New 2020 Scamp Creaking/Door Issues

[BLTscamp]

Hello, all. We just picked up our brand new Scamp 13’ (no bath) last week—exciting day! After a few nights spent near Backus, we started camping our way back to Seattle, so pleased with our Scamp. Then suddenly one evening, a loud creaking noise started in the front, door-side corner. We first noticed it when sitting on the sofa/bench and moving about the adjacent floor space. Then, when we went to close the door for the night, the creaking/popping noise happened as we swung the door towards the door frame. And the bottom, hinge-side of the door scuffed the bottom of the door frame, which it hadn’t done before.

We confirmed we’d leveled the trailer correctly, then took it out of level and leveled again, but to no avail. It had been hard closing the door before, but now it’s even more difficult, like something has warped. We’ve noticed the door latch is barely catching now, and the gasket compression around the door is uneven. And the creaking and flexing noise sounds awful. We’ve crawled around under the trailer to check things out, and we’ve noticed there is a lot of sagging/flexing of the floor when someone is moving around inside. Is that normal? Is this flexing and creaking to be expected, and at 5 days into it’s life outside of the factory?

Thanks so much for any thoughts and insights. We will be calling Scamp, but having poured over these forums and learned so much from you all (thank you!), thought we’d see if anyone else has experienced this or had some ideas on what to check.

Thank you and Cheers,
Laura

[Raz]

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear you're having a problem, especially with a brand new trailer. If possible, I would head back to the factory. They will certainly know what to do. Check the frame under the door. If that's good then it could be the hinges were not installed correctly. They need to be parallel. Measure the distance from any screw in the top hinge to the screw in the same position in the bottom hinge. Now repeat the measurement with any other pair. Are they the same? They should be. If not, the hinges are not parallel and as you move the door they are being twisted. It could be something else but based on what youve said that's where I would start. At the very least call the factory. Good luck.

[Jon in AZ]

Scuffing the door threshold sounds normal- mine has a metal bar at the hinge side corner that functions as a guide. It think it’s intended to cause a little flexing of the door at the bottom to make a tighter seal. The uneven seal compression is common with the curved door. As long as you can’t see light from the inside looking out, I’d call it good.

Not sure how much flexing of the floor is normal, but you can probably see how the drop floor where you walk is only supported by flat steel bars. The subfloor is 3/4” OSB. I am average build and hadn’t really noticed anything I’d consider excessive. Do make sure when you deploy the stabilizers you take enough weight off the wheels so it’s not tire flex you’re feeling. Sounds like you have done that.

The creaking and popping is NOT normal. It could, as Raz says, be an indication of misaligned hinges. When they first switched to that style of hinge they had some serious bugs- including hinges that cracked and a couple of doors that fell off. Scamp blamed it on defective hinges, but I’ve always suspected misalignment was a contributing factor. Thought they had it ironed out, but maybe not. Definitely call Scamp right away. I’d look closely for any deformation of the fiberglass near the hinges when you close the door.

[RSchleder]

Our 2007 13' deluxe was bought new and it has NEVER made any noises similar to the ones your describing!

[BLTscamp]

Thanks, Raz. I’ll measure to see if our hinges are parallel. I had not run across that suggestion before, but it makes sense. It’s been harder to find information on the new style hinges since there’s less experience with them.

We do like the idea of heading right back to the factory, but, as my husband has pointed out, we have the minor obstacles of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota between us and the factory, not to mention limited vacation time.

[BLTscamp]

Thanks for your helpful reply, Jon. We did notice that metal door slide bar, and your explanation adds to our understanding of why it’s there. Our concerns only arose when it went from the door not making a sound (or much of one) as it slid along that bar to really scraping along it. Good to know the uneven seal compression is common. I’d meant to check if we could see light from the inside looking out, but forgot to in the midst of all the other crawling around—I’ll go do that.

We hadn’t really noticed the floor flexing from the inside. It just surprised us when one person was looking under the trailer, checking the frame, and could see exactly where the other person was moving their feet to when moving around (we’re average build, too). Just wondered if we had more flex than usual, causing something else to flex and create the noise and door issues. Perhaps not a problem at all though.

Good to know the creaking and popping is not normal. We’d wanted to attend some rallies and maybe rent a Scamp before our build began (or we found a used one), but with everything being cancelled, we’d only seen one Scamp in person before picking ours up, so we don’t have much to draw on for comparison. I’d read some about the issues with the new hinges, and we’ve been keeping an eye on ours and the fiberglass around them. I’ll check for that deformation you mention. It’s alarming to hear some doors have fallen off…

Thanks again!

[BLTscamp]

Originally Posted by RSchleder

Our 2007 13' deluxe was bought new and it has NEVER made any noises similar to the ones your describing!

Good to know, thanks! We'll keep trying to figure it out...

[BLTscamp]

We called Scamp, and they’ve recommended we take it to a body shop to get it checked out. They asked about our recent weather, and we noted the day the noise and door issues began, we had a hot day (high 90s) followed by a cool evening (low 50s). They wonder if the temperature shifts affected our young fiberglass shell. I will start a new thread to ask about recommendations for a body shop in the Seattle area.

