14 Transformations to go from Camping to Glamping!
When the Scamp delivery driver pulled down our street with our new 2020 Scamp 13’ we were super excited. We would soon have the “golden ticket” to stay within campgrounds throughout North America. And, upon inspection, the Scamp 13’ seemed to have everything we needed for wonderful and comfortable trips. However, although the Scamp does indeed have everything we need for our journeys, it took about a year’s worth of trips to figure out some critical enhancements needed in order for our Scamp adventures to go from Camping to Glamping.
(1) Cushions & Memory Foam Pad
The most obvious elements within the Scamp 13’ which absolutely needed change were the cushions. The cushions are fine for sitting, but, for us, are too hard to sleep on. In fact, on our first trip, I kept waking up because I felt like I was sleeping on a hard board (which brought back memories of a business trip to Shenzhen, but that’s another story!). We thought an easy solution might be to just add a memory foam mattress cover on top of the cushions. However, the 2” memory foam failed to keep us from feeling the “board” cushions underneath. We considered thicker memory foam, but didn’t like the idea of having to roll up and store such a thick cushion each morning. Ultimately, we decided to replace the cushions with ones which have softer foam inserts. In addition, we wanted a covering material that was easier to clean (and wouldn’t hold dust) compared to the original cloth. We found a great local upholstery shop and they crafted wonderful comfortable cushions with softer foam and fantastic “faux leather” covers which are great looking and super easy to clean! We still use the 2” memory foam pad on top of the new cushions and find the combination provides a heavenly night’s sleep! Click Here for full details on the cushion transformation.
(2) Double Sleeping Bag & Liner
Once you are out in the elements and have busy days, the last thing you want to do is to spend time and energy making up your bed every day. And, for small travel trailers, it’s common to have a kitchen dinette table that converts to a bed. So, making up the entire bed every evening from scratch with sheets is a definite no for us! Fortunately, we discovered that double sleeping bags are very comfortable bedding and can be made up almost instantly (and store really well in our Scamp’s small cabinet above the larger coat cabinet). The trick is to select the right size bag to fill the sleeping area. We ordered the big 54” bed on our Scamp 13’ which is extra wide compared to the regular bed. We found a really nice and comfortable bag called the Big Agnes Dream Island (rated down to 15 degrees F) that is also super wide and covers the Scamp 13’ 54” bed completely! To make things extra comfortable and easy to clean, we also use a sleeping bag liner. Liners come in all types of materials, but we chose one that is a polyester fiber, which is breathable and durable. When we are done with our trip, we just pull the liner out of the bag and wash it at home. The use of the liner means the sleeping bag (which may require a commercial washing machine due to its size) may be washed less often.
(3) Thermostatic Shower Wall Mount
All travel trailers should have these shower controllers as standard equipment and we would never go without one again. Just set the desired water temperature on the controller and leave it. The only thing to do when starting the shower is to turn on the water volume! The water comes out your perfect temperature every time! No more wasting water and time trying to adjust the water so it’s not scalding or freezing cold. With the stock shower head, we usually spent several minutes each shower doing this type of fine tuning and wasting lots of water! In addition, with the thermostatic valve, it’s easy to completely turn off the water while lathering up and then turn it on and resume without having to reset the temperature. And, these types of wall mounts are relatively inexpensive and not extremely difficult to install. Click Here for complete details on how we transformed our Scamp 13’ with a thermostatic shower wall mount.
(4) Powerful Water Efficient Shower Head
Most small travel trailers come with small shower heads that deliver slightly more than a trickle on a good day. We eventually grew tired of how slow it took to rinse off. After a bit of research, we found Oxygenics Fury and never looked back. The Oxygenics Fury puts the shower back into RV showering! We went from a placid drizzle with our Scamp’s stock handheld shower head to a real blaster with the Fury! The nice thing is that the Fury actually conserves water and ramps up pressure by mixing air into the shower head. This results in a really powerful efficient stream. We’ve found showering takes less time as well since it’s a really fast rinse with better water flow. It’s also super easy to install – just unscrew the old hose /showerhead at the shower wall mount and screw on this hose / showerhead.
(5) Soap and Shampoo Dispenser
The floor on most small travel trailers is small enough without having to make room for shampoo bottles (which tend to roll around if you bump into them or leave them on the floor when driving). Instead, use a wall mounted dispenser and just add your favorite shampoo! This dispenser sticks to the wall of the shower with two way tape. Just pop the top and fill with your favorite shampoo / liquid soap and cover and you won’t ever have to deal with rolling bottles on your shower floor again! The dispenser has a nice pump button that makes it easy to squirt out shampoo into your hand. We fill with a natural 3-in-1 Soap (Shampoo, Body Wash, Bubble Bath), eliminating the need for more costly and bulkier multi-dispensers.
(6) Paper towel holder (suction cup)
Having paper towels next to the sink is a great idea, but there is limited table space in the Scamp to hold them. This paper towel holder solves the space problem – it has a strong suction cup and sticks to the wall above the kitchen sink! We’ve had it in position over a year and it hasn’t come off the wall yet! We use it extensively on every trip and really like it. (One thing we did notice though is that it’s a good idea to secure the paper towels in a closet while driving or they tend to unroll by themselves into the sink!)
