Scamp Manufacturing Question

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Hi all...

:conf After a year or so of hemming and hawing and missing out on a few used eggs, I am 99.9% sure of purchasing a new egg from Scamp. I spoke with both Scamp and Casita at length and Alan at Scamp seemed to be more in tuned with what I need in a trailer. My question... For those who have purchased new trailers from Scamp, are they as accomodating as they seem? I mean are they just blowing smoke saying yeah not a problem and yeah we can do that until they get the money? I've heard some horror stories about Burro and just want to make sure that something I have wanted for such a long time isn't going to be a nightmare to get.

Thanks for any input!

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Hi Eric
Welcome to this forum.Some of the folks here will respond with there thoughts.Post lots and have fun.:wave

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When we bought our Scamp, they were very accomodating. We special ordered ours, ordering it from the list of options they had. My wife and I kind of hemmed and hawed about the whole deal, looking at everything they had on display and talking to the salesman for a couple hours (or so it seemed). They gave us a few dollars off on the price, and we took the written offer home to think about it. We placed the order the next week, and took delivery about 60 days later.

FWIW, We did not ask for anything not on their options list.

One item I did not order that I wish I did was an awning.


-- Dan Meyer

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Hi: We bought our Scamp after thinking it over for about a year or so . WE finally call Scamp and I spoke to Wayne. He was honest and very acomadating. He gave us the names and phone numbers of people that bought Scamps in our area. So we did go look at 1 13 foot and thats what we needed. After seeing it there was no question about the quality and conveinance of the 13 ft. Scamp. We orderes it and added a few options on the advice of the man that showed us his Scamp that he said he had wished he had ordered. The price was really right. The delivery cost was $800.00 but it beat driving there and back from New Jersey. Go ahead and get it , they are much lighter than the Casita's and you will be glad you did . It beats ANY POP-UP any time. Have fun. We use our 96 Corolla to tow it, I added a trans cooler& a oil cooler and ordered the electric brakes as well. See you at the camp. Dan M

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HI Dan
Good for you guys.I know you all will have lots of good times in you New FIBERGLASS RV.

:wave

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Orginally posted by Eric C
Hi all...
:conf After a year or so of hemming and hawing and missing out on a few used eggs, I am 99.9% sure of purchasing a new egg from Scamp. I spoke with both Scamp and Casita at length and Alan at Scamp seemed to be more in tuned with what I need in a trailer. My question... For those who have purchased new trailers from Scamp, are they as accomodating as they seem? I mean are they just blowing smoke saying yeah not a problem and yeah we can do that until they get the money? I've heard some horror stories about Burro and just want to make sure that something I have wanted for such a long time isn't going to be a nightmare to get.
Thanks for any input!

Hi Eric, We had a positive experience in dealing with Scamp. We purchased a 16' last August, kept it for two months and decided that we wanted a 5th wheel instead. They took back our 16' and sold us a 5th wheel. I'll admit that we lost some money in the swap but the trade was fair. When we picked up the 16' we had not originally ordered it with an awning; when we got there to take delivery we asked if we could add the awning and they quickly got two workers to add the awning on the spot.
Alan was our salesman as well, he is a likeable down to earth type. You can see a picture of Alan in the Scamp factory folder at my clubphoto picture site. Just enter Larry Page at the prompt. All in all, we enjoyed both of our trips to Backus and incidently are going back next week for the addition of cabinets in our 5W bedroom.

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I had my first bad experiance with scamp. We bought it new and took delivery on it on Nov.-1-02. We ordered the electric brakes on it for safty resons because of the Toyota manual recomended them if we tow any trailer over 1000 lbs. and up to a max.wt. of 1500lbs. I kept getting moisture in the car plug end every time it rains. That is, the geen lite on the controler gos on and stays on even though the trailer is not pluged into the car plug. I told scamp about it and to make a long story short, I was told by Ken who turns out to be the owner of the scamp company that " We are not in the besiness of gining away parts". All I wanted was a new plug end for my car so I could reinstall it without having to try to remove all the rtv sealent I used to seal and make it water tight to avoid any problems. I will not and can not recomend scamp at all . We have not even used it once and it is only 5 1/2 months old. After they get their money from you thats it, your screwed. I will have to deal with a camping outlet store to fix this problem. But think twice before buying from scamp.

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Orginally posted by Dan M
I had my first bad experiance with scamp.

I cannot comment on your experience, however Kent Eveland (not Ken) was more than accomidating to take care of a couple of warranty repairs when we were there recently and we found the rest of the staff to be friendly and helpful.
Larry

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Don't get me wrong--we are Casita owners, and happy to be so.

Scamp is certainly a fine trailer and no one should hesitate purchasing a Scamp. It is unfortunate to understand that someone is substantially dissatisfied with the Scamp factory. Or with any fiberglass tt factory, for that matter. Frankly, in a couple of years of discussion on this and other fiberglass trailer web sites, it is highly unusual for hear anything worse than positive suggestions about what improvements we might want those two manufacturers to make. I imagine the Bigfoot owners feel the same way.

Now, if you were thinking of purchasing a new Burro, a better investment would be ocean-front property in Arizona! (Nothing wrong with the Burro trailer, just that the factory has gone ka-put.)

I understand from other posts that Scamp may be a little more accomodating (than Casita) when it comes to customizing. (Casita has a pretty substantial list of options, but doesn't go much beyond that.)

