Lots of Scamp modifications

[Thomas Haney]

A handful of old friends contacted me and asked me to resurect an old line of discussion which has been lost due to malicious individuals wrecking this fantastic website.

[Thomas Haney]

I found some pictures of someone else's trailer that reminded me of what condition mine was when I first bought my Scamp Trailer. The condition is very very similar to what I faced when I brought this wreck home


My 76 scamp was hardly worth the $300 I spent on it originally...
Rotten floors, leaky windows, rivets and no roof vent (just a hole).
The roof sagged in center and puddled and leaked.

No trailer lights, rotten cushion foam with mice living in them....
Door falling off with many holes from attempted remounts. There was mold and mildew on every surface. The seller was kind enough to empty a can of lysol in it just before I arrived.

What wood cabinet doors and table tops were left were swollen with moisture and irrepairable.

But I allways wanted an egg.

[Thomas Haney]

First thing I did was take out everything... all rivets, all cabinets, and replaced the wooden floor where it was rotten. I cut 4" round drain holes into the floor front and back and then spent days scrubbing with tilex, ajax, and simple green and a garden hose on high pressure. The floor holes I cut allowed the water I was spraying inside to drain out whether it was ponding in front or back depending on the tilt of the trailer. I then put 4" PVC plumbing screw caps into the drain holes to serve as plugs for the floor drains

After that, I linoleumed the floor and installed all lights. I found surface mounted tail lights for which I cut holes and they don't protrude at all. See picture. I added electric input to charger/inverter and battery. Rebuilt door: removed interior skin that was sloughing off, remounted and sealed door window, epoxeyed old hinge mount holes and remounted door solidly. Pain.
Did find nice marine epoxey paste called PC-11. Highly recommended.

Cut all new cabinet doors and table from Birch plywood and put many coats of finish. New cabinet hinges and re-riveted everything back in. Used PC-11 in every rivet hole to assure of permanent seal.

[Thomas Haney]

more

[Thomas Haney]

Next critical thing I had to do was deal with the sagging roof and missing roof vent. I bent conduit into a roof rack to use to lift sag in roof and add mounting place for awning and rooftop storage.

At the rear I mounted a SUV type cargo rack for reciever hitches and made it flip up or down since I had the nice conduit frame to attach to. Flipped up gets it out of the way for parking in tight spaces while in storage. On this flip up frame/rack I mounted an outdoor storage box that locks all my grilling/stove items and other bulky lightweight things.

Then I determined how I'd like to paint the egg. Didn't remind me of any insects or animals so I went with the cottage theme. Sharpie outlines filled with acryllic color paint.

[Thomas Haney]

some more

[Thomas Haney]

more pics

[Thomas Haney]

a closer look

[Thomas Haney]

Next came a little interior attetion.
There was no salvaging any piece of interior wood.
I chose to remake all cabinet doors and table out of birch plywood.
With the right finish it gave me a look of maple, a favorite.
Well, faux maple at birch price, but real wood non-the-less.
A 3/4 inch laminated butcher block-type countertop was cut for a nice double sink and installed.

I choose to not have a stove built in because if I want I have the choice of using area as a table top where I can put a small stove when I want.
I've always prefered cooking outdoors when possible. I have much superior outdoor equipment.

[Thomas Haney]

Here is how the outside finished. Sort of. Is it ever finished?
The roof rack has three permanentl solar panels horizontally mounted, though they are hard to see behind the black solar pathlights. I place the pathlights up top aimed at the sun and relocate them around trailer in evening.

The left rear window behind the chimney was broken. I replaced it with a sheet of plexiglass that I can remove easily from the inside leaving just the aluminum frame open. Into this opening I mount a small 5000 BTU air conditioner which I can run off my Honda EU 1000i. I can mount the AC only if the weather demands. I often camp in hot locations.

[Thomas Haney]

I removed the icebox and in it's place installed an Aquastar LP demand water heater. it still left good undercabinet space which I filled with that white wire shelving.
Birch ply for tall cabinet adjustable shelves, installed an old car stereo above the shelves since it is not utilized space.

