Edit: I need some help figuring out why the door on my 13' scamp does not fit correctly.
My Better Half has bought herself a 13' '84 scamp as a project. She is happily tearing out flooring, painting doors and reupholstering away.
In the meantime, when I finish rewiring I get to figure out why the door does not close properly. It appears that that either someone has removed the door and let it sit in the sun and flatten out or, as I read elsewhere here, the doors flatten out on their own??
It also seems to be sagging as the reveal across the top grows between the hing side and the handle side:
There is also a small crack in the FRP on the upper corner of the body of the trailer on the hinge side. It has been there for a while; there is dirt and grime in the crack:
All of the supports were in place when we brought the trailer home; the aluminum body stiffener on the hinge side, the tall pantry cabinet on the other side as well as the two supports between the sink cabinet and the cabinet above. Currently the bent square tube stiffener on the hinge side is out to facilitate removal of the bench, I have also made a new bulkhead from 1/4" lusterboard to replace the old water damaged bulkhead that is on the front side of the entry (attached to the aluminum stiffener) There is some water damage hear, I suspect this is where the sag is coming from:
There are also stress cracks in the gelcoat on both hinges:
The crack in the fiberglass tells me something has sagged/shifted so before we go and purchase a door from Scamp I am hoping someone here has some additional ideas. Is it just the water damaged area? I can lift on the front corner of the body and see a slight movement of the door.
We have new hinges I will try that and see what happens but I am hoping someone here has some additional suggestions.
One additional question, how do I rotate my pictures???? If I right click on any picture there is a little icon that says image properties. inside that dialog box there is an Icon that appears to be a rotate symbol but all that happens when I click on it is the image goes back to it origional dimensions from when I took it. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks!!
Sam
I think it is a common problem with Scamp that the doors don't fit well. I know the door on my 2015 13 Scamp does not fit well. Scamp should work on improving the design maybe even figuring out how to have a flat door.
Can't see the interiror so I don't know if you have all the roof support. People remove them without knowing and the roof sags, door no longer lines up.
The interior closet, a 3/4" Aluminum bar to the front side of the interior door, and the wrought iron supports between the upper and lower kitchen cabinets.
If you have all of those the door core sometimes rots out and there are some posts of folks that have rebuilt the door. The first step is to make sure your roof is correctly supported.
To answer your photo question it is the new phones, ipads that strip the exis info off the photos causing sideways pics. I'll rotate them, but it needs to be done in photo editing software to keep them in correct orientation.
Our Trailers:
2015 19 Escape
Buying or Selling Molded FG Trailers:
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Greg, Athern,
Thanks for the replies. All of the supports were on the trailer when we brought it home. I currently have the aluminum bar you described out until the front bench goes back in this next week when I finish up the electrical.
I do not se anything obvious on the door that would lead me to believe the core is rotted out. I will poke around some more and see what I find.
Thank you for rotating the pictures, in the future I will load them up in my editor.
Sam
This is a common problem for all Scamp owners. I hope they will change the design and technical elements of the door not to cause such issues.
Regularly I bring my car to locksmith n11 for hinge and gasket replacement. The sum I pay for these services isn't high, but it is annoying to waste time and nerves.
Sam, We bought a 1980 16 ft Scamp this summer, and the door has the exact same problems as yours! It sags and there is a significant stress crack in the camper's shell just above the door on the right side. I think the sag is caused by a couple things. First, there was no bulkhead like you show in the 3rd picture to support the overlying wood (the white piece in your picture) which attaches to the body with fiberglass, and thus holds that portion of the body in position...originally. The horizontal piece of wood was cracked and bowing downward near the juncture with shell, causing that portion of the shell by the door to drop down a little.
I am replacing the wood and I'll add a bulkhead, so thanks for your post showing the bulkhead in yours. When I do that, I hope to lift the shell upward a little and support it in that position while I fiberglass the wood to the shell.
Second, I took the door off recently by removing the hinge pin in each door. I did this so we could clean the interior wall of the door, which is that cotton like material and it is really dirty. Also, I wanted to inspect the hinge halves on the door. I took the lower hinge off because it was loose...not just the nuts on the bolts...but it wiggled forward and backwards significantly. One of the bolt holes (the left one in the picture) had enlarged over time to the point where it's a slightly oblong in shape.
The other hole still provides a snug fit with the bolt. Thus, I am thinking that I'll fill the bad hole with fiberglass repair material, and then drill out the hole with the correct diameter. What do you think of that approach? The top hinge is still tightly secured....both halves of it on the shell and on the door, so I'll leave it alone.
We had some welding done on the frame last month because of a few cracks. We hope to have the Scamp road worthy by Spring.
Ken