Air bed temporary repair solution

[Paul_in_MN]

My air bed in our fairly new Eagle Ridge 34RLSA has acquired a number of holes where there are 2 sharp headed screws in the bed frame. The amount of patchs in the repair kit were no where enough to take care of the job, so the dealer advised to get a repair kit from Walmart. I did, and was terribly disappointed with cutting and fitting patches out of rubber for almost 2 hours (well it seemed that long), and then finding that some had fallen off by the time I got to my destination a few hours later, without the mattress even being aired up.

I was near a NAPA store and bought a roll of black Gorrilla Tape, thinking it has to be better than duck tape. BINGO!! It worked great. I now have about 12 holes patched with Gorrilla tape and every one holds tight, whether the mattress is inflated or deflated. The color and texture of the tape is quite similar to the black surface of the mattress sides and bottom. I have no idea of whether it will work on the fuzzy top, because I don't have any holes in the top yet. It was a big roll and cost $10, probably enough to do 200 repairs or more. I was really POed about that mattress losing air at 1:30 a.m. and me having to go outside and dig out the extra cot from the basement, and setting that up so I might be able to get 4 hours of sleep.

Yes, we are working on warantee issues re this air bed, but I don't have the new one yet, and I want to use the trailer. Maybe you can tell that I am no fan of the air bed. With my 30 year old trailer, I could open up the sofa and actually sleep on the foam mattress (which was also 30 years old). So much for "progress"!! Enough rant!!

Paul_in_MN

2010 Eagle Ridge 34RLSA
2002 F350 Crew Cab Powerstroke

 

[tmcran]

Hey,that Go Rilla tape is good stuff. Used it on a number of things.

 

[soundteck83]

That's a great idea! I had a couple of holes in my air bed on its first use. So, I scrounged around the tool box and found some small Velcro strips and thought it would make a good temporary fix. It has been a couple of months and the sticky Velcro strips are still holding tight after much use. I store it in a cabinet now to prevent anymore tears from folding in the couch. I didn't realize that I had a patch kit that came with the unit until later. But, think I'll get some gorilla tape for my back-up! <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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[michael_s]

Sounds like a great fix in a pinch. What I find informative is the fact that there is a repair kit. I have had my unit for just under a month and it has been in the shop for most of that time (that's another story) but I did not know that the mattress came with a repair kit. Where did you find it? Maybe when I get my unit back I can look where you found your repair kit.

 

[soundteck83]

I found my repair kit in the blue heartland zippered bag where all the manuals, paper work for everything that is installed on the coach are kept.

 

[Paul_in_MN]

Just a note to all who are interested. Flair Industries is being very responsive to the warantee issues, and I am very glad to see that. But the first failure of the mattress was the beginning of the 4th night of a 5 day outing over the Labor Day weekend. So we had to improvise....at that time I hadn't discovered the Gorrilla tape solution. The next failure happened the first night out of a 2 day weekend at 1:30 a.m. It was strange because I had been in the bed for about 2+ hours when it went down (or maybe that is when I awoke with a somewhat hurting body).

As we all know, the bed is comfortable when it has air, and some of us know what it is like when it does not have air. Thanks to Flair for their response, and hopefully we will be well rested, happy campers from now on.

Paul_in_MN

 

[celebritygreen]

We have had a couple of leaks our daughter found while sleeping on it when she visited us in Pharr, TX. We found our repair kit taped in the bottom of the drawer.

 

[mnkamper]

First time we used the airbed we found it had 8 holes in it! Dealer has the warranty replacement in which we now understand comes with a bag so that it can be taken off the frame and stored behind the couch when not being used. He also said that the replacement comes with a battery inside for blowing it up.
We'll see what it looks like when we get it!

 

[SilverRhino]

Replacement is Great

First time we used the airbed we found it had 8 holes in it! Dealer has the warranty replacement in which we now understand comes with a bag so that it can be taken off the frame and stored behind the couch when not being used. He also said that the replacement comes with a battery inside for blowing it up.
We'll see what it looks like when we get it!

Had ours replaced under warranty also......the updated model is much better! The portable inflation could be nice when using outside the coach.....the bag stores behind the couch nicely and I think the cover is more sturdy!

You will be pleased with it!!

Travel Safe!

 

[mnkamper]

The replacement is great news! Pulling it out the first time was pretty frustrating! We didn't find the patch kit mentioned in earlier posts but we'll look extra hard for it now!

 

[jbeletti]

Check the blue zippered bag the manuals came in. Maybe the patch kit is there.

 

[MD Buck]

Had issues with the air mattress on my Big Horn too and had the replacement with bag, etc. and that is truly a better situation. Have used it twice now and no holes. The first one I too ran out of patch material and ended up going to Wally World and picking up a generic air mattress to finish out the week since we were with friends using the couch. But, Tim from Flair was excellant with his customer service, but not so with calling in at first. Was told too bad since the holes weren't a warranty issue since they weren't on a seam or at the valve.

 

[mnkamper]

That's great about the replacement! When we found the holes the dealer asked us to send pictures and after that, they had no problem getting the replacement.
Just a few things to get right... otherwise we love our 3670!