We like having bidets so when we got a
Scamp with a bathroom I put one in.
Several manufacturers make add-on bidets you can attach to any toilet. The
Scamp bathroom is so cramped I wasn’t sure any bidet I saw
for sale would fit. I bought the narrowest one I could find.
Amazon sells the Greenco bidet for about $23.
When this Greenco bidet arrived I discovered it wouldn’t fit unless it was modified. The problem is there isn’t much space on the side of the toilet that is mounted in a
Scamp bathroom for that “water flow control knob” and “nozzle angle adjusting switch” dongle thing-a-ma-bob shown in the photo above.
By the way, add-on bidets install easily on toilets – you remove the toilet seat, mount the bidet and put the toilet seat back on. The contraption ends up looking like this:
How I modified the Greenco bidet to fit the Scamp:
Notice the “adjustable sliding brackets” in the photo below:
I realized that if I modified one of these brackets, I could make the Greenco bidet fit my Scamp.
Here is a closer look at an unmodified bracket:
I sliced a bit of the right hand bracket off using my bandsaw. The modified bracket looks like this:
By modifying the bracket in this way it is possible to mount the bidet so the controls are closer to the toilet, i.e. further away from the wall. The bidet mount now looks like this:
The result is that the bidet controls are far enough away from the wall I don’t expect any trouble.
The photo shows a plastic rivet cap that looks like it might be holding the bidet control away from the wall. It is actually well below the control. There is a clear space between the wall and the bidet control.
The original Scamp toilet installation didn’t have a stop valve. I put one in. I used a dual stop valve with 3/8” and ¼” compression outlets so I could supply both the bidet and the toilet.
Here is a photo of the stop valve behind the Scamp toilet:
A standard stainless braid covered toilet supply line leaves the stop valve heading toward the toilet.
The supply tubing that comes with the Greenco bidet doesn’t fit into a ¼” compression stop valve outlet. I ran a short length of tubing that does fit the valve, from the stop valve to one end of a brass adapter. Tubing that fits the bidet leaves the brass adapter heading toward the bidet. See the photo. I force plastic onto adapters when it doesn’t really want to fit by heating the end in very hot water. I heat only the very end of the plastic that needs to expand to get onto the adapter, leaving the part I will hold unheated so it will have enough structural strength to hold on to while I force it on.
I changed the Scamp Pex-A tubing near the toilet to copper. I would not do this if I were to do this job again, as I am getting more experienced with what you can do with Pex-A. All the plumbing in my 2002 16 foot Scamp is done in Pex-A. It is not that commonly used in the area where I live. Getting fittings here when you need them can be a bit of a problem. This type of tubing is also known as “expansion pex”, “Uponor pex”, or “Wirsbo”. To change from Pex-A to copper in this area I used a Sharkbite push fit fitting.
This type of push fit fitting works to couple Pex-A with copper.
I prefer to avoid push fit fittings. I am an old geezer who doesn’t believe in magic. It is a known fact that once a fitting realizes you have no faith in it, it can lose its will to live and fail.
But my cheap hand operated Pex-A expansion tool was too big to work conveniently in the cramped space outside the bathroom in the cupboard beside the trailer heater where I had cut the Scamp plumbing, so as a last resort I used a push fit fitting.
If I were to do this job now, I would stay with Pex-A up to the stop valve and only use an adapter to copper sweat or NPT to get into a stop valve if I couldn’t find the appropriate Pex-A inlet double compression outlet stop valve.
I don’t like drilling new holes in the Scamp, especially if I’m experimenting with something odd like a bidet. However, I wanted to secure the copper pipe supplying the toilet. Instead of drilling holes, I attached a chunk of plastic to the wall with 3M Command removable adhesive strips. Then I attached the bracket that holds the copper pipe to this plastic piece with screws. See the photo.
This new bidet in the Scamp works as well as the more expensive ones we have at home.