TX | 1986 19ft Scamp Gooseneck Travel Trailer Redone Inside!! $4500

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Steve Hammel

LOL!!! No offense to anyone but, I've owned "stock hauling" trailers that are goose-necks and I've owned 5th wheels. This hitch set up is neither. The 2" coupling is the same 2" coupling as on any bumper pull of which I have also owned several. The ball is elevated in the bed of whatever truck it is mounted in by 12" to 18" so that the 2" bumper pull coupling can rotate, whereas a goose-neck which is straight up and down can be mounted closer to the bed. If it's important to you to call it what it is not go ahead and not listen to someone who actually owns one and knows the difference. LOL!!!!

Goose-neck couplers as manufactured by Bulldog can have up to a 16" offset.

[Steve Hammel]

I'll borrow Jason's pictures. If this looks like a goose-neck to you all then I can't convince you. To me it's a bumper pull coupler welded on to square tubing. I could cut it off and make a trailer with it. LOL!!!

[Steve Hammel]

Just for fun here is what a goose-neck looks like.




And here is what the offset one looks like.




Here is very similar to what is on mine and all the other stock 19' Scamps out there. A bumper pull coupler.

[Jared J]

Originally Posted by floyd

I'm with Ed, Scamp's hitch is a gooseneck which utilizes a standard 2" ball coupler.

No, it's not. A gooseneck hitch uses a 2-5/16" or 3" ball, at bed level.

A fifth wheel uses a 2" kingpin mounted above the bed floor.

Scamp uses a proprietary hitch setup. This is the factory scamp hitch that I cut off of mine.



Although it is modified from factory, the seller is 100% correct, this one is a true gooseneck. All a buyer needs is a gooseneck hitch from one of many manufacturers, or use it as a bumper pull, and it's good to go. Much more preferable than the scamp hitch, IMHO.

[Steve Hammel]

Sorry Jared why was I thinking Jason. These are all Jared's pictures.

I think most people are shocked to find out that Scamp uses such a weird unorthodox hitch/coupling.

The sellers hitch has indeed been converted to a goose-neck. The original Scamp hitch I wouldn't classify as anything other than a "Scamp hitch" and then try to explain it the best I can.

So in light of the season and so many other things that we can stress over and argue about I say call it what you will, it is what it is. LOL

PS, Jared when are starting back up on your Mod? Are you putting the old cabinets/benches back in. I'm getting ready to tear mine apart next week.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Steve Hammel

LOL!!! No offense to anyone but, I've owned "stock hauling" trailers that are goose-necks and I've owned 5th wheels. This hitch set up is neither. The 2" coupling is the same 2" coupling as on any bumper pull of which I have also owned several. The ball is elevated in the bed of whatever truck it is mounted in by 12" to 18" so that the 2" bumper pull coupling can rotate, whereas a goose-neck which is straight up and down can be mounted closer to the bed. If it's important to you to call it what it is not go ahead and not listen to someone who actually owns one and knows the difference. LOL!!!!

That last sentence sounds like good advice, and for convenience sake, many of us will continue to refer to modern cars and crossovers as "unibodies" when technically they are not.

While the Scamp set-up is closer to a typical gooseneck than a fifth wheel, I prefer to call it a "Fiver", since that is the common nomenclature.

Actually, the only time it matters is when you choose to tow something behind the trailer , which is generally not allowed behind a bumper pull and is often done behind a "Fiver" Scamp.
While that may be illegal in Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, for example, I have yet to hear of a ticket being issued.

I can't imagine being shocked by the "fiver" set-up since you would need to know the particulars before picking up your trailer for the first time.
While the set-up is pretty much unique to Scamp, it is not likely proprietory nor ubiquitous enough to demand a name of it's own.
How about calling it the "Splunge" hitch?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v0I4OQi7CQ

Skakespeare's "Rose" comment wouldn't really apply here, but then the "Rosebud" from "Citizen Cane" was a bloomin' sled.

[Steve Hammel]

Well like Jared mentioned in a previous post, you're kinda out of luck if your truck breaks down out on the road. Not many people will be able to tow your rig to town. In that case you will surely come up with a few other expletives/names that haven't been mentioned.

[floyd]

My fleet wrecker (like most), had a formula on the back with a ball hitch adapter. It would easily reach high enough to tow a Scamp "fiver" to a safe location, if it was not practical to simply tow the truck and trailer together.

[Steve Hammel]

Originally Posted by floyd

My fleet wrecker (like most), had a formula on the back with a ball hitch adapter. It would easily reach high enough to tow a Scamp "fiver" to a safe location, if it was not practical to simply tow the truck and trailer together.

