Scamp Taillights

[Brian Bran]

Does anybody know where I can get a set of the round taillights for my 1976 Scamp?

[Donna D.]

Are you looking for everything, or just the lenses? Do yourself a favor and trash those wedding cake lenses and install 7" LEDs. http://www.fiberglasstraveltrailersr...-LIGHTS_c3.htm

[Frederick L. Simson]

Originally Posted by Brian Bran

... round taillights for my 1976 Scamp?

They don't make the originals anymore. There are reproductions available on eBay, but they're $expensive$ for just some plastic. I would consider Donna's suggestion for less stressful searching.

[Deb & Chuck]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Are you looking for everything, or just the lenses? Do yourself a favor and trash those wedding cake lenses and install 7" LEDs. 7

Thanks Donna they will be happier with the 7" round LED tail lights, they sure worked good on the Scamp we owned.
Chuck

[Kevin K]

Brian Bran
Go with 7" round LED taillights. That's I did.
TRAILER 7" ROUND LED TRANSIT LIGHT RED STOP/TURN/TAIL 31 DIODES | eBay

[Carol H]

I third changing them to the LED - I got mine through Chuck and they look pretty close to the original but they are way safer!!!

I had a number of incidents over the years towing with the original lights where people would honk at me or give me the finger or worse follow me into a parking lot and tell me my brake tail lights where not working or that I did not use my signal when turning - the lights were in fact working & I had signaled but if the sun was shining on the old lights at a certain angle they could not be seen! Worried how dim they must look on a bad rainy night on the freeway. Very happy I changed them - no more honks or fingers.....

[Kevin K]

What they look like on trailer.

[Harvey]

Add my vote/recommendation to the LED lights. You can beat the eBay price considerably tho. I bought 2 of them from etrailer (think with shipping they were around $35 each, see 'em here Transit LED Stop/Side Marker/Tail Light - 31 Diode, 24 Volts - 7" Round - Red Optronics Trailer Lights STL90R24B - My '84 Scamp 13 had small 'commercial' tail/stop/signal lights welded to the rear bumper. I ground 'em off & installed the 31 diode, 7" LED lights from etrailer. Man! you can see them things a long way...

Lotta difference here

[Brian Bran]

Thanks for all the advice.Looks like I will be going with LED's.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by Brian Bran

Thanks for all the advice.Looks like I will be going with LED's.

good decision!

[Deb & Chuck]

I sell the 7" Round Led lights for $23.99 on my website Fiberglass Travel Trailers RV
Chuck

[Carol H]

I can confirm Chuck's work well!!

[Jeff Richardson]

I put the Optronics STL90RB 7-inch LED stop/turn/tail lights on my 1977 13-foot Scamp because the original square tail lights were not very bright.

I really think the round lights go better with the rounded shape of the Scamp than square lights.

I bough mine from etrailer last year. I put them on on the day I went to my first fiberglass gathering at Taidnapam Park in June.

I would buy them from Chuck. He has a very good price. I met him and Deb for the first time at that gathering.

There is a 24 volt version of the Optronic LED 7-inch tail lights so make sure you get the 12 volt ones.

Here are some pictures of what they look like in the running and stop mode. I was so excited to have new, bright tail lights I couldn't help taking some pictures as soon as I backed into my site. The first two are running and the third is stop/turn/emergency flasher.

And yes, I did get a correct spare tire cover. I temporarily put a tire cover over the spare that is supposed to cover the tires on the ground. Those are easy to get locally. It is hard to find a 24-inch spare tire cover even in the large-population Seattle-Tacoma area. I had to special order it from the local rv dealer.

[Jeff Richardson]

When I first bought my Scamp in eastern Washington the weekend before Thanksgiving in November of 2010 I couldn't get the left tail light or marker lights to work. The wiring on the flat four connector was pretty messed up and it seemed like I had a bad ground somewhere in the trailer. Plus, trying to fix a trailer in freezing weather was not my idea of a good time!

