Hi,
Wanted to summarize a recent eventful experience in case others can learn something.
Was towing our 2012 13'
Scamp up to the Brule River in WI for steelhead fly fishing a couple weeks ago and about 8:30pm at night, pitch black on a moonless night on I-94 the driver side tire decided to completely shred itself suddenly. I tow with a 2015 Toyota 4Runner and it wasn't as noticeable as I would have guessed so stay alert. I caught it within about 15 seconds of it happening.
Raining solid and about 39F out, of course.
The
Scamp doesn't come with a jack, jack stand, or anything else you'll need in this situation, other than the actual spare tire on the rear. I did a big grand circle western US national park tour last
fall (7000 miles over 5 weeks) so had all the right items I needed to repair it quickly - see the pictures below.
The safety triangles were
critical in this situation. Those have nice sand filled counter weights on the bottom and I put them about 150, 400, and about 750 yard behind the
scamp as self-preservation. I really didn't want to be picked off by a semi at 75 mph. Wished I had a reflective safety vest to toss on as well in hindsight.
I also bought some 3M safety reflective tape right after taking delivery on the Scamp that you see on the bumper. That really helps visibility at night from the rear as well.
Last tip is that I was about halfway off the shoulder to maximize distance between me and the traffic lane - which put the scamp at about a 10 degree angle I'd guess (not very much). But in my haste to get the bottle jack going, after it was extended about 5" up and the tire was off the ground, but right before I was about to slide in the jack stand for safety, the top of the jack slid off the frame, the trailer dropped, and the jack punched right through the floor of the camper! Fortunately it was in the very rear area so not critical (like under the water heater would have been!). But I'm now repairing that with
fiberglass matting and epoxy resin and filler.
This happened because as I lifted the trailer, the angle increased towards the ditch and the top of the jack was no longer flush with the frame member. It eventually got extreme enough that it just slid right off to the side. Be careful and really continue to check that contact point throughout the entire jacking process. After about 5 pumps, I figured it was going well and got distracted monitoring traffic, ready to dive for the ditch if I needed to and that's when it happened.
Be sure you have the key to the fulton lug nut lock on the spare tire. Might come in handy...
The rubber shrapnel from this event cracked the PVC on the gray water tank right before the waste valve. So I've been having fun trying to get that unglued and various new pieces cemented back in without
leaks. Finally achieved success today.
I just bought another spare tire rim from Scamp also. Now I have 2 complete sets of
tires that I can swap between. For really long trips (like the 7000 miles I did last fall), I'll take the second spare with me as well.
Since this event, I've added a tire plug repair kit and a solid 12V air compressor (Viair 88P) to items I'll bring in the TV for long trips.
https://www.amazon.com/Viair-00088-8.../dp/B005ASY23I
I had checked tire pressures before the trip and both were topped off to 50 psi. But they were both factory
tires from Oct, 2011 and had I'd guess about 10-12K miles on them, but quite a bit of tread left on them. I already had fresh replacements in my shed ready to mount, just didn't quite get the chance to swap them out before this steelhead trip. But of course, they are now!!
Keep on Scamping! Still loving the trailer.
But I am finally relocating the front shower pump to an intelligent spot so it isn't a magnet for shearing completely off for the coming season. Beyond me why Scamp doesn't do this from the factory (just stubborn apathy by them).