Reshaping inflatable air-beds

Greenheart

Greenheart

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I wrote a long preamble to my question, then realised nobody needs to know the background. I leave it below, in case someone doesn't understand the question.

I want to know if there's a way to re-shape PVC air-beds to fit the curve of the bow. Can I cut away a section of PVC mattress and use some magical adhesive to weld the remaining flaps together, ruggedly enough to support human weight?

Having been unable to sleep for more than 15 minutes aboard my last cabin-boat, due to the berths' dreadful shortness, narrowness, restricted height for knees, and thin cushions, my plan for my next boat is to completely ignore the sleeping zones drawn up by the designer, construct a (removable) centre-platform between the sofa berths, and put a double air-mattress (or a couple of singles) on the space presented.

Unfortunately I'm talking about a very small boat with a tiny cabin, so even though there'll be room for two 30-inch-wide air beds at the after end, the breadth of the cabin at the forward end may be far less.

My air mattresses were dazzling bargains bought on holiday from Aldi in summer 2021 as alternatives to our dreadful old steel-framed camp beds. At a penny under £5 each, I doubted the air mattresses would last the holiday, yet we have them still, and they still give splendid service. If I can buy another couple, cut them to size and glue the damage shut, there's a ghost of a chance of a good night's sleep on board.

Thanks for reading!
 
I too have a boat that I have looked at similar idea .....

FXpOydrl.jpg


The curvature can be clearly seen there.

My idea was to see if any way to 'fold' over the taper end and bind so that inflation was restricted. I thought about cutting and gluing - but many of these air mattresses are 'tubular air' pockets causing any area to glue to be of different shape / lengths to join.

If I was to cut ... I would not actually remove all the cut area ... I would slit the two sides apart - leaving large area that can then be overlapped and glued similarly to that of a dinghy. If the glue area is only a thinnish line - then I think it would fail quite quickly.
 
All excellent thoughts, thank you.

I haven't bought a boat yet. Who knows, I may end up with a gigantic centreline island double berth. Not very likely though.

The extraordinary cheapness of PVC air beds makes re-forming them worth a try. I'm sure they are welded during manufacture, but I can't guess whether the chemical or physical property that makes them weldable in the factory (retaining flexibility thereafter) is likely to be achievable at home.

Considering the world's liking for little boats with tapering V-berths, I was slightly surprised that none of the production-line outlets for airbeds has considered the market for people with boats, motorhomes and custom arrangements.

...it may be a very small, but in the absence of competitors, any manufacturer which catered for it would be assured of all sales. Complete with YachtBrand® mark-up. :rolleyes:

It has also occurred to me that with a lot of different lengths of 6" diameter air-tubes, I could align them longitudinally or athwartship, and glue them together to fill the irregular space fairly exactly. Pumping them up might be a brief nuisance, but far better than trying and failing to sleep on most small boats' standard berths, as designed.
 
Foam no good then? I have never once paid for foam despite re-doing countless campervan and boat berths. I just pick it up from dumped sofas, scrapped caravans etc and cut it to shape with an electric carving knife.
 
I've been assuming foam is not good. At least, not the foam I've sat and lain on in boats. Very likely it was old, possibly flatter and less good than new, and certainly inexplicably thinner than comfort required.

You make me wonder though...foam must have advanced from the medieval times when my last boat was built and fitted out.
 
I'd buy a standard small double (4ft wide 6 feet long) foam mattress with a zippable off cover of your choice, cut the foam to size and resew the cover. You'll then have a really good nights sleep. This is what I did with mine and it's been a revelation. Or as others suggest dinghy glue or maybe CT1/OB1 would hold the airbeds...
 
dancrane said:
I've been assuming foam is not good. At least, not the foam I've sat and lain on in boats. Very likely it was old, possibly flatter and less good than new, and certainly inexplicably thinner than comfort required.

You make me wonder though...foam must have advanced from the medieval times when my last boat was built and fitted out.
Click to expand...
Foam has advanced and a lot of foam beds have dual density layers. A good foam supplier would be able to advise.
 
dancrane said:
I've been assuming foam is not good. At least, not the foam I've sat and lain on in boats. Very likely it was old, possibly flatter and less good than new, and certainly inexplicably thinner than comfort required.

You make me wonder though...foam must have advanced from the medieval times when my last boat was built and fitted out.
Click to expand...
You can combine normal foam with a thin layer of memory foam
 
Why cut the airbed? Surely you could add glue and roll up the parts you want to taper without making any cuts. If a symmetrical v-berth do it upside down and you could just fold back the corners and glue down while in situ.
 
I thought about that too. On no evidence except my imagination, I concluded that using glue on parts of the outside of the PVC, to exclude a retained portion of the air-chamber within, would more likely cause weird deformities in the finished item under pressure. But at £5 per mattress, it'd be worth trying. (y)
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Aren't these things usually welded rather than glued? Wouldn't a large soldering iron with perhaps a cloth covering over the tip be a better bet than glue? Or maybe the tools for shrinking model aircraft covering would work (@Refueler will know what I mean )View attachment 153038
Click to expand...

The Film Iron you show there - I have that model ... would never reach high enough temp. Its designed to work with pre-coated film.

I think best would be to use Inflatable Dinghy adhesive ..... with good overlap of material to get a good joint area.
 
Air beds are cold. There are more modern ones that have a fluffy filling inside that does not allow the air inside to circulate. My wife has one, she cannot stand the cold and is happy with it. Has a built in pump mechanism too.
And no, not talking about self inflating mattresses.
 
I bought some high density memory foam for my bow berth in my 22 footer. I can't believe how much better it is than the old foam. It supports you as it's pretty firm, but isn't too hard for your hip bone. I now sleep there in preference to the side berth further back as I've got far more wiggle room when sleeping. It's a bit of a squeeze getting past the floor to ceiling retractable keel casing, but once in it's fine.
 
Yes, it was unfair of me to write off foam cushions and mattresses on the basis of examples from over 40 years ago.
 
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