5 year restoration of my 2019 16' Scamp

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richsellman
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Joined: 11/29/2017 - 16:54
5 year restoration of my 2019 16' Scamp

3/24/2024

Yes, I finally have things under control and,hopefully, I have fixed  my new16' after picking up in Backus,Mn. on Sept 19, 2019. Things were fine on the way home to California. However, after closer inspection after a few trips, rivets were popping, door hinge screws were coming out, door falling off the hinges. Seat screws were backing out along with others that hold in the cabinets. The bolts that hold the heater grill in place were constantly loosening. The circuit breakers, 110, kept popping off. Eventually, the screen door fell out as the screws came out. The fridge eyebrow kept popping out and the entire fridge came loose from its enclosure. Then I noticed the curbside tire tread was worn unevenly down to the core wires.

Enough is enough and I finally took the Scamp into a local brake and tire place and found out the axle was defective. So he ordered up a new Dexter axle to replace the defective Lippert. During all this my Dometic refrigerator stopped working.

I got zero help from Scamp during all this time and had to trouble shoot all the problems myself. Here's what I had to do to to correct the shoddy construction of my Scamp. Since I didn't know about the cause of all the travel vibration (defective axle) I backed all the doors and hinges with real wood instead of the glue particle board used by Scamp. I was able to use longer screws and glue them in. I had to order a new screen door from Plisse,$330, retractable screens, assembled and re attached it to the door opening. I had to re enforce the inside of the plastic entryway with strips of real wood to fasten the sides of the screen door securely and sandwich the bottom of the screen door with wood strips screwed into the floor. 

All the bouncing from the axle had taken a tool on the refrigerator, that was poorly anchored in its cabinet with strips of particle board that had split where the screws attached from the refrigerator. Scamp was no help, Dometic told me to take it to the nearest Camping World to have it looked at and repaired. Camping World said they wouldn't touch it because I hadn't bought it from them. So I found a service manual, pulled the refrigerator out of the Scamp and eventually tracked down a new controller board (eyebrow) on Ebay in the UK for $300. (Dometic said they would sell me it for $780}. I re enforced the frame of the refer cabinet with real wood and added wood runners on the floor of the cabinet to secure the sides of the refrigerator. The eyebrow and refrigerator are solidly attached now. I retightened all the wires behind the electrical panel as some were loose from all the shaking. I put in a Victron Connect voltage gauge and a Blue Sea Systems battery shutoff. near the entry  in the Scamp.

Lippert reimbursed me for the new Dexter axle.

Two new tires on my Scamp and we are finally ready for our next adventure.

Greg A
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Joined: 11/02/2013 - 20:45
Quite a Journey

Sorry to hear about the Scamp issues. Sounds like you have gone the right path to finally getting the trailer to a better place, and it should serve you now for a long time. Scamp should have stepped up on this one, but haven't personally had any late model Scamps so not familiar with how they are being put together now. Glad Lippert stepped up and reimbursed you for the axle.

Keep us posted on how things are moving forward.

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