Preparing a 1991 Scamp 16

[honda03842]

A number of people have asked me about the underneath the floor storage of our Scamp. We have 5 boxes stored under the trailer. Two of the boxes are four gallon boxes. These two boxes are mounted on drawer slides.

The first picture shows a box mounted to the bottom looking from beside the trailer. The second pictures shows the boxes attached to the floor., The third pictures shows a box down and the fourth picture is a shot of the drawer slide.

There are two drawer slides per box the rear of the drawer slide is connected to an L Bracket by a single bolt and but. The bolt goes thru one side of the L bracket, The other side of the L bracket is screwed to the floor with wood screws.

The front edge of the box is released and the slides drop down and forward providing access to the top cover of the box.

Wendy,

Just as these boxes pivot from one end you could do the same with a door hinge on one end of a PVC Pipe.

If anyone wants to build one of these I can provide more detailed pictures.

[frankcfx]

Norm, I didn't see anything about your rear outside storage box. Was it on another post?
Frank

[A Storgard]

I would love to put drawers under the seats in my '75 boler, but am afraid it would compromise the structural integrity of the fibreglass holding up the couch or bench seats. How did you re-inforce it?

[Johnny M]

Originally Posted by honda03842

A number of people have asked me about the underneath the floor storage of our Scamp. We have 5 boxes stored under the trailer. Two of the boxes are four gallon boxes. These two boxes are mounted on drawer slides.

Are these under the dinette area floor? I am considering building a storage compartment underneath the dinette floor between the frame that will be accessable by a vertical drop down door from inside at the step up to the dinette. If the bottom of the compartment is constructed out of plywood and mounted flush to the bottom of the frame it would still be above the bottom of the body line so I see no road clearance problems. And add some LED strip lighting on the inside for visibility...that is about 3" of storage height with a lot of room between the frame possibly for larger bulky items like blankets, tarps, pillows, etc.

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Johnny M

Are these under the dinette area floor? I am considering building a storage compartment underneath the dinette floor between the frame that will be accessable by a vertical drop down door from inside at the step up to the dinette. If the bottom of the compartment is constructed out of plywood and mounted flush to the bottom of the frame it would still be above the bottom of the body line so I see no road clearance problems. And add some LED strip lighting on the inside for visibility...that is about 3" of storage height with a lot of room between the frame possibly for larger bulky items like blankets, tarps, pillows, etc.

As follow up, sorry to be late,

Frank pictures of the storage containers are shown some where but happy to provide additional pictures.

Anita, I did not reinforce the dinette or front couch when I added drawers. So far no ill effects though reinforcement on the inside would be easy.

Johnny,

I have two big plastic bins in that area attached to the bottom of the floor. In my case they extend below the frame a few inches and in years of travel there's never been a problem hitting the road.

Your idea would work and I believe there are a couple of people who've done it.

[honda03842]

I've had two 40 watt flexible solar panels attached to the roof of our Scamp 16 for a number of years with VBH tape. Recently they both failed. I chased it back to the panels themselves. I decided to remove the panels and trouble shot the problem.

To do this I removed one of the 40 watt panels. I used the primary cutting blade of my Leatherman by slipping it between the roof and solar panel, repeatedly doing this until I loosened one side, doing the same to all four sides. I then was able to lift the panel with no damage to the back of the panel or roof of the Scamp. There was plenty of VHB (Very High Bondstrength) tape residue on both surfaces. I was able to rub off the residue using my thumb with little trouble.

I will say the tape held very well and did not dry out.

I am very impressed how well the tape I used worked. It was rather ordinary and inexpensive Scotch brand exterior tape.

I did resolve the problem. There is an encapsulated blocking diode on the panel. It appears the diode failed. I should be able to replace it easily. A project for tomorrow.

[cpaharley2008]

Good detective work there, Norm.

[honda03842]

I've removed both solar panels from the roof of our Scamp and both panels are dead. I have no idea what damaged them but they both seemed to fail at the same time. There is no apparent visual damage to the two 40 watt panels.