Thanks again for the help! We're still going to follow up on the suggestions made here and do more research as we get an appointment set up at a body shop. We’re impatient to get back in the Scamp and out camping...

[RSchleder]

If you do decide to go to a bodyshop when you reach Seattle, suggest you pick one that has fiberglass (corvettes) experience. Some repair corvettes and others choose not to get involved with them. Because of this, there may be shops that really can't help you much with potential problems/shifts in the Scamp fiberglass shell. So sorry that you are having an issue with your brand new scamp. I will say, issues with new RV's are pretty much par for the course. We've owned 12 Rv's, most of them new and unfortunately regardless of how much we paid for them, problems during the first few months or so is pretty normal!
Good luck and all the best!

[AC0GV]

Originally Posted by BLTscamp

Good to know, thanks! We'll keep trying to figure it out...

Scamp uses a different hinge style now. The old ones had a brass ball and could get noisy also, but a drop of oil fixed that.

[BLTscamp]

Thanks for the tip, Ron. We’ll research body shops that specialize in corvettes, see if any would be willing to look at our Scamp.

I appreciate your reassurance that what we’re going through is pretty normal. We knew something (or some things) would probably go awry and need fixing, but this particular problem was not on our radar. It’s rough not being able to go camping now, but we’ll get there. Hopefully sooner rather than later. With 12 RV’s, you must have seen most everything they can throw at you!

Thanks again, and all the best!

[RSchleder]

Another thought on where to have the Scamp shell checked out--a boat repair shop should be really qualified as they probably repair fiberglass everyday of the week.
Good luck

[BLTscamp]

Thanks, Kenneth. Our hinges haven't made a peep yet--all the noise has been coming from the floor and walls--but I imagine they'll get noisy some day, so I'll keep your tip in mind. That reminds me, some door hinges in our house have been noisy lately though!

[BLTscamp]

We had the same thought about a boat shop, and we're looking into that possibility. Brad's work place is right next to one, so that would be handy... Thanks again, Ron!

[BLTscamp]

After having to stay inside during 8+ days of unhealthy air quality due to the wildfires, we finally got a chance to get outside and really look at our Scamp again. (Our thoughts and prayers are with those still being affected by the fires.) We’re wondering if any of the following sounds/looks normal, or if someone might spot something we completely overlooked as a possible cause of our woes.

We have an indentation or dimple in our fiberglass from the closet rivet above the belly band, and it looks like that may be normal, based on this prior forum thread:https://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/...ght-86150.html . We also have an indentation below the belly band, where there is no rivet. It curves back out just before it reaches the door frame and strike plate. Wondering if that’s normal? Not sure how well it will show up in a photo, but I’ll attach one here.



Right now, our theory is something on the hinge side of the door has flexed or come loose in some way. We mostly get the creaking/popping noise, which we believe is coming from the fiberglass shell, when we step on the floor along the front of the bench, when we sit on the bench, when we press on the wall next to the door, and when we open/close the door. We also found that, oddly, if we remove the drywall screw holding the wood frame of the screen door to the bench, it makes the camper door harder to open and close, and the door scrapes more dramatically along that bar at the bottom of the doorframe, like something has flexed even further. Since the screen door is an option that not everyone orders, I would not expect it to be part of the structure holding the doorframe in shape. Frustratingly, we still can’t see exactly what part or surface is flexing. We can feel vibrations in the shell, though.

Below are some photos I took under the doorway/bench area. Is the crackling in the black coating a sign of something?





If anyone has some thoughts or ideas of what to possibly check next, we’d very much appreciate it. Thank you!

Cheers,
L

P.S. We may take Raz’s advice and take our Scamp back to the factory. We’re having a hard time getting into a good local shop—they’re all booked out and can’t squeeze us in anytime soon for a look-see to let us know if they’d even be able to do anything. We’re trying to see what we can figure out in the meantime as we work on other small fixes and prep for a trip.

[RSchleder]

Laura,
I believe taking your Scamp back to the factory is an EXCELLENT idea. Although these units are certainly not in the high cost arena, they are not cheap. You need to have a Scamp that you can enjoy and travel in with full confidence for many years to come. I really don't believe you have that situation at this time.
The dimples in your pictures are difficult for me to see, however, my 2007 13' deluxe has none of what you describe. If you decide to go to Backus, I know Scamp will treat you right and will take care of your problems one way for another.
Thank you for sharing your experience and good luck in which ever you decide to do! Ron

[Raz]

Originally Posted by BLTscamp

P.S. We may take Raz’s advice and take our Scamp back to the factory. We’re having a hard time getting into a good local shop—they’re all booked out and can’t squeeze us in anytime soon for a look-see to let us know if they’d even be able to do anything. We’re trying to see what we can figure out in the meantime as we work on other small fixes and prep for a trip.

Keep an eye on the weather. While it's early yet, towing in snow is no fun.

[BLTscamp]

Thank you, Ron and Raz. Appreciate your thoughts, which are resonating with our thinking. Cheers! -Laura