything else kids do, in the side bunk and it was never an issue. I was concerned they might fall out, but that was simply not the case. That system is more robust than it would appear.

    For me the bigger issue was keeping the little one from rolling off the bunk and on the camper floor. A standard child's bed rail from the box store worked for preventing that.