Preparing a 1991 Scamp 16

[honda03842]

I completeted the wooden duct to be used to supply cool air to the air conditioner. This effectively seperates the hot exhaust from the cool intake air. With 2 muffin fans on the exhaust and 2 on the intake the air conditioner should have a more than adequate air supply.

Cool air enters on the right side of this picture and exhaust air exits in front of the sloping side.

And yes I painted the bottom of the trailer Rustoleum white.

[ken h]

Hi Norm, Had a look at your A/C install very nice ,I like the ductwork under the trailer . You should have no air flow problems with that setup. Your whole trailer is full of great ideas you did a nice job. Thanks for sharing.
Take care, Ken

[honda03842]

The duct definitely seperates the hot exhaust from the cool inlet. I did temporatily install two muffin fans in the duct. I've tested it with the fans off and on and it doesn't seem to make any difference in operating exhaust temperature. I assume this means that the inlet fans are not needed.

[honda03842]

We just added a shelf to the rear of our Honda CRV. The top of the shelf carries our outside chairs and a small table. Below the shelf is room for 5 plastic bins, a case of water and our compressor and bottle jack.

The plastic bins contain various items, one contains our rain jackets and a sweat shirt or the like, another cleaning supplies and lubricants, another picnic blankets.

As well the rear deck of the Honda is a sturdy card table. Below the table is storage for rarely accessed items like my pickle ball racquet, emergency tire inflation can, jump charger,....

The rear seat of the Honda is used for map and campground book storage. We just lie them on the seat but are seeking a more organized solution.

When we choose to carry our small generator, it will replace one of the bins.

[cpaharley2008]

How did the 12v blanket test work out?

I don't have a 12 volt blanket; we have a 110 AC blanket but the results also apply to the 12V one. We used between 20-30% of the battery over 8 hours. I plan to run a more exacting test tonight.

The test I ran did not have a covering blanket or comforter like we normally use so I expect even better numbers.

Without having to use an Inverter the 12V blanket or pad should be more efficient.

[honda03842]

About a month to go before we leave for 10-11 months and we're adding more places to store the little things. We like the small white plastic baskets from Walmarts, about $0.50.

The following pictures shows about half of them.

The first is located behind the under couch drawer; it holds our soldering iron and solder.

The second is located behind the bath towels and holds our soap dishes.

There are four located just inside the bathroom door, they hold our razors, clipers, ....

There are two located on the overhead cabinet at the foot of the bed/dinette, the top one contains pens and pencils and the bottom contains a small voltmeter.

There are two located above the head of the bed/dinette. They are used for night things like glasses, ewatches, phone and TV remote.

There is one located on the door below the sink for sponges and the like.

There are many others that are not pictured.

The silverware drawer contains 3 baskets. One is for knives. one for clips and one for batteries.

Under the stove side cabinet there are five larger baskets for food storage. Four are mounted on slides to create a pantry and one is in the soda storage area located under the fridge for more canned goods.

One is located in the bottom of the fridge where it holes five cans of cold soda.

Two are located in the hanging closet, one for salt, pepper and sugar and one for spices.

Three are located in the overhead cabinet above the sink. One holds three ceramic coffee cups to keep them from crashing around, one holds plastic glasses and one holds wine plastic glasses.

There is a large one on the bathroom floor near the toilet for the hair drier.

[honda03842]

We've had a problem with the seat cushions - they tend to move a little when ever you get up.

We resolved it by putting a length of rubberized shelf paper under each cushion. They no longer move.

[honda03842]

We added a Tire Pressure Monitoring System to our Honda and Trailer. We bought a 4 tire sensor TyreDog system for $159. It is capable of monitoring 4 tires for pressure and temperature. Since it can only monitor 4 tires, my plan is to mount 2 sensors on the trailer and 2 sensors on the tow vehicle.

I have installed the sensors and it seems to work fine.

The only issue is that warning levels for tire pressure (low pressure and high pressure) must be set the same for all tires instead of individually. This means my low pressure setting will have to be 38 pounds for all tires, just below the Honda's rear tire pressure. It's not too serious because I tend to watch gauges when driving.

I will say it took literally minutes to install.

I debated only slightly where the non-trailer sensors should go, front or rear Honda tires, and decided on the rears. Of course my real concern is the trailer tires.

Hopefully safer tires,

[honda03842]

As a test I mounted all four sensors on the Honda. My front tires were at 31 pounds and my rear tires are at 35 pounds, both lower than towing pressures (32 and 39).

When I installed the sensors I set the minimum warning pressure at 30 pounds. At the time the of installation the temperature was 79. This morning I took the car and turned on the Tyredog. It almost immediately gave me a low pressure tire warning. One of the front tires was down to 30 pounds probably because the outside tempearture was near 60, effectively lowering the pressure.

As well when I turned on the Tyredog this morning all tires read a temperature of 61-63, reasonable accuracy for the intended purpose.

[Carol H]

LOL Norm when I saw your post on the having installed the sensors I was thinking to myself that you may find as I have on my Subaru (which somes standard with them) that the first cold day of the year always results in my tire warning lights coming on. Usually happens once the trailer has been put away for the years so I put a bit more air in them and they are usually happy for the rest of the winter.

[honda03842]

I recently was asked if I had installed the 'eyeball light". I had but not included a picture. I installed it in the new little hanging closet/sweater chest located on the back of the bathroom over the front couch.

