John & Anne Wiley

The “Bruce’s” cabin cover with soft lining, aka “wrap” we got with Tripp when we bought her fit perfectly but it was filthy and the stitching and straps were bad and it wasn’t water-resistant anymore. So we machine washed it on the gentlest cycle, took it to a local upholstery shop to have the stitching redone, then bought and applied some expensive waterproofing spray (303 Hi Tech Fabric Guard) and new straps. It was perfect for a month, then the waterproofing stopped beading water. A month later the stitching started coming apart. A few more months and the rear window outer fabric started to shred. It still fits perfectly and is great as a sun-shield keeping the cabin cool even on hot SoCal days, but it’s literally falling apart.

So we bought a new Kennon cover, and it looks fabulous! The workmanship is outstanding, the material is heavier and rated for long life in our sunny climate as is the stitching thread. The downside is the fit. It’s loose, and cut too large over the windshield especially. The rear window has slack at the top, and there are large folds in many places. This is probably because Tripp’s a relatively rare 172Q, so her windshield may be shaped differently than the more typical 1983 172P she’s based on. The good news is that the people at Kennon have paid the shipping to have us return their cover along with our old one, so they can adjust theirs and return both postage paid. We’re excited to have the new top quality cover back, and for it to fit snug like our old one!

Below are some pix of the new Kennon, both on Tripp and laid out on the living room floor with our old one laid out on top to show the differences in cut.

4197 Tripp Wrap - Still in Bag

We took some pix just after dark when we went out to pet Tripp and put on her new cover (wrap). We liked how small and light it is, the cool bag it comes with, and the exceptional quality of materials and workmanship.

After carefully adjusting everything, it was clear that the fit isn’t very good. We loved the high quality of the tail number oval on the door though. 🙂

4203 Tripp Wrap - side

The top of the rear window had some slack, and with a gentle tug this is how it looked.

4207 Tripp Wrap - Rear

The old wrap doesn’t do this. It’s very snug all the way around, has no folds and lays flat. We thought maybe being new it needed some time to stretch into place, so we left it on for two weeks but after re-checking all the straps it still looked the same if not a bit worse.

4327 Tripp Wrap - 2 weeks on

Part of the problem is how the cover fits the fronts of the wings at the top of the windshield. You might be able to see that by clicking on the image above to look at the largest version of the photo. There’s a quarter moon-shaped piece that’s too tight on the wing and keeps the inner seam from fitting tightly around the wing front. Instead the outer blue-edged seam fits tightly while the rest is loose. It’s keeping both the windshield and the side from fitting tightly like our old wrap does.

4459 Tripp Wraps - Windshield

When laid out with inside liners (old = smaller white, new = larger dark blue) up on our floor with the old wrap on top you can see how much extra material there is at the bottom of the windshield (top of this photo). That makes the front edge of the new wrap touch the hand holds on the cowl, as noted in photo #4203 above.

The rear window

4457 Tripp Wrap - Rear

If you click on the above image to see the large version, you might notice that the seam angle is different at the top-right. This is probably why the fit is looser at the top on the new wrap. The area that covers the rear window is horizontal across the top. The sides extend down below the windows as you can see on the left, but that and the fact the velcro closure being different (blue showing at bottom-left) probably don’t affect the fit. The only other difference we noticed is that the new wrap’s top corner seams are slightly closer together – on the order of 1/4-1/2″ and that might make it more prone to fit loosely. When the old cover’s in place, the corners fit tightly against the wings in front and back.

We love this new cover, and the fact that Kennon’s going above and beyond to fix the fit at their expense. I’ll post a followup here once we get it back.