New Scamp Owner

[David B.]

Welcome to the FGRV forum family. I had gotten a Flexiride axle from Spec Trac in Mesa Arizona. You don't have any information filling in on you profile, so someone could help you in your area.
Dave & Paula

[Roger C H]

Your name should be Jesse James with the price you got that Scamp for !!

[ritman]

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

Jack up one side (on the frame near the axle, not on the axle itself). Watch to see if the axle arm drops as the frame rises. Little or no movement indicates a worn-out axle. You can also check clearance between the top of the tire and the inner wheel well. Other signs are uneven tire wear and excessive bouncing (like curtains & cushions & cabinet contents on the floor).

Hi Jon, I checked the clearance between the tire and wheel well,there is 4 inches . Then I jacked it up like you said I got 5 inches. Then I put a bar under the tire and pride up like you would do to check for bad ball joint. It doesn't seem spongy.
.

[Carol H]

Scott there are lots of older fiberglass trailers being towed around with original axles as your has. My 92 has its original axle and I still has lots of clearance all the way around it and it tows fine. Clearance on yours sounds like it may be ok but take a look for tire rub marks on the wheel well (indication the wheels are hitting it when going over bumps), also take a look at tire wear - if its not even thats a good sign the axle is done, as is if everything in the trailer bounces around and onto the floor when you tow it.

[ritman]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Scott there are lots of older fiberglass trailers being towed around with original axles as your has. My 92 has its original axle and I still has lots of clearance all the way around it and it tows fine. Clearance on yours sounds like it may be ok but take a look for tire rub marks on the wheel well (indication the wheels are hitting it when going over bumps), also take a look at tire wear - if its not even thats a good sign the axle is done, as is if everything in the trailer bounces around and onto the floor when you tow it.

Hi Carol, I did look for rub marks there are none. As far as tire wear they are brand new. We went on an over nighter last week about 350 miles round trip it towed fine behind my Nissan Altima 4 cylinder.


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[Carol H]

Originally Posted by ritman

Hi Carol, I did look for rub marks there are none. As far as tire wear they are brand new. We went on an over nighter last week about 350 miles round trip it towed fine behind my Nissan Altima 4 cylinder.


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Then its probable just fine as it is for a few more years... just keep an eye on your tire wear.

Its kind of cool that you scored the deal of the century and you get to brag that it doesnt really need an axle either!

[ritman]

I'm am going to write the story of how I found it and my repairs on it with in the next couple of days. Do I post that in this thread?


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[Jon in AZ]

Great news about the axle!

I'd probably put your story here, since the question was raised here, but I would start a new thread(s) for the work you do in the maintenance forums.

[ritman]

Right on. Thanks


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[ritman]

