Found fiberglass damage/rot on floor/underbelly of 13 footer.

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hardluck
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Last seen: 6 years 9 months ago
Joined: 08/23/2015 - 00:10
Found fiberglass damage/rot on floor/underbelly of 13 footer.

My wife and I purchased this scamp 1 year ago. We have used it 5 times already for some pretty large adventures. I gave it a once over when we bought it, looked underneath extensively, and didn't see anything but am pretty sure this spot has been there for some time.

We both really wanted to factory carpet OUT. It was pretty gross and it gets dirty easily and in 5 outings things have been spilled on it already. 

Ripping up the carpet it appears that 95% of the floor is in great condition with out any signs of leaks ect. Around the door I found a patch of rotting floor. Getting under neath There is damage to a patch of fiberglass underneath. Its stil a small area of floor maybe 6x6 inches? The damage to the fiberglass underneath appears to be vertical however as if the scamp was run into something or maybe rocks damaged it? But I don't really know for sure.

We have not noticed any obvious leaks using the camper in rain but again the carpet kind of covered this area up really well.  Obviously I feel like this has been something going on for some time (I keep the scamp in a garage and so it has only been rained on 2-3 times while owned by us).

What I am not sure of is do you think this is caused by a leak in the scamp higher up and draining down (Say the main door as this is the corner that is affected and I suspected at first before I found the verticle damage underneath the body. Or do you think water is getting in while driving underneath and then causing this damage?

And then what is the best method for repair? I am sure I need to identify the source of the leak first before a true answer, but it appears the fiberglass underneath needs to be patched. Probably a job for a pro? There is a body shop down the road that always has RV's because it does body work for them. I had him pull a dent out of my car once and it seemed reasonable when all anyone else would do was replace the whole bumper. I might be able to get some other smaller body jobs done as well that the scamp needs.

Greg A
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Joined: 11/02/2013 - 20:45
Flooring

Hey Hardluck!

First, there is no rot in fiberglass. What we're looking at is the plywood sub flooring on a Scamp which can be subject to rot. Just from the pictures, this looks more like staining from a leak more so than complete rot through. If you take a sharp awl can you penetrate through the area or is it still pretty solid?

The underneath is most likely just a fiberglass cloth and resin Scamp uses around the perimeter of the sub-floor.

Once we get the Awl test results posted with the extent of any rot we can proceed with a fix. Rest assured, though, that this doesn't really look too bad and worse case is still a pretty easy resolution. In the meantime, you need to locate the leak area and get that resolved. Since it is the door area, it looks to be the door seal. ScampTrailers parts department is selling a brand new redesigned door seal that looks pretty good for $25 which I just ordered for my 19 Scamp and will report back as several others have on the install.

Our Trailers:
2015 19 Escape

Buying or Selling Molded FG Trailers:

Fiberglass-RV-4Sale

hardluck
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Last seen: 6 years 9 months ago
Joined: 08/23/2015 - 00:10
The door edge on the floor

The door edge on the floor was actually the least affected area. The screw driver went right through it with a little force. The "step" under the bench was the worst. Basically the entire peice of plywood for the passenger side front storage compartment was rotted and soft. Someone had used spray foam on it previously if the far corner I never really noticed I believe in an attempt to seal the leak. 

The photo I posted of the underside of the scamp is a hole in the fiberglass you can stick your finger through. I assume it must have been struck by something and especially when driving when its raining the underside of this scamp gets dowsed witih water and it just soaks in here. We have never really notice a leak around the door or anything. It appears that the most soaked and disentigrating wood was over the storage compartment and around the door edge it is gravity dependant as there was still some wood "structure" while the compartment wood was completely crumbling. 

I found a local body shop guy that does RV work. Obviously its more expensive for him to repair it then for me to spend a couple days leaning to do fiberglass patch ect but I felt this was better suited to someone else, so did my wife and it is her trailer technically. She doesn't like me messing with it as much as I already have :P But I did at least save a few hours in labor getting the bench and screen door sill out. Just have to put them back in once it is all patched up.

Thanks again!.

Charles & Martha (1990 Scamp 13)

ELongest
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Joined: 11/02/2013 - 20:13
Floor issues

Floor issues

The walkway between the closet and front bench is a separate piece of plywood for that area. It has a joint running from the corner of the closet to front bench.  The floor is supported on the sides by metal frame lips, frame under the trailer and a piece of angle iron near the door sill.  (not too difficult to repair) Mostly caused by a door seal leak.

The vertical wood blocking. This is critical since it supports and determines the door frame spacing and shape. The fwd. is a metal walkway frame horn extends from the main frame rail to near the door frame. A piece of wood is cut to conform to the arch of the shell and to fit into the frame horn. The wood is screwed to the frame rail and glassed to the shell. Then everything is covered with cloth and resin. Rot caused by damaged or bad fiberglass covering. This glass work is usually very rough. Spacing and and alignment is critical in this area.

Front storage cabinet floor door side damage. Caused by leaky window, clearance light leak, belly band leak or door hinge bolt leaks. The front bench has to be removed to repair. You can repair only one side but I usually find the front and both sides bad due to front window leaks and just replace the whole front floor section. Removing the the front pass. floor can make the door support much easier.

Materials will cost less than $100. But figure a few of days to to do the repairs. Shell/floor repair is a dirty job but no finish glass work is required, if you are handy it can be a DIY Job. (With guidance of someone who has done one before.)

Eddie

 

 

hardluck
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Joined: 08/23/2015 - 00:10
Thanks for the info.

Thanks for the info. Hopefully the body shop does a great job and we don't have any further issues for some times down the road. I will probably handle any future jobs but you never know. My wife thinks I do a ok job at most repairs around the house and sometimes she wants it done right. We trust this body shop plus it is the only shop I've seen that has 20 RV's parked at it constantly for repairs. So it seems everyone brings theirs to this guy and the previous work he did for us was reasonable so.. fingers crossed.

Charles & Martha (1990 Scamp 13)

Erik14
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Last seen: 5 years 3 weeks ago
Joined: 02/15/2019 - 11:49
I repaired several spots of

I repaired several spots of rot in the subfloor of my 13' and then i coated the entire underside of the trailer with flex seal to prevent any further deterioration.  Most of the rot however is caused be water dripping down the inside of the trailer behind the rat fur.