Because I was going to St.
Cloud, MN from Seattle, WA on vacation in July of last year and I wanted to buy front and rear overhead cabinets for my 1977 Scamp I stopped by the factory in Backus on the way to pick them up. This saved me the $300 in crating and shipping charges for these two items. They have to carefully crate them to keep them from getting scratched and it is an oversized item.
I would not have driven the 3200+ mile round trip just to see the factory and pick up my cabinets but I'm glad I was able to combine it with other activities in MN. Well, except for one activity...
The night before I went to the factory I camped about 20 miles away at a resort at Crow Wing Lake 12 or something like that. I was going to sleep in the back of my Ranger pickup like I had for many years. Unfortunately the legendary Minnesota mosquitoes made their appearance after dark and I could not get rid of them. I drove up and down the highway trying to blow them out of the back of the truck but they reappeared once I climbed in the back. I even tried to sleep in the front seat but they were in there too!!! It was like I was living in a real-life horror movie.
I eventually set up a dome tent I brought just in case I couldn't sleep in the back of the truck with the cabinets in there. I kept the screen door zipped closed untill I could dive in and quickly zip it closed again. I was finally free from the winged warriors at 2:00AM!!! I could hear them buzzing outside the tent but there were none inside.
After I paid for the cabinets I asked Trent if I could take a look inside the factory. He gave me a quick tour. He said if I wanted a more in-depth tour one of the salesmen could do that. I was happy seeing what I saw with Trent. I enjoyed seeing the complete process from start to finish.
I did not feel comfortable asking him if I could take pictures so I didn't. There were workers everywhere and they might not want to be photographed. There are some pictures of the inside of the Scamp factory on their Facebook web site. Here's a link:
Scamp Trailers/Eveland's Inc. - Small Business - Backus, MN | Facebook
In the past I've been able to look at those pictures without signing up with Facebook or loggin in. I couldn't do it today.
I did take a lot of pictures of the Scamps outside at the sales office. It was such a treat to see so many of them. I took detail pictures of the things that I had never seen before and will use for ideas on my Scamp.
There were always people stopping to look at the Scamps. The salesman told me that they leave these trailers on display for about a month and then sell them at a discount as if they were used.
There were other trailers along the fences. The group of 16-footers look so alike that I am wondering if it was a fleet order.
It was raining when I got there but after a few hours the skies were clear, everything dried out and it was getting hot.
I ate lunch at a restaurant across the highway. It was very busy and the food was good.
I've attached several photos around the outside of the factory plus one of how I brought my cabinets home and still had room to sleep. I wanted to travel
light so I left my trailer at home.
Jeff