(7) Toilet Paper Holder (suction cup)
The wet bath in a small travel trailer has generally pretty tight quarters! There’s usually a shower area and the toilet right behind it. So, it’s a great idea to partition out the space and keep the toilet area as dry as possible (see article called “How to Turn Your Wet Bath into a Comfy Dry Zone”). A great addition to the toilet area is a holder for toilet paper. This will help keep it off the floor, from getting wet, and give easy access.
(8) Teak Shower Floor
To keep your feet elevated off the shower floor (which can be damp or wet), we recommend using a teak “mat”. It is a really nice way to stay elevated from the floor while also allowing water to fall between the slits into the drain. Additionally, it may provide some anti-slip properties versus standing directly on potentially slick fiberglass flooring. We purchased this one (measure your floor area to make sure the mat you purchase fits).
(9) Two Propane Tanks
A single propane tank can last a long time when used occasionally for short trips in good weather. However, we’ve found having two propane tanks takes the stress off wondering when the gas will run out. We discovered this while on a trip to Oregon in October. We were cooking breakfast and all of a sudden, the flame on the stove went out. I immediately checked the gauge on our propane tank and it still showed Green. Unfortunately, faulty readings like this are fairly common. Fortunately, we had a second tank and as soon as I moved the switch over to the 2nd tank we were back in business! At some of the locations on that recent trip, the temperatures dipped down into the teens at night and we would have been very uncomfortable had our propane powered furnace stopped working. Now, we usually make sure both of our Viking tanks are filled before leaving on any long trips so we can be confident we will have we will have plenty of gas to power our: hot water heater for nice hot showers plus hot water at the sink, refrigerator, and furnace. Click here for more information on our composite Viking propane tanks.
(10) Battery Power Bank
A luxury item that could be essential depending on how you travel is a large external battery power bank. The independent power bank can power many of your essential items while reserving your travel trailer’s battery power for your super essential items like lights, fan, and pumps. We purchased the Jackery 500 which has 518Wh of power (which can power a lot of devices for a long time). It has a 12V cigarette socket, USB ports, and even a 110V outlet. We use it to charge our phones, drones, cameras, electric toothbrushes and power our 12V television in our Scamp. It can even be used to run your portable air compressor. You can charge it in your car while driving between camping locations, with 110V power outlets at campsites, and also with a solar panel.
(11) Solar Panel
A 100W solar panel is a great option to help recharge your small travel trailer batteries daily when camping without hookups. We’ve found our solar panel can maintain our Scamp’s battery at 12.5V (a good place) for days on end as long as the sun shines. The solar panel may also be used to recharge your independent power bank. Click Here for more information on our Solar Panel setup.
(12) Volt Television
Sometimes it’s nice to come back to your small travel trailer after a long day of hiking and watch a good movie. After all, you can probably stay up as late as you want and sleep in the next morning! Without the usual pressures of the outside world, being in the wilderness affords a nice opportunity to really enjoy some quality entertainment! The main piece of equipment you will need to enjoy a good movie in your small travel trailer is a television (LCD TV) that is powered by 12 volts. Being powered by 12 Volts allows you to use the TV off grid (e.g. no hookups). This type of TV can be plugged directly into a 12V socket and powered by the travel trailer’s 12V battery or an auxiliary battery power bank, which is desirable when you have no hookups in the wild. We enjoy watching: over-the-air HD TV when digital signals are available, services like Netflix and Amazon Prime when we have access to a WiFi network, and movies we download to our phones from these services and play back via a cable to the TV when we are in remote areas. Click Here for a full description on how we watch movies in the wild.
(13) Electric Tongue Jack
One of the first few things we replaced on our Scamp travel trailer was our hand crank tongue jack. The tongue jack sits on the front of the trailer and allows one to raise and lower the ball coupler so the trailer can be attached to the tow vehicle. It didn’t take too long to understand how much cranking is required when hitching and unhitching the Scamp travel trailer! Not only can cranking over and over be repetitively hard on your arm, shoulder and joints, but it takes a lot of time and energy. It’s also the time when you want to be concentrating on other parts of the process and cranking the jack up and down can be distracting. Fortunately, changing the tongue jack is super simple! We switched to a quality electric tongue jack. Click Here for more information on how we went from a manual to electric tongue jack.
(14) The Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution
We used to constantly check our Grey water holding tank level and limit our boondocking stays to just a couple of days to make sure our Grey tank didn’t reach its limit. This also meant being super cautious about our water use even when water spigots were available at the campsite. However, we discovered a simple and inexpensive solution by bringing along four 5 gallon jugs and some specialized equipment to almost double our Grey water holding capacity which allows us to go around 6 days without dumping our Grey tank! Click Here for more details on our Holy Grail Portable Grey Water Tank Solution.
Well, sure, it’s entirely possible to enjoy your small travel trailer completely stock. Similarly, many will say they are perfectly comfortable flying in coach class on 14 hours trips to the other side of the world. However, having tried it both ways, we can definitely say Glamping is definitely way more fun and comfortable! Glamp on!
Disclaimer: You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale. These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences. However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer. It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything correctly.