Ok I finally have some time to tell my story how I found my 1989 Scamp. It all started on Sept 21, my wife and I were celebrating our 40th anniversary at a cafe in a little town by our home. It was still warm enough to eat outside so we were eating our dinner on the veranda and low and behold I looked across the street and there sat the little orphan in a side yard all green with mold and grass and weeds growing up around it. After we were done eating we went across the street to take a look, needless to say I was intrigued by the design. Later that evening I hopped on my iPad to check this thing out. I have to say things started turning in my head, there were two possibilities fix it up and sell or fix it up and use it providing if the thing was even for sale.
The next day I returned to the scene to try and find the owner. No one was home on either side of the lot this gem was sitting in. So I returned home and wasn't able to get back for two weeks because of a trip to Hilton Head Island. So when I got home I road down to try to track down the owner. This time I went on Saturday hoping to catch someone at home and sure enough I did and I was directed to the owner who lived through the tree line at the other end of the property. As I nocked on the door not knowing what the outcome would be, a middle age women answered the door and I asked the magic question. Is that you camper? Yes it is, is it by chance for sale? Yes it is. How much are you asking? I was ready to give $1500.00. She said $800.00 I said oh I would have to take a look. She grabbed the key and away we went. When she opened the door the musty smell almost took you breath. She told me it was her brothers who passed away and she inherited it. She said he kept it in his garage when not in use but it has been sitting here since 2008. I took a step inside and saw there was great potential here everything was intact and the cushions looked in good shape with know tears and the floor seemed solid. As I was make my observation she says make me an offer. I said I dont want to insult you. She said just make me an offer. I said $400.00 and she said if you can put this to good use its yours. Needless to say I had to wipe the grin off my face before I came out. So we made arrangements to transfer the title on Monday. I forgot to say the tires were flat as flat could be and dry rotted so on Monday I tried to locate tires down in that area which is 25 miles from my house so I could jack it up and pull them and get new ones without making a couple trips but know one had them but could get them. So I threw my compressor in the van hoping they would hold air. They did but were so rotten you could almost see through them but they got me to the notary and home and are still holding air. As I said in my original post this was to be my winter project, yea right! As soon as I got this home my son and I hooked up the power washer and started cleaning. As you can see by the pictures in my previous post what a good job the power washer did for the initial cleaning. More on that later. So what I did on the inside to start with was to remove all the cushions and pull all the fiberglass benches and remove all the doors on the cabinets and tear out the moldy carpet on the floor. After I tore the carpet out I could see that there was rotted wood about 9 inches wide below the back window where the rubber seal had leaked at the joint this really contributed to a lot of the smell. It was so rotted you could poke your finger through the wood. To repair this I cut back 12 inches to get into solid wood and was able to dig the rotted wood out of the groove where the sidewalls was fiberglassed into the floor. I bought a sheet of pressure-treated three-quarter inch plywood and cut a piece 12 inches wide by the width of the trailer which is 6 foot and had to cut all the radius for the corner. I loaded up the fiberglass flange with liquid nail and slid the piece of three-quarter plywood into the groove and screwed the plywood to the metal frame. That I cut a piece 18 inches wide and came from underneath and liquid nailed and screwed this to the new piece and then into the existing floor which tied everything together and overlap all seams and made it totally waterproof and solid as a rock. Next came the cleaning part. I started with the carpet on the ceiling and walls as you can see by some of the pictures it was grease stained in back of the stove and several other dark marks not to mention the mold and mildew. What I did here was take carpet cleaner that you use in a steam cleaner and mixed it with water in a gallon garden sprayer and sprayed the walls and ceiling and scrubbed them with a soft scrub brush and sucked all the water out with the shop vac. By the time I got to the other end the place that I started was almost dry, there was a great air moving that day. I also used this process on all of the cushions, needless to say all of the musty moldy smell is gone and both carpet and cushions are spotless. Next I cleaned all the fiberglass cabinetry and benches, what I used on this was a product called Spray Nine you can get this at Napa. Again everything turned out spotless inside and out all of the moldy musty smell is completely gone. Next I removed all the hinges and hardware from the cabinet doors and bought new ones and cleaned all the doors again with spray nine. I also removed the icebox I am not planning on using this as a cooler does the same thing and I am going to use this space for the air conditioner. I also removed the 12 gallon water tank. I find that this space is better used for storage. I did keep the waterline in just in case I change my mind. It has nice curtains already in there that I removed and my wife washed and I bought new curtain rods and rehung the curtains as you'll see a picture. Then before I put all the benches back in I bought a remnant of vinyl floor at Lowe's for $35 and put that down. I have to say all the electrical and the city water and everything else works fine including the taillights and not to mention the two burner stove. Now we moved to the outside. As I stated before the first thing we did was to power wash the outside which took 95% of the dirt off. Then I took soft scrub gel with bleach and a green scrubby pad and cleaned the whole outside. This removed every bit of dirt, black scuff marks and 80% of rust stains caused by rusty bolts and hardware on door hinges and stone shield hardware. To clean the remaining 20% of rust stains I used 320 grit sandpaper wet. This cleaned everything perfectly now to make it shine. It's pretty hard to bring old gelcoat back to its original shine and keep it there so I looked online and found a product called Zep liquid floor look wax, you can get this at Lowe's. I applied three coats of this, when you were done with each coach where you started was dry and you could start all over again it took about 2 1/2 hours to apply all three coats. The last thing I had to do was to get new rims and tires this cost me $205 that's with tax. Altogether moneywise that I have in this camper is $205 for tires and rims $44 for one sheet of pressure-treated plywood $24 for a Zep wax $35 for floor remnant six dollars for a bottle of spray nine and $19 and some change for new hinges for the cabinet doors and that brings it to a total of $327 plus the price of the trailer 400 brings out to $727. Needless to say I'm a happy camper. It took me a total of nine days from start to finish and that's probably not working on it every day. We already went on an overnight camping trip a total of 357 miles round-trip it towed perfectly and was very comfortable. I think this will be a keeper. All comments and questions are welcome and if there's a way I can clarify things please let me know. Scott


