New 2012 Scamp 13' owner

[JohnF]

Love that solution for the toilet paper - will have to try that!

Currently have a dual suction cup mounted toiletries basket with the roll just sort of resting across the top. The basket works great (hasn't fallen down yet even after driving), but the roll takes up a lot of space.

I'll get some pictures of the complete interior with a few of my mods this weekend when it is sunnier (currently pouring rain and dark by the time I get home after work).

Hunted around a lot for a suitable mirror for the bathroom door; went with one of those 12" square mirror tiles from Home Depot mounted with edge clips. Looks pretty clean, but tricky to get mounted straight and solid; took me awhile last night.

The stock shower curtain "rod" out of plastic pipe is hard to use. I swapped the cheapo stock curtain rod hangars to the ones with nice little balls/rollers on them for easier sliding, but the true problem is the diameter of the pipe is just too big for standard curtain rod hangars. I'm going to swap that out tonight for a smaller diameter.

The amber LED exterior porch light works great in the driveway. Just enough light to easily find the trailer door at night. Can't really test the bug-proof ness of the amber vs. bright white this time of year, but I'm hopeful this avoids gathering a mosquito swarm which then follows you right into the trailer at night.

The green cushions are growing on me the more time I spend out there in the driveway.

[JohnF]

How do the Bal-Jacks on the front tongue help things?

The standard tongue jack seems like it would work just as well to me. Is this just an issue of having 2 stabilizing points in the front of the trailer vs. 1 so that it eliminates potential side to side motion in the front?

Are the Bal-Jacks individually controllable for height? Looks like they are uniform in your picture or is that just the picture angle?

[floyd]

Originally Posted by JohnF

Love that solution for the toilet paper - will have to try that!

Currently have a dual suction cup mounted toiletries basket with the roll just sort of resting across the top. The basket works great (hasn't fallen down yet even after driving), but the roll takes up a lot of space.

I'll get some pictures of the complete interior with a few of my mods this weekend when it is sunnier (currently pouring rain and dark by the time I get home after work).

Hunted around a lot for a suitable mirror for the bathroom door; went with one of those 12" square mirror tiles from Home Depot mounted with edge clips. Looks pretty clean, but tricky to get mounted straight and solid; took me awhile last night.

The stock shower curtain "rod" out of plastic pipe is hard to use. I swapped the cheapo stock curtain rod hangars to the ones with nice little balls/rollers on them for easier sliding, but the true problem is the diameter of the pipe is just too big for standard curtain rod hangars. I'm going to swap that out tonight for a smaller diameter.

The amber LED exterior porch light works great in the driveway. Just enough light to easily find the trailer door at night. Can't really test the bug-proof ness of the amber vs. bright white this time of year, but I'm hopeful this avoids gathering a mosquito swarm which then follows you right into the trailer at night.

The green cushions are growing on me the more time I spend out there in the driveway.

We found this mirror at Walmart it has an oak frame which is mounted through the door with screws and snap caps...

[melissab]

Floyd, I love seeing pix of the inside of your little egg. It looks so cozy and homey. The wood really gives it such a warm feel.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by melissab

Floyd, I love seeing pix of the inside of your little egg. It looks so cozy and homey. The wood really gives it such a warm feel.

Your kind words are appreciated, thank you

[Adrian W]

Originally Posted by JohnF

How do the Bal-Jacks on the front tongue help things?
Yes.

The standard tongue jack seems like it would work just as well to me. Is this just an issue of having 2 stabilizing points in the front of the trailer vs. 1 so that it eliminates potential side to side motion in the front?
Yes. But seems to help with front to back movement as well.

Are the Bal-Jacks individually controllable for height? Looks like they are uniform in your picture or is that just the picture angle? Yes, on what I have. Our parking spot is pretty level.

Makes the 16' Rock Solid without any Rock n' Roll. But perhaps less of a need for a 13'. Not really a need in the 16', more a want to have.

[Roger C H]

Our Trill has a 12 Gallon fresh water tank under the rear dinette which we have used once.* We have used the shore utility water more often then that, but now we carry drinking water from home in two one gallon jugs. Never felt the need to lug around water at 8 lbs/gal. So we lug 16 lbs instead of 80+lbs.

Water for the porta potti is gotten from where we camp with a 1/2 gal juice jug which stores nicely under the seat by the door with the pp.

When we want to wash dishes, we use potable water from our campsite. I fetch it with my biggest pot, heat it on the stove, pour some into the sink with detergent, and use the pot for rinsing. Since we aren't drinking it, the taste/salt content doesn't matter. When we need more drinking water, we go to a filtered water dispenser for about 15-25¢ per gal.

Our gray water tank is a five gallon bucket with a lid and a hole drilled in the top to accept an old hose from an automatic washing machine with one fitting cut off. I just empty that into any convenient toilet like the porta potti, although I have poured both down a sewer fitting at campsites that have them. For some reasons some campsites frown on pouring into their toilets. I am always very careful not to spill, but I guess they don't know that.

*Actually, there is a gallon of RV antifreeze in the water tank. I could probably drain that out now.

[John_M]

Congratulations John, she looks great!

[JohnF]

As promised here are some interior pictures; maybe they will help out some other future buyers as I found post-2006 13' bathroom interior pics really hard to find on the net. The cushions here are the green color for reference. Took shots of the hot water heater and fresh water tank also for modern reference on available space if others are considering a new model.

