Monthly Archives :

January 2023

Temecula

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Temecula
January 27th – 29th, 2023 (2 nights)

Temecula is a wine and olive tree growing region about an hour northeast of San Diego.  It gets really hot here in the summer, but is the perfect winter location to hike and go on wine and olive oil tasting tours.  It’s a great destination for a long weekend coming from Los Angeles or San Diego.  We made our trip plans last minute, so we couldn’t make an online reservation at Dripping Springs Campground (about a 20 minute drive from Old Town Temecula); reservations for the campsites are blocked four days before each date. However, we decided we would risk it and show up before noon on Friday and see if we could get a spot.  The process of getting a campsite in person is easy.  Just drive into the campground and find an open campsite and park.  We really wanted campsite #10 (a normally first come first served campsite anyway) because it is at the farthest end of the campground right near the hiking trails.  We arrived at Dripping Springs Campground around 11:30 a.m. after a short drive from Carlsbad and drove straight back to campsite #10.  It turned out to be open and we parked!  After parking, campers have thirty minutes to get a pay envelope and fill out their vehicle information and campsite number, put money (cash or check) in the envelope ($15/night for trailers), and deposit the envelope in the iron ranger drop box (located next to the host trailer at the campground entrance).

After setting up our Scamp 13’ and having lunch, we drove to Old Town Temecula to explore.  Along the way, we stopped off at the Olive Plantation, a family owned and run small olive oil farm.  The sign said tours are available on weekends, but, being a Friday, we were lucky when the owner saw us in the driveway and opened the gate!  She gave us a private tour and tasting.  Of course, they also sell olive oil, and we purchased a $25 bottle of one of their first pressings.  Although small, this olive oil farm has won global awards for the quality of their oil.  After our tour, we continued toward Old Temecula.  Many of the buildings here went up around 1883, when the Southern California Railroad brought travelers and commerce to the Temecula Valley.  Some of these old structures still stand, but have been converted to shops, restaurants, and bars.  We strolled down the main street of Old Town and also walked up and down the side streets.  There are antique shops, places to eat, an olive oil tasting room (Temecula Olive Oil Company), and even