I had to drive about 225 miles west on Interstate 90 to get home so I really needed to have good tail lights. I bought a set of temporary tow lights and ran the wires through the trailer. I pulled the screen out of the rear jalousie window and the front window screen was torn at the bottom so I ran the wires through that.

The weather was supposed to be good when I left home but that changed once I picked up my trailer and started home the next day.

The first picture shows where I stopped at the top of Snoqualmie Pass near the Alpental ski area to do a safety check. I wanted to make sure everything was ok on the Scamp before heading down the pass to home.

This was the first time I had ever towed a travel trailer! Good thing I had four-wheel drive! I wouldn't be without one.

Fortunately everyone was going about 25 mph on I-90 when the snow was the worst so it was a pretty good drive.

The second picture shows the front of the Scamp when I got down near Seattle at Issaquah. After a trip like this I knew I could probably tow this little egg just about anywhere!

I found out why I couldn't get the left rear tail light to work when I was getting ready for my first camp out on Memorial Day weekend.

The third picture shows the factory's idea of connecting the ground wire to the aluminum tail light reflector in 1977. Near the top center of the picture you can see a washer on a rivet with a wire underneath.

In the fourth picture you can see the rivet going through the ground wire. They had split the wire with a knife and ran the rivet that held the aluminum light reflector to the body through it. Thirty-three years later there was no ground to this light.

You can see by all the mold and mildew there was a lot of condensation in this trailer over the years and there probably was some corrosion at that rivet where it touched the wire. There was no electricity passing through it. I did get a good ground to that light when I ran new wires to all the lights.

The mold and mildew went completely away with one application of Tilex. It looks a lot better now!

I used the original tail lights on only that one trip to the Columbia Gorge on Memorial Day weekend 2011. I was afraid what happened to Carol would happen to me. After seeing the original lights in the daylight and rainy conditions there was no way I would use them again.

I'm very happy with the 7-inch LED tail lights I have now.

Jeff

[StephenNCSU]

Just bought a set from you, Chuck!

[StephenNCSU]

Very pleased at the way these came out. Thanks again for all the helpful comments!

[KarenP]

Originally Posted by Kevin K

What they look like on trailer.

(pics deleted)

Kevin, they look great. I want to ask you about your license plate light though. Did you re-use the plate bracket you started with, or did you find a new one that has a mounting place for a light? What light did you use?

Thanks for the pointers,
-Karen

[Carol H]

Karen, I am not Kevin and I am sure he will tell you what he did but I struggled with the license plate light issue a little as I had seen people here buying a new light and modifying the original plate holder to get them to fit. I was at a vintage rally and the folks there who helped me with changing the taillight to LED told me to get some small LED lights that screw into the plate holder - the light is only on the bottom part of the screw. That way I could keep using the original plate holder without modifying it. The work great and were simple to install - picked them up at an ATV/motorcycle shop but pretty sure you will find them online as well.

[Thee Jimbo]

[QUOTE=Kevin K;293025]What they look like on trailer.
Attachment 43776

Hi Kevin

I would love to see more detailed photos of how you mounted the license plate and light, its hard to tell. My square 6" lights are shot and I really like the round, so I am going to buy a pair. However it looks like you have solved my concern about license plate light, so if you could en"lighten" me as to how you did it, it would be greatly appreciated.

thanks. . jimbo

[Thee Jimbo]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Karen, I am not Kevin and I am sure he will tell you what he did but I struggled with the license plate light issue a little as I had seen people here buying a new light and modifying the original plate holder to get them to fit. I was at a vintage rally and the folks there who helped me with changing the taillight to LED told me to get some small LED lights that screw into the plate holder - the light is only on the bottom part of the screw. That way I could keep using the original plate holder without modifying it. The work great and were simple to install - picked them up at an ATV/motorcycle shop but pretty sure you will find them online as well.

Thanks for that tip, I too, as you can see, had the same question.