On the cooking picture you can tell why I wanted the extra 12V DC light over to the right more so you can see what you're cooking. I guess I could always add a second one over there myself; that way I'm not leaving extra holes.

When you choose the side upper dinette cabinets I wish SCAMP was smart enough to suggest moving the 12V light on the side of the upper kitchen cabinet. As you can see, it isn't the most functional spot for that light.

A few simple mods are present in these for those with eagle eyes.

1. Simple cutting board stove cover (idea found from this forum - thanks!)
2. Paper towel hanger
3. Towel rack secured to bathroom door
4. Mirror on bathroom door
5. 3M command hooks near door for coats (really handy and out of the way)
6. 3M command hooks near the sink on the basin to hang dish towels
7. Smoke & CO detector mounted near the ceiling on the closet
8. Shower stall step stool for better geometry; will make a nice platform over winter
9. Suction cup storage in shower for soap and misc from Camping World. Works great - hasn't fallen down yet in 3+ weeks even while driving.
10. Smaller diameter PVC curtain rod + new roller curtain hangers = easy sliding
11. All incandescent 12V bulbs replaced with LEDs.

Camping was at Devil's Lake State park in Wisconsin - highly recommended if you are up this way some time.

[JohnF]

Rest of the pics.

[floyd]

Your gonna love it! Nice little trailer!
It looks like you could just turn the offending light 90 or 180 degrees for it to shed more light.

[Adrian W]

JohnF, you asked, "Trying to hold a large, heavy 5 gallon water jug to refill the tank while keeping the little cover flap open is an exercise in frustration".

I had given how I have been transferring water from tank to tank, but I left out a key ingredient to the process, which even not using a pump or syphon could be adapted for pouring from a jug.

Years ago, I discovered it I had a softer, flexible tubing attached to the water hose which could be extended down into the filler hose on the C-class I would have less problem filling it up without an air pocket stopping the water from going into the tank before it was completely filled.

With the Scamp, the tank being so small, this shouldn't ever happen. However, using the idea of a soft, flexible tube attached to the end of the water hose when filling the tank was the answer to how to fill the tank on the Scamp though the kind of small fill opening with the hinged flap cover. I had to use a smaller tube on the Scamp because the fill opening is not only small & at a 90 degree angle it has little "bars" making the opening smaller (to keep any large foreign objects from getting in the tank, I assume).

Therefore, I found a (not as soft) vinyl tube which could be inserted between the bars and down into the filler tube. To be able to use a water hose, I found an adapter at a 'Home Center' which will 'screw' onto the hose & but will accept the smaller sized tube.

This little gizmo is really handy, I can fill the tank without having to hold the hinged flap cover up & it is securely held in the filler tube by the little bars....which allows the tank to be filled more quickly.



If just pouring the water from a jug, a similar gizmo could be modified to fit the jugs pouring 'spout' or a funnel, etc.

I use it so much, I completely forgot about the importance of it in filling the Scamp's water tank. Then I need to get photos of the gizmo.

Having a "Water Thief" gizmo is handy as well. Click to See One

[JohnF]

That's pretty nifty Adrian = I have several of those little adapters laying around the garage; I'll make one up this spring.

The water thief (and handy hand crank hose clamp) are in the fresh water kit bag I put together. Definitely looks like it will come in handy. I also have a few nut drivers which should fit a spigot if the handle is missing, but the stem is just exposed.

I ordered a pair of these: Amazon.com: Moeller Scepter Water Can (5-Gallon): Sports & Outdoors
I should be able to rig something up like your filler hose so that I can simply rest one of these on top of the spare tire and let it hold the weight while I fill.

My 7ga square heavy jug I have now is really awkward to hold and is just taunting my low back to sideline me for awhile so I want to avoid using it anymore.

[JohnF]

Final set of pics.

This shows the charcoal bag bin that worked out great for the sewer hose storage. I've got a 15' rhino hose in there w/ the attachments, gloves, clorox spray bleach sanitizer, and a brush. Fits great in the lower storage bin and the big handle on the narrow side makes it really easy to get in and out of there. The whole blue lid comes off of course, but the little lid hatch seems workable also.

Can also see in this pic that I added a couple of reflector stickers on the rear bumper for better visibility at night for vehicles to the rear.

[deryk]

John, it looks Great! Im leaning towards ordering a 2013 Scamp 13 once my marine insurance pays me off for my boat from the Hurracane. Im single so its plenty spacious enough for 1 with occasional company lol.

Can I ask, how wide is your sink/stove...Im trying to get an idea of how much space between the dinette and the door to the bathroom.

Thanks


deryk

[GingerB]

Originally Posted by kootenaigirl

How exciting, love the pictures of the Scamp factory.
Door lock - that very same thing happened to me when we were brining our 2010 Scamp home - 2nd owner. Got locked in the home depot parking lot!
Totally agree with you re: how some little changes would make things a whole lot better. Disapointing that they didn't listen to what you requested but sounds like you are happy overall.
Happy camping.

We got locked in our first trip, too. Not a good design.

[Pam Garlow]

Originally Posted by GingerB

We got locked in our first trip, too. Not a good design.

My girlfriend has an older Scamp and I always thought that the wiggly door handle was due to age. Its strange that they haven't upgraded to something better by now because I'm sure that they've gotten a lot of comments about that issue.