Preparing a 1991 Scamp 16

[honda03842]

We arrived home yesterday.

If you have never been to a Fiberglass Rally and own or are considering a Fiberglass trailer you need to attend or visit a rally. We went to the Sebring FL rally as walk-ins for two days. It was a great learning lesson. Best of all you get to see a lot of variety in a short time with friendly folks just anxious to show you their rig.

Many of the things we've done were spured by this visit.

Our trip home went just fine. We covered the 500 miles in three days, taking the coastal Maine route, little hilly in the northern part, ton's of small towns we love. We averaged between 22 nad 23 mpg while towing.

Now it's onto our shakedown cruise list and a few more new additions, afterall we alked thru another 40 or so rigs.

Norm

[honda03842]

We had a lot of people go thru our Scamp at the PEI rally. The most coveted modification of the numerous we made was the Close Line, apparantly every body has wet towels they want to dry. This was followed by the smaller table that opens up the floor plan.

During our travels we also had three parking lot tours, each lasted at least a half hour, all couples, all by non-RV owners, and all retired or near so.

We always take time to give tours, leave them with one of our RV cards and lastly give them the link to fiberglassforum.

Norm

[honda03842]

I've added a shelf to the front bathroom wall to contain things like shaving cream, shampoo, meds and the like. It is attached to the two members I added for our new over the couch hanging closet located on the other side of this wall..

I plan to add a similar shelf over the toilet near the ceiling.

Though it can not be seen in the first picture there is a similar wooden member on the right side of the shelf. Just below the shelf I added a small brass grab handle.

Norm

[honda03842]

When I built our clothes line, I wondered if the approach could serve for a simple and quick awning using longer poles. So I bought two longer poles, 10 feet and replaced the 4' clothes line poles. I covered it with an old sheet. I will say it looks like a feasible solution.

In this case the poles are tensioned with a piece of garden twine pack to the vent.

Norm

[cpaharley2008]

Norm,
Do you carry that ladder with you in your travels?

[honda03842]

We don't carry a ladder. The only thing I need one for is washing the roof and usually someone has one, particularly the big rigs.

I plan to Red Max the Scamp before we take off. Hopefully that will make it easier to clean.

I've been looking at some light weight, water proof materials to make the awning, similar to the material used for Kayak waterproof bags.

I was thinking I could carry the three poles under the trailer with the awning material, maybe rolled around the cross pole.

Norm

[Vickie B.]

OK---here's the deal----I am almost "finished" with Bean's remodel. At this point, I should STAY AWAY FROM THIS WEBSITE! Or maybe just stay away from the posts from the people I know will have ideas I want to do---like YOU Norm! That clothesline/awning mod is the bomb! Ginny is a lucky, lucky lady!

[honda03842]

i've begun installation of our 5000 btu air conditioner. I cut out the lower front portion of the hanging closet and cut two series of vent holes in the closet floor.

One group of holes exhausts the hot air and the other allows cool air in. The are seperated by a baffle under the trailer to prevent hot air from coming back in.

The exhaust side has two muffin fans blowing out to speed the hot air out.

I have mounted the ac unit as a test and ran it for a couple of hours. The exhaust air temperature stabilized at 118 F. This seems reasonable to me but I have nothing to reference.

If the exhaust temperature does get out of control, I can always add two muffin fans on the intake side.

Inside the closet, the cool intakes are seperated from the exhaust side by a foam barrier.

I have been taking pictures and will provide a complete series of the installation.

Norm

[honda03842]

I began by cutting the bottom part of the front of the hanging closet. First I outline it with Blue painters tape to keep from maring the fiberglass surface. I cut down to the closets floor. The air conditioner is 11 inches high.

This required removing the lower door. I am going to re attach the door higher up. Before I do that I'll cut the front up to the bottom of the upper cabinet. This volume will become a clothes hamper. We keep a green laundry bag in there that we put our dirty clothes into.

Next I cut 4 holes in the floor. The rear hole is the exhaust hole for hot air. Two muffin fans will blow the hot exhaust air down an under the trailer. The muffin fans are screwed to four wooden blocks that serve to support the fans and channel the hot air doward to the exhaust hole. The muffin fans run on 12 VDC and are controlled by a switch beside the AC. Obviously these fans need to be turned on before operating the AC.

In front of the muffin fans are three holes, one at each end and a longer hole in the middle. This is the supply side of cool air that blows through the rear coils and out of the trailer.

These holes have a 1x3 wall on each side to insure the hot exhause air does not recirculate. There are also foam pieces that go up each side of the air conditioner for the same purpose.

Underneath the trailer is a baffle that seperates the hot exhaust side from the cool inlet side. Presently for the test the baffle is made of cardboard. I'll show a picture when I make the real baffle.

Right now I am running a test to see that it cools. It is down to 73 in here right now and the exhaust temperature has climbed to 117 in a little over an hour

It may be that I'll need to power the supply side with a muffin fan or two; I'll do further testing.

I had planned to buy a new air conditioner and not use this older model. The ideal unit would not have sloped output fins, but rather the straight across variety.