Here are some interior shots

[Thomas Haney]

For curtains I lucked out at the fabric store.
On sale, light colored textured fabric that reminded me almost of wood. Less than 2 bucks a yard! Because of the great fabric deal, I splurged and bought this thermal curtain liner stuff to sew into the curtains. This stuff is a four layer thermal blanket with a silver mylar layer like space blankets plus a vapor barrier, cotton batting and a fine white fabric outer layer. Sewn all together on a garage sale sewing machine, these curtains keep almost all light and heat. I can sleep until late in the day and I don't even know it's light outside. It keeps heat in, or heat out. I made a curtain that fits the roof vent too.

I riveted snaps inside so they can also be pulled tight against the windows.
Does anyone recognize what the window crank knob is?

[Thomas Haney]

The fiberglass curved door had relaxed over time and left quite a gap at the bottom.
I ran cable top to bottom with turnbuckles to tighten the curve up. Not a beautiful solution, but cheap, adjustable, easy, and coincides with the name I gave this beast. The Skimp. Almost everything but that dang water heater was stuff I had lying around or could get for free.

[Thomas Haney]

And here's a picture of it actually being used at Burningman.
I learned that indeed, a scamp CAN look like some kind of bug.

[Thomas Haney]

I might raise a few questions about the water heater?
here is a picture of the 15 gal spray tank that supplies the running water

I paste the clip from a legacy post:


Dear Maggie O....

You're not pestering me.
In one of the above photographs you'll see under the galley a white tall thing. It is an Aquastar 38B LP. It is a demand/tankless water heater. It runs off propane and does not require power of any sort. It will heat water for as long as water flows through it. The moment water flow stops, the burners shut down. A pilot light stays lit waiting for water to flow again.

The output goes up to my sink faucet. It also has a "Tee" and valve that goes to another hose that I drilled a hole through the fiberglass body for. that hose terminates at the body with a garden hose fitting that from the outside I can connect a short line to a shower head with an inline valve that I can shut off the flow with.

The reason I have a valve under the galley for this shower tap and another valve on the shower itself is that I want to have a shutoff right at the shower, and when the shower is not connected I can positively shut off the water so I don't get any accidental flow to this outside tap. I guess it will keep strangers from coming along and taking a long shower too.

The Aquastar heater is a little taller than the inside of my galley so I had to lower the floor in the galley with a wooden box enclosure. That way it didn't stick up through my wooden galley top. The only shorter demand heater is a Paloma. They are no longer made but are available used. I was going to buy one, but ebay people kept bidding them higher than my new Aquastar. Besides parts are available for the Aquastar unlike the Paloma.

My shower curtain is a conduit loop that I connect to my overhead rack shown in other photos above. You can buy a freestanding shower enclosure instead though. You put it up sorta like a tent. I believe Coleman has them.

Other hot shower options are the Zodi and the new llittle coleman thing. Really don't know how well these work.

Anyway, if you see me camping anywhere, just come ask and I'll let you take a shower since you're not a stranger.

[Jana J]

Oh, Tom. Thank you so much for bring pictures of your trailer back to us. It's even better then I remember.

[Suz]

What Jana said.

Thank you, thank you, Tom.

[Donna D.]

Thanks Tom, you're a peach to repost the pics and information

You're truly KING when it comes to resurrecting a very sad egg. This information is important to those who wonder if it's even possible....you've proved it is

[Christi V.]

Excellent job!

[Thomas Haney]

Donna, Suz, and Jana,
You're welcome and I thank you very much for thinking to ask me.
I always figured that it was old news and since so many people have done so many other awesome things that onward and upward. And I didn't look back.
Also, I too seem to have misplaced a bunch of the pictures I had taken.
I had to scour a bunch of old backup disks just for these.
Also, the legacy post I originally started is located at:
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/index.ph...=16911&hl=skimp

Again, thank you all for the warm invitation back.



Here is a closer look at my friend Sherry's trailer.