If you want a Scamp, buy it! Don't hesitate, just do it! (By the way, check to see if there is a Scamp dealer in your vicinity--there is a new one in our town. This is apparently a new wrinkle in marketing the Scamp trailers.)

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We worked with Scamp when we were considering whether to buy a new TT or a used one. They were very nice and helpful. After we bought an eleven year old trailer, Scamp was again very helpful with helping us replace parts and do repairs.

Nancy

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I know love is blind, but Scamp did not correct the problem even though it is still under warrenty. I am still waiting for some kind of remody from them. Scamp trailers are very well made and buying a pop up trailer is not the way to go. But not many people know about Scamps they mostly know about pop ups. So thier sales are mostly done by the people that bought one. Asfar as price they are competitive with any pop ups out there, no question. Maybe when I called and spoke to Steve and then Ken ( thats the name he gave me) were both having a bad day, I don't know. What I do know is the problem has yet to be resolved, and why? over such a small problem and minimal cost I should have to pay for ? This is clearly wrong. God forbide if something much more expensive should happen and its still under warrenty. All they have to do is send me the new part and I will do the repair of their product they sold to us myself. Thanks for your time reading this and thanks for this web site, Dan M.:bh :bh

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They basically weigh about the same, folks.

It's all about the word 'options'.

Remember a few years back when the word 'is' was redefined?

List the 'options' and take em to the scales. :)

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It's important in all this to not lose perspective. Unlike some brands of stickbuilts and good ol' Burro, the vast majority of owners of Scamps, Casitas and Bigfeet are quite satisfied. There was a case in Trailer Life mag about Scamp not fixing a broken frame on a 10 year old trailer and there was a dissatisfied Casita owner who published his woes, so neither manf is perfect, but compared to the number of units out here, I believe their records are remarkable.

Certainly the fact that there are so many Bolers, Trilliums, UHauls, Acorns, PlayHouses, etc., still in use even 'tho the builders have been out of the business for decades speaks for the longevity of the basic trailer. Most of the hardware and appliances are run-of-the-mill stuf used in the entire industry.

Pete and Rats

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Orginally posted by Dan M

I had my first bad experiance with scamp. We bought it new and took delivery on it on Nov.-1-02. We ordered the electric brakes on it for safty resons because of the Toyota manual recomended them if we tow any trailer over 1000 lbs. and up to a max.wt. of 1500lbs. I kept getting moisture in the car plug end every time it rains. That is, the geen lite on the controler gos on and stays on even though the trailer is not pluged into the car plug. I told scamp about it and to make a long story short, I was told by Ken who turns out to be the owner of the scamp company that " We are not in the besiness of gining away parts". All I wanted was a new plug end for my car so I could reinstall it without having to try to remove all the rtv sealent I used to seal and make it water tight to avoid any problems. I will not and can not recomend scamp at all . We have not even used it once and it is only 5 1/2 months old. After they get their money from you thats it, your screwed. I will have to deal with a camping outlet store to fix this problem. But think twice before buying from scamp.

Bear with me on this, Dan. I have to scribble to think.
1. You bought a Scamp trailer.
2. Scamp put the brake controller on the tow vehicle for you.
3. the tow vehicle plug gets water logged.
I'm assuming this is correct?
Why aren't you talking to the controller people?
If it's put in wrong you would have some backing from the controller company when you talk to Scamp. If installation was correctly done, then your problem is with the controller company. or there could be strange and unusual circumstances that neither feel responsible. who would be, I'm don't know. there are to many maybes here.

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That the socket on the tow vehicle floods is a problem in the design of the socket, and it is a problem common to most brands out there. If the situation is that the plug is now too corroded to be cleaned up and used, then either the manufacturer or Scamp (as an authorized re-seller for the manufacturer) probably should replace it. However, if the problem is that the end user shot it full of silicone to try to seal it, and now can't get it back apart to clean the contacts and connections, then that is a user-modified situation, and nobody's warranty will cover that. It could, in fact (from a legal, but not necessarily practical standpoind), void the warranty on the entire brake system, from the controller back to the trailer wheels.

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paul said:

"That the socket on the tow vehicle floods is a problem in the design of the socket, and it is a problem common to most brands out there."
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Gee, I dunno Paul, the 7 prong Bargman plug is widely used, kind of an industry standard. That you've had trouble with the installation of this plug on your tow vehicle is a bad deal, but perhaps a hitch specialist in your area could sort it out.

The charge wire on my plug came undone. Yeah, it was aggrivating at the time. But it wasn't the first (and won't be the last) thing to 'go wrong', just a speed bump in the hiway of life.

========

Wait a minute....."geen lite on the controler gos on and stays on even though the trailer is not pluged into the car plug." ........isn't this normal on some Tekonsha controllers???

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When our plug was attached outside we were lucky to get two years out of one, and that was not without a lot of cleaning after a winter. Often it would need taking apart and the corrosion cleaned off of it between summer camps. Now we have it wired inside the van and a long wire on it so we can keep it inside and it just hangs out the back when we need it hooked up. We've not had a problem since.
Nancy

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Who put the plug on the vehicle? This is who you should be seeing. and secondly why in the world would you fill it with rtv which seals in moisture!
if you are going to fill the back of the connector with anything fill it with dielectric grease which repels moisture

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......or KY (petroluem) jelly.

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Rick:
I think KY jelly is water soluable, I sugest real Petroleum Jelly. At least for Trailer work. Altho there are many good electrolitic greases out there. Ask a local electrician what would be good , they put in a lot of stuff outdoors in wet areas.