I have not installed a water drain yet. I plan to use the drain hole on the rear, installing some kind of fitting and hose in it.

As a reference point the Air Conditioner weighs 32 pounds.

Norm

[honda03842]

Interestingly the exhaust temperature dropped to 110 degrees after running for four hours from 117F. It seems to work fine without adding fans on the inlet side.

Tomorrow I plan to add a drain to the for the water. It appears that the bottom is water tight with a drain hole located in the rear corner. My plan is to tilt the AC towards the rear and add a water tight drain hose about a 1/2 inch in diameter long enough to reach at least the center of the trailer.

Hopefully it'll be fully installed tomorrow with more pictures.

Norm

[John_M]

Looks great Norm. I have wanted to do something like this when i finally get my Scamp, but was worried about not getting enough ventilation through the floor. Sounds like the fans are going to work.. I had also thought about installing something like the outside vent on my house where my clothes dryer tube exits through the wall. I thought about installing it with the opening facing towards the back of the trailer to prevent any possible water from entering while towing in the rain, but then again I don't even know if it would be needed.

[honda03842]

John M,

I've seen some one on this site that used a dryer vent. I think the guy with the Boler video today. He led the hose to the roof where it's protected by a rear facing vent cover. It looks really nice.

I was trying to do it without cutting the outside fiberglass. I think a pair of muffin fans is a small price to pay to eliminate fiber glass holes. If I decide to add another pair on the inlet side it's only another $20 or so. I think this is a minimum volume installation for an internal air conditioner.

In general I'm opposed to roof top units, they always seem outsized for little rigs and disturb the roofline's air flow. We can easily afford the loss of storgage space since we've added so much.

Our air conditioner is smaller than the typical RV AC unit, 5000 BTUs but I think it's enough. I like the fact that it draws only 4.9 amps. Interestingly someone on this site ran one with one of those $100, 1000 watt generators.

Norm

[John_M]

I'm sorry Norm, after rereading my post I realize I wasn't too clear about the dryer vent. My intent was to use it underneath the trailer, on the vent holes there. I am not sure how wet the underside of the floor gets while towing - it might not be needed at all. I am in the same camp as you about cutting the fiberglass - don't want to do it at all if I don't have to.

[cpaharley2008]

this is what is under the Egg Camper for a/c ventilation with screen behind
SEA DOG Vent at West Marine

[Markz]

Originally Posted by John_M

I'm sorry Norm, after rereading my post I realize I wasn't too clear about the dryer vent. My intent was to use it underneath the trailer, on the vent holes there. I am not sure how wet the underside of the floor gets while towing - it might not be needed at all. I am in the same camp as you about cutting the fiberglass - don't want to do it at all if I don't have to.

The Dryer vents I used on my install can be closed tight for traveling. I unscrew them when making camp. The roof vent has never leaked, even when it was buried under four feet of snow. However, if water does find its way down the exhaust pipe it would merely leak into the air conditioner, then into the (water/air sump) and out the bottom air intake vent. This was done by molding the "sump" liner into the uncured spray foam and creating a channel for the water to pour out the bottom vent. I tested it by pouring water into the exhaust pipe (on the roof) to be sure; yep it comes right out the bottom of the camper. Granted it has a few bumps on the way down.

BTW: I love this thread. The mods within are most impressive. Keep them coming.

Thanks,
Markz

[John_M]

Just checked out your thread on the a/c install Markz - very nice job indeed. And I agree about this thread, I've had it bookmarked for ages now, well before I joined the site - it's like Norm never sleeps!!!

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

this is what is under the Egg Camper for a/c ventilation with screen behind
SEA DOG Vent at West Marine

Thanks Jim

I bought two delivered to a local store. No shipping charge or taxes.

Norm

[honda03842]

John M,

I actually sleep a lot more than I did when I worked, typically 7 hours.

I'm working hard because I have to get it ready for 9 months of travel. There's not much I can do once we leave NH.

Norm

[honda03842]

John M,

I painted the bottom of my trailer white, planning some day to paint it with white Herculiner, Truck Bed paint.

I painted it before PEI and we drove thru some mud but found very little on the bottom of the trailer. Before I install the bottom hole covers I will have painted the inside of the cutouts and then covered the edges with aluminum tape, overlapping the edges. (I have already gone around and painted all thru holes and filled the holes with forever putty.)

I think most floors rot from the top where water can puddle, not the bottom. However in taking a trailer apart I noticed that some of the thru holes were softened.

It's amazing how much heat the air conditioner pumps out. I still haven't figured out the baffle between the hot and cool side. A taped on piece of cardboard is doing it for now.

Norm

[Markz]

Originally Posted by honda03842

It's amazing how much heat the air conditioner pumps out. I still haven't figured out the baffle between the hot and cool side. A taped on piece of cardboard is doing it for now.

Norm

I was amazed as well, the exhaust pipe got hot enough to counteract the cold air being produced. Insulating the exhaust pipe cured that issue.

Markz