1985 Scamp --Not Mine--

[Jason and Amanda]

This is not my listing, I just happened upon it

http://cosprings.craigslist.org/rvs/1348855207.html

[FireLion]

Looks good, but, Buyer should inspect it very well. Those old Scamps tend to have floor rot and inside the wall damage. Buyer beware.

[mwatters]

Odd, I've seen very very very few reports of significant floor rot associated with Scamp trailers. The vast majority I HAVE heard of were caused by leaks in the internal plumbing system which doesn't have much to do with it being a Scamp - but is endemic to trailer plumbing systems.

As far as damage "inside the wall" there really isn't a whole lot of "insides" to the walls of the typical fiberglass trailer to have damage. Certainly not the sort of hidden damage that is implied.

Could it be you are thinking of conventional stick-built trailers???

[FireLion]

No, floor rot and inner wall damage is a main topic on another forum that I belong to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scampers/?yguid=351957258
While not as prevalent as in 'stick built' trailers, it is still a problem with the 'glass houses'. There is a certain amount of wooden ribs between the walls. The main points of leakage in a fiberglass trailer are around roof vents, windows, seams, around the door, and where the body meets the floor. Also, condensation build up will flow to the lowest point, hence the floor rot, not to mention leaky pipes, etc.
I did not mean to say that all fiberglass trailers have this problem, just to say that it, like any trailer for sale, should be inspected thoroughly. This may well be a gem, and I hope it is.

[mwatters]

I haven't hung out on the yahoo scampers site in several years now - but I've been around on the fiberglassRV group since it's genesis (actually, slightly before but that's another story). The latter is populated by people with just about every molded glass trailer ever built.

What seam are the Scamps leaking at? That center seam is glassed in and is actually stronger than the rest of the trailer. The trim is just there as a cosmetic thing.

Also - it's not clear to me what you mean by wooden ribs "between the walls". Scamps do not have inner and outer walls. There's only a single solid layer of fiberglass. It's covered in insulation and ratfur on the inside - but that's it. Burros and Uhauls have a double layer - but not Scamps. Some of the older trailers (Trillium if I remember right) used wood around the windows which occasionally loses it - but Scamp clamps straight to the glass. The older ones (square, crank-out awning windows) were riveted straight onto the glass with an inner aluminum trim.

In the '72 Boler (immediate predates Scamp, the two can interchange parts) I had a few years back - the only wood other than the floor was the two wood strips under the front and back windows. Table mounted to one and the front bunk mounted to the other. While those had weakened, I wouldn't consider replacing them even a serious project. Just a matter of cutting the replacements using the originals as templates and gluing/glassing them back onto the wall. I spent far more time laying the floor tiles. No floor rot at all.

The early 70's PlayPac I had was another story. Windows were an awful leak-proned design and a little glass enclosed channel around the perimeter of the trailer had a tendency to collect water and keep the floor above it damp. THAT is a rot-prone design. On the upside - working with glass is simple to the point of being trivial.