Scamp 5er Bed Question

[Pamela S.]

I've never been inside a Scamp 5er and I've got a question for anyone who has one: If you have the side bath version, and you put up the top bunk in the front, is it possible to turn the mattress around and sleep north-south with your feet on the top bunk? (Obviously, a complete bed and cabinet remodel like PeterH did would be better, and my dog would love the kennel space, but I'm not quite that handy!) How much of a difference is there in the levels of the two sleeping areas? My better half is 6'3" and I'm wondering how we're going to fit him in when we eventually get an egg. That's one reason I'm considering a 5er; also, don't the Scamps tend to have more headroom in general than some of the other models? (We currently have a small truck camper but we're egg wannabes.) I've been reading as much as I can on the forums here.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Frederick L. Simson]

If the gaucho's top bunk has an 80 pound weight limitation, how do adults climb over it to get into their bed in the loft?

The Scamp 5ers have more headroom due to the gradual transition of the roof to the (higher-than-the-rest-of-the-trailer) loft.

The Escape 5.0 is designed with a "North-South" loft bed.

[Pamela S.]

The Escape is way out of our price range, however. I've looked at their website and the camper is definitely sweet. But whatever we get will be used and inexpensive or we won't be able to get it!

If the gaucho's top bunk has an 80 pound weight limitation, how do adults climb over it to get into their bed in the loft?

The Scamp 5ers have more headroom due to the gradual transition of the roof to the (higher-than-the-rest-of-the-trailer) loft.

The Escape 5.0 is designed with a "North-South" loft bed.

[Coach George Jessup]

...(Obviously, a complete bed and cabinet remodel like PeterH did would be better...

Any links to his modifications? Only read some mention of his mods recently but seen no pictures and have not came across a more detailed thread on them. "yet" Sorry in advance; If I could come up with a logical term to search by on this one I would do this and not ask.

thanx in advance.

[Pamela S.]

His mods are documented in the mods section of the forum and are from quite a while ago. I was several pages into the back topics when I came across them; just skimming through topics looking for interesting stuff. I didn't really do a specific search. They're worth looking for because he did this spectacular rebuild of a fiver: changed the orientation of the bed, built in drawers next to or under the steps, and even had a dog kennel built in. Pretty impressive. I've always considered myself to be pretty good with tools and computers and such, but that remod is WAY out of my league. He could go into business doing them for people.

Any links to his modifications? Only read some mention of his mods recently but seen no pictures and have not came across a more detailed thread on them. "yet" Sorry in advance; If I could come up with a logical term to search by on this one I would do this and not ask.

thanx in advance.

[Coach George Jessup]

His mods are documented in the mods section of the forum and are from quite a while ago. ...

Thank you!!!! That gave me little more info to search by. I gave up using the weak search tools of this board (like many bulletin boards) and went to google advanced search and WHALA.... found it.

http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/in...howtopic=23082

[peterh]

I've never been inside a Scamp 5er and I've got a question for anyone who has one: If you have the side bath version, and you put up the top bunk in the front, is it possible to turn the mattress around and sleep north-south with your feet on the top bunk?

Sort of. The loft mattress itself is tailored to fit the side-to-side dimensions and forward curves of the loft, so you can't turn it. That's the bad news; the good news is that the loft platform that the mattress sits on is about the same height as the upper gaucho bed bunk when you fold it up, so you could buy a chunk of foam to fit that space when you're using the loft and make a huge 6x8 foot loft sleeping area. If you did this you could even store the foam bolster in the loft when you're not using it, freeing up the gaucho for use as a sofa during the day.

--Peter

[Pamela S.]

PeterH! My inspiration!! Thanks so much for the reply. That means that the 5er really would work for us. I've got myself, and I'm not really a small person, and my husband, who is pretty tall, and one small dog, who likes her own space, which she perceives to be whatever bed we all happen to be in. (She graciously shares the bed with the humans in her pack.) OK, so if the weight limit for that upper bunk really IS 80 lbs. like someone said earlier in this thread, is it really wobbly climbing over it to get into the main loft? And would it be possible to completely replace the mattress with a more standard sized one, run it north-south with a chunk of foam under the end hanging over the bunk and leave just a little bit of space on each side of it? (For glasses, shoes, etc.)

[Donna D.]

I can't even begin to imagine how awful it would be to climb over the gaucho when it's in the bunk bed position. Sounds like a neck breaker to me! Can you perceive if you had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night!?

If you can't create a permanent platform with stairs, or afford the Escape... I'd be shopping for a Casita that converts to a kingsize bed if a huge bed is necessary.

[peterh]

Donna does have a point there. It will be difficult to get up into the loft with the upper bunk set up. You'd probably need a ladder, and that might become problematic if you knock it over or aren't quite awake when you use it.

Its a limitation that you can probably find a way to work around, but "work around" solutions don't always mean easy to live with.

--Peter

[Gina D.]

Peter says he will be designing dogs rooms for all our rigs, starting with mine.

[peterh]

Peter says he will be designing dogs rooms for all our rigs, starting with mine.

[Pamela S.]

Donna D., Don't you have essentially the same problem of scrambling over the gaucho if you use the loft bed in the Scamp 5er anyway? It seems to me you'd be scrambling over a significant other because the bed is sideways, and then scrambling over the lower part of the gaucho regardless. It's not so much that we need a huge bed as we want one that you don't have to climb over each other at night. I'm definitely interested in the Liberty model of the Casita, too. My husband is really interested in the Scamp 5er, so I'm trying to learn as much as I can while we're saving up to buy something. Thank you all for the responses. This forum is a treasure trove of information.

[Donna D.]

Sorry, don't have a Scamp 5er. But what I meant was when the gaucho is in the bunk bed mode... the back of the gaucho is flipped up. You'd need to do that to have the mattress run the other direction. Now you don't have any "stairs." Seems extremely shaky to me, to crawl over that area to get out.. expecially if you needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Then you'd probably need a ladder to get back into the loft. Folks step on the gaucho when it's the couch position to crawl up into the loft, not the bunkbed position.