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[Carol H]

Great story! I know its hard to believe but there are lots of people here who have paid thousands more for one of these old trailers and had to put the same level of work you have put into it!

I always say to friends who ask about buying used and especially one that has been sitting unused for a long time that they should count on having to replace the tires, wheel bearings & brake pads (if it has them), battery (check ability to hold a charge) and propane tank (check date stamp on it). So if you have only had to change out the tires you have done really well on that front as well!! Cool

[ritman]

Thanks Carol, I did pull the wheel bearings cleaned and repacked them. They were like new condition. It seemed that the previous owner was on top of things


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[ShirleyA]

I love to see these find good homes. Congratulations and good wishes for many happy miles!!

[ritman]

Thanks Shirley


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[RogerDat]

Really great deal and some awesome work detailing it to look purty.

Axle may be a little tired but on mine which was totally shot the top of the wheel well crossed the tire below the rubber of the tire. So it may well have some life left.

Hmmm, those are 4 bolt wheels, and look like they could be the older style wedding cake tail lights, maybe someone can place the age of those changes? It is at least post ensolite wall covering since it has rat fur.

My 77 has the water fill on the passenger (curb) side, the electric cord port on the driver (street) side. Can't say about city water hook-up since I don't have that feature.

I will put in a plug for my favorite aluminum polish Simichrome Amazon.com: Simichrome Metal Polish: Automotive

Stuff is awesome, available online at some auto parts stores, not so much the big chains as the independent affiliated shops like NAPA.

[Radar1]

Your Scamp looks really good and you got a great deal! Hope to see you at a rally one of these days!

[ritman]

Originally Posted by RogerDat

Really great deal and some awesome work detailing it to look purty.

Axle may be a little tired but on mine which was totally shot the top of the wheel well crossed the tire below the rubber of the tire. So it may well have some life left.

Hmmm, those are 4 bolt wheels, and look like they could be the older style wedding cake tail lights, maybe someone can place the age of those changes? It is at least post ensolite wall covering since it has rat fur.

My 77 has the water fill on the passenger (curb) side, the electric cord port on the driver (street) side. Can't say about city water hook-up since I don't have that feature.

I will put in a plug for my favorite aluminum polish Simichrome Amazon.com: Simichrome Metal Polish: Automotive

Stuff is awesome, available online at some auto parts stores, not so much the big chains as the independent affiliated shops like NAPA.

Hey thanks Roger, a number of people commented about the axle but there is 4 inches of clearance in the wheel well and plenty of spring left.


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[ritman]

Originally Posted by Radar1

Your Scamp looks really good and you got a great deal! Hope to see you at a rally one of these days!

Thanks Radar


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[Carol H]

Originally Posted by RogerDat

Hmmm, those are 4 bolt wheels, and look like they could be the older style wedding cake tail lights, maybe someone can place the age of those changes? It is at least post ensolite wall covering since it has rat fur.

My 77 has the water fill on the passenger (curb) side, the electric cord port on the driver (street) side. Can't say about city water hook-up since I don't have that feature.

Roger Scamp didnt stop using the wedding cake type lights until sometime after 92. As far as the water and power cord hatches goes it appear that in the late 80's the 13's had both on the drivers side of the trailer. All seems to fit the age of the OP's trailer.