It is our only non-LED in the trailer.

As a point of information, we installed an LED in the outside light. Last night when I went out (in the rain) to lock the trailer I noticed that the outside light's LED was partially on. I can only imagine that the light's switch was wet and conducting enough electricity to light at least some of the LEDs. I'm sure this happens with a regular incandescent but not enough current flow to make an incandescent glow.

As a solution I'll put some 'goop' between the switches contacts.

[honda03842]

I thought some of you might be interested in the cost of making all the modifications. In total it cost about $1500.

Fortunately we owned many of the items in this list, like the Inverter, Converter and Air Conditioner but I included them in the cost. I'm sure I forgot something but it's certainly no more than 10% of the cost.

We only had one additional project on our list, an awning. I did buy all the members to make it and actually did try it but decided to save it for next year. It was about $50.

In a few of weeks we'll be on the road beginning our 11 month loop of the USA and parts of Canada.

Solar Panels – two 40 watt panels 424
Watt Meter 45
MPPT Controller 45
High Bond Tape 20
Hull Fitting 10
Lexel 5
Rivet Caps 12
Front Closet 30
5 Drawers 40
Over Dinette Cabinet 30
LED Bulbs (7) 28
Eyeball Light Fixture 20
Red Max Pro 3 30
Spray Paint - 10 cans 40
Rear Bumper Box 40
1200 Watt Inverter 60
Converter 120
Air Conditioner – 5000 BTU 120
Muffin Fans – 2 for AC, 1 for fridge 30
AC Outlets – 7 35
DC Outlets – 2 20
Breakers – 2 8
Water Input 15
Street Water 15
Cable Box 25
Front Jack 20
Bathroom Storage 30
Shelf Dividers – 2 12
Rock Shield Supports 5
Over Door Shelf and screening 20
Slide Out Pantry 20
Under Sink Shelves 5
Misc – screws caulking, plastic boxes 200

Total 1579

[honda03842]

I want to replace our water tank with a larger tank. To do this I need to remove the Internal AC cord storage and install a surface, twist lock AC input..

This is another solution that I made from Lowes pieces, though I expect I could have purchased a finished solution at West Marine.

It consists of a 115 VAC twist socket and a snap locking water tight cover. I have used this water tight cover on our Son's Casita for cable inputs.

Though I haven't done this yet, another forum member asked me what I was thinking of doing.

[cpaharley2008]

The only downside is your limit on amp use is now 15 amp and 1800 watts. With a/c on and a microwave your inside wiring is ok but your outside is overloaded. I always thought that all components of an electrical system should be equal and yours will not be.

[honda03842]

I should have been more careful. The plug is rated for 30 amps at 250VAC. It equals what was on the 30 amp cord that was there except it's a 3 prong twist lock.

When I return next year I'll be taking it off our second rig and installing it on the Scamp.

I will say we run our Scamp, as we did our motorhome, off a 20 amp circuit when home and have never blown a breaker. We do not use a microwave but do run the AC (5 amps), electric hot water and fridge on AC continuously.

[cpaharley2008]

As long as the wire is 30 amp then you should be fine, is it waterproof while opened?

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

As long as the wire is 30 amp then you should be fine, is it waterproof while opened?

It is a 30 amp cord. It's water tight except for the prongs and socket; their is no sealin O-ring. No water seems to get in around the cover though honestly I installed it two years ago and don't quite remember how I sealed it to the trailer(forgetful... only 1 more year to 70).

I assume the marine plugs are water tight. I will say it's more water tight than the one that comes on the Scamp. The cover does act like a little umbrella.

I'll let you know what I did when I take it apart.

[DavidSo]

I just read all 15 pages Some of the mods you have done are similar to mine, like the trable . I cut down the factory table but my plan was to build a nicer table top from scratch. I use a lot of those plastic trays and bins too

You have made wonderful use of the storage space! I've done some of those things too, but not to the same extent. It's pretty frustrating to see so much wasted space in these trailers where space is at such a premium.

I built a new larger kitchen drawer on full length slides. The one from Scamp was junk. It swelled up in those aluminum slides and the whole front came off in my hand when I tried to open it.

Lots of great ideas and clean work on your trailer!
David

[honda03842]

David,

I didn't extend my kitchen utensil drawer but I did get rid of those aluminum channels, they drove me crazy.

I have to believe that there's a market for a Scamp specifically designed for 1-2 people. I can't imagine why it doesn't exist.

[DavidSo]

Originally Posted by honda03842

David,

I have to believe that there's a market for a Scamp specifically designed for 1-2 people. I can't imagine why it doesn't exist.

I agree, so why don't they offer such a layout? It seems like the selling point is the number of people it will sleep. In the process, efficient storage, comfort and ergonomics go out the door. Even on my new custom I couldn't avoid all that waste. I had a pile of stuff in the dumpster out of my new trailer before I spent a night in it. Things like the top bunk in the front didn't work for me so out it all went. As you have so skillfully demonstrated, there is a ton of room in a 16' if you just find ways to use it efficiently. As I said in another thread, if I were to do this again I would order the trailer mostly gutted and just build from there. It's much easier than trying to work around all the built in limitations. Actually, If I could get a 13 with a heavy duty axle I could make that space work just fine. I will say that Scamp is more willing to do custom things than some, and their parts are very resonably priced.
David