I may replace them with another 100 watt flexible panel next month.

[honda03842]

I decided to replace our two 40 watt solar panels with a 100 watt panel. The new panel is a flexible panel and once again I'll use Scotch double-sided exterior tape.
Panel dimensions are about 41"x 22".

The new panel was $188 about 40% of the earlier 80 watts I had previously.

The new cells are more efficient and unlike the old cells there are no silver connection stripes across the face of the deep blue cells, all electrical connections are on the reverse side of the cell. No face connections mean more collecting area in the same space.

Though the previous solar panels were really stuck to the roof, it is apparent I could have done a better job in pressing the edges of the solar panel to the roof in the tape areas.

[honda03842]

I'm going to do a roof top solar panel installation on our Scamp 16 to replace the two 40 watt Solar panels that failed.

The new 100 watt, flexible panel just arrived and I tested it on the picnic table without removing it's clear plastic film. It produced 20.7 volts open circuit and 5.45 amps with a meter 'short circuit'.

Over the next couple days I'll post pictures of the panel, materials to mount it and the process used.

[honda03842]

Solar Panel.
Our Solar panel was ordered on EBay AFP-Power. It cost $188 with free shipping arriving by FedEx in about 4 days. It arrives well packaged. It comes with two leads that use waterproof MC4 connectors. The leads are about 2 feet long and extra connectors will be required to make connection to the panels. They are available from Amazon. 5 pairs of connectors cost $8 from Amazon.

The panels weighs about two pounds and is less than a ¼ inch thick. It is 41 inches long and 22 inches wide.

I choose a flexible panel because I want to tape it to the roof.

Notice that the panel has no lines in the connecting areas like most solar cells, providing an increase in light collecting ability for the same area.

Scotch Exterior Tape.
I used this tape before and it proved capable of easily holding my panels to the roof of the Scamp over 3-4 years. I bought a 450” x 1” roll for about $15 on Amazon. I plan to put a strip on all four edges, requiring about 120 inches.

Questions are welcome.

[honda03842]

Current Update
It is noon, a cloudless, clear day and I removed the protective film. The max current is 5.75 amps. If it’s clear tomorrow I’ll take a current measurement every hour to see how the current varies as the Sun changes its position.

I'll be taping my panel down but the panel does come with 6 grommet reinforced holes to allow different mounting methods.

[honda03842]

I thought it might be interesting to see how current varies through the day. There are 15 hours of Sunlight in NH, sunrise is at 5:00 and sunset at 6:30.

The trailer is parked in an unshaded area except for early morning. In the morning the panel is normally covered with sea mist. An average of 3 amps/hour would allow storage of 45 amp hours around a ½ kilo-watt per day.

I took current readings beginning at noon. It did get cloudy in the late afternoon. Over 7 hours I averaged 3 amp-hours. My earlier guess appears in the ball park, 45 amp-hours or 540 watt hours over a summer 15 hour day with a 100 watt panel. This is plenty to run our Scamp with it's LED lights and misc 12 volt devices.

12:00 5.75
2:00 5.75
3:00 4.80
5.00 3.7
6:00 1.1 cloudy
7:00 0.2 very cloudy

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by honda03842

I thought it might be interesting to see how current varies through the day. ...

Darn tooting its interesting! I never thought that Solar would be something I would want to do with my trailer, but the technology has come so far and prices dropped so much... Solar is rapidly moving up my list of projects.

[honda03842]

It's a miserable day but I thought some might be interested in the Solar panel's output in bad weather.

It's very cloudy and has been raining since dawn, about the only worst situation would be snow. The solar panel has 1/4" deep puddles of water on it because I put the protective film back on but not too smoothly.

The current output by the panel in near overhead Sun conditions is 1.3 amps, about a 1/4 of the current produced with no clouds.

[honda03842]

When we bought our trailer the large vent cover was painted white by a previous owner. I gave it a coat of Rustoleum gloss white today. I assume the previous owner painted it because the Sun's UV eventually kills plastic and the paint provides a level of protection. We've had two friends who've both had all their roof vents fail in the Florida Sun.

I really wanted to paint the vent before I essentially permanently taped the solar panel down.

The white caps on the Scamp fail for the same reason, the Sun's UV. Prepainting the caps would definitely extend the life of the caps and protect the cap locking device.

One of our FL friends added a Max Vent to one of his vents, I just find them ugly though they do the job on more than one level.

I also painted the ABS storage containers bought from Charlie because they were yellowing even though located in the Scamp's kitchen and bathroom, one holds spices. the other meds.

[Timber Wolf]

Originally Posted by honda03842

I gave it a coat of Rustoleum gloss white today. I assume the previous owner painted it because the Sun's UV eventually kills plastic and the paint provides a level of protection.

Norm, did you use one of the paints "for plastic"? I have some Krylon spray cans listed that way but have not done any long term tests in the sun with items so painted. Great tip on painting/protecting the vent cover, the old size may not be available from Scamp for replacement forever.

[honda03842]

I did not consider special plastic paint since it was already painted, with what I don't know. What ever the original user painted with stuck. It was very rough. I just painted over it. I used rustoleum because there was a little rust spot and it seems to stand up.

I did not use spray paint though I frequently do. I brushed it on.

I believe the vent is available from others.

[honda03842]

I copied this from Air Deflectors for Solar Panels. Steve suggessted that my panels may have failed due to heat and John suggested the roof would blacken due to heat. Here's my response.. not an argument but what I've seen. It's certainly possible that Steve is correct though they are designed for curved surfaces on boats.

Originally Posted by starbrightsteve View Post
"The production of a solar cell is slightly lower when the cell is hot. A roof top array benefits from the 3 or 4" of air space under the panels. A flexible panel with no air space under it will produce less and experience very high temperatures that could contribute to panel deterioration or failure.
I have a 50 watt conventional panel mounted on my roof. The four mounting brackets are fastened to the roof with a total of 8 sq. inches of 3M VHB tape. No screws. The bottom of the panel is 2" above the roof deck.

Norm, didn't your flexible panels fail recently?"

Steve,

Though we had the panels for a number of years without any issues, I can not say they did failed because of heat. I installed a virtually identical panel on my son's trailer it and it's still functioning. I can say they are designed for boats, a similar panel-to-fiberglass installation.

Per John Linck "an air gap keeps your rig slightly cooler as opposed to turning your fiberglass roof black with a flexible panel"

Since both of my panels failed virtually simultaneously I removed them, separating the vhb tape from the roof in a couple of hours. There was no black mark left on the roof of the trailer, I believe after 3 or 4 years of use.

As John also stated, it's really not a big deal what you choose. For me I like a lighter, flatter, hidden solution. Many people prefer a solution that they personally setup, that is angle adjustable, ..... It's all fine. It's simply nice to have solar particularly if you want to boondock for long periods in silence.

If you're suggesting that the color of the panels makes the inside of the trailer hotter, I can't say I've noticed it to any extent.

I have copied this to Preparing a 1991 Scamp where I am writing about installing our Solar panels so it's all in one place.

PS. I am a satisfied user of Charlies plastic parts, we have 3 small storage boxes (spices, meds and misc) taped to the walls of our trailer and a wine 'rack'. They all work well. The only negative is they need to be painted or the Sun exposed side turns yellow in a few years.

[honda03842]

Preparing the panel

I put the panel on the dining room table sells down and taped the edges with 4 pieces of tape. I was careful not to stretch the tape. I lifted a little bit of the red release tape to allow me to get it off easily on the roof.

Note I also inserted 3 tywraps through the tape and front side grommets. I will use these to tie down the panel's cable that will run along one edge. I will use the through shell connector of my previous installation.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Fiberglass RV mobile app