Well that is certainly a relief , not that I was overly concerned to begin with. I'm more of the go with the flow whatever happens happens type of person.

[Weinel, Alan]

I vote for non-goose neck Scamp proprietary contraption.

In casual conversation I refer to mine as a 5th wheel, and then move on to "more of a goose neck" if it seems to better fit the discussion.

We DID get rid of the Scamp mounting in the bed of the truck and went to a removable unit. NICE to be able to use the whole 4 foot wide bed again.

[Brian B-P]

My view:

• The Scamp 19' - including this modified one - is not a fifth-wheel, because it does not have a pin-and-plate or "fifth wheel" coupling. If it's a fifth-wheel, then so are all of the trailers normally called "goosenecks".
• The Scamp 19', like many trailers with ball couplers which are sometimes called "goosenecks", are not goosenecks - a gooseneck has a long "neck" ending in the coupler "head" to connect the trailer body (which is behind the truck) to the hitch roughly over the axle of the truck. In contrast, the Scamp 19' body extends over the truck, just like all of the more conventional RV trailers with fifth-wheel (pin-and-plate) hitches.

Despite this, the towing equipment industry routinely calls any trailer using a ball-and-socket hitch system located over the towing vehicle's axle or rear body a "gooseneck", and the Scamp 19' would meet that description.

It makes no sense to me to attach some special meaning to the ball diameter, and how the manufacturer of the coupler intended it to be used doesn't seem relevant to me either. One could mount a coupler intended for gooseneck use on the end of a conventional "tag" trailer's tongue and it would work fine... and not transform that trailer into a gooseneck.

I don't have a good name for this trailer type - it's just a trailer with the hitch high and forward compared to the hitch location for one pulled by a conventional rear-mounted hitch.

The Scamp design is just exceptionally inconvenient because both the 2" ball size and the high location make it incompatible with common "gooseneck" towing rigs.

[Brian B-P]

Sorry in advance for what must reasonably considered a sidetrack from the topic...

Originally Posted by floyd

... many of us will continue to refer to modern cars and crossovers as "unibodies" when technically they are not.

"Unibody" is just short for "unitized body and frame", and that certainly is how modern cars are constructed... unless you want to call disconnected little bits of subframe a "frame".

They're not monocoques - is that what you were thinking of, Floyd?

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Love

It wasn't modified all I did was lower the adjust ment on the gooseneck hitch...

Originally Posted by Love

You know you people are something else what's so weird it's has a GOOSENECK hitch And its a 19ft scamp what's so weird???

I would hesitate to call people "something else" in what appears to be a negative sense when they are clearly telling you that the trailer is modified, as anyone would know if they looked at any stock Scamp 19', including the one on the Scamp Trailers website.

The coupler of this trailer has certainly been modified, replacing the original coupler with an extended tongue/neck and a common vertically adjustable ball coupler as normally used on gooseneck trailers.

The modification is significant for a buyer: the forward extension puts higher stress on the forward part of the Scamp structure, and if extended downward (as in the ad photo) it puts huge torque on that structure. Of course, it does allow for a wider choice of hitches.

Originally Posted by Love

have been pulling it like that since I had it you can pull it that way or you can pull it with a ball in the bed I just prefer doing it this way

The other significance is that, despite the above comment, the truck shown looks like it could not tow the trailer in the normal (for a Scamp 19') hitch configuration: the box sides are too high for the trailer body to be over it. This is a common problem for Scamp 19' trailers with recent full-sized pickups.

Towed on a conventional hitch, this is just a long trailer with an inconvenient raised bedroom and clearance problems when turning (because the tongue isn't long enough to keep the trailer body from going over the tug in sharp turns, and the trailer body isn't high enough to clear a tall truck box safely).

Towed with a ball in the truck bed, the ball could be unusually far forward; if it is not, there is just extra overall rig length (compared to the stock configuration) with no extra trailer space to compensate.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

Sorry in advance for what must reasonably considered a sidetrack from the topic...


"Unibody" is just short for "unitized body and frame", and that certainly is how modern cars are constructed... unless you want to call disconnected little bits of subframe a "frame".

They're not monocoques - is that what you were thinking of, Floyd?

No, but you just made my point perfectly... thanks!
How about "Splungebody"?

[papas34]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Direct link: D6E61184-4648-409E-969E-B43DF117E218-2367-000001A9E760C359.jpg photo by kellyakapink | Photobucket

What would we do without you Donna

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by papas34

What would we do without you Donna

Always glad to help Del

[Woodbutcher]

Is this trailer still available?

[David78073]

WOW this sure got a long way from a poor guy trying to sell his 19' scamp...

Any way you could send me some more pictures?... if it's still available.