Hi all! I’m a new owner of a 1998 16ft Scamp. I’ve never owned a FG RV. My husband thinks that since most of the white caps are missing from the rivets that we need to replace ALL the rivets. I don’t agree. The trailer has just one leak at the base of the rear window...which I plan to remove, clean & seal. NONE of the rivets are leaking...and we’ve had some pretty hard rain recently. I’ve seen videos of people adhering new white caps with a dab of silicone. Please let me know any experience you’ve had with this issue. Thx so much!
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 15:00
#1
Replacing rivets
Time consuming, but not a hard or expensive job. Replace rivets and snap caps, anything else is a band-aid.
In the maintenance Table of Contents are some guides to help you accomplish this:
https://www.scampowners.com/forums/maintenance-table-contents
Our Trailers:
2015 19 Escape
Buying or Selling Molded FG Trailers:
Fiberglass-RV-4Sale
Thx so much! I’ll peruse that section.
The snap caps are two part, if the base is good just snap on a new cap. I like to put some sealant on the rivet first but I’m the only one I know that adds that. Use a slightly over sized drill bit, you want to drill the head off, not re-drill the hole. Some have used screws to replace the rivets.
I saw this thread the other day, and like a lot of them here I glanced at it and happily thought I don't have to deal with that yet...WRONG. While washing and waxing my Scamp yesterday prior to my last-hurrah trip of the season, I discovered a popped cap. And a good number of the other caps were discolored and will probably follow suit. I guess I now have a maintenance chore to do before tucking it in for the winter. Ha ha ha, I always think of my Scamp as almost new, but in reality it is six years old! I have been quite fortunate, in 4 years I have only had 3 minor issues.
Rhonda Riebow
Not a hard job once you do the first one! You need to measure your covers then call Scamp and order the snaps and covers if you look at your cover there is a retainer that holds your cover on. I use s/s screws it takes 2 people not hard you need to remove the acorn nut take it to a hardware store and get you screws take the rivit you pushed out by the way for measurments. Good luck
There must be a good reason to use aluminum rivets. Seems like that is SOP. But many folks have discussed using SS machine screws. I wonder if a SS rivet would be a good idea. Obviously more expensive...maybe too hard a material when interacting with fiberglass. Any thoughts? Has anyone tried SS rivets?
SS rivets are very strong and to pull requires a very good rivet tool/gun. I have a pneumatic one for anything bigger than 1/8 inch diameter. Also the nail/pin can actually pull through the rivet and expand the rivet shank rather than break at the point where the rivet is pulled tight to the fiberglass forcing the hole to expand. It might work but proceed carefully.
2019 Scamp 13 standard
I'm in the same boat (camper?) as you. After going back and forth on wether or not to replace all of the rivets, I think I'm going to just replace the ones that have come loose. I ordered caps and washers from Pro-Dec and was lucky enough to inherit a bag of various rivets from the previous Scamp owner. I also got a roll of butyl tape to wrap around the rivets before driving them, as an extra layer of leak protection.
I've gotten a lot of advice from experienced owners not to fix what isn't broken. I'll keep an eye on everything and replace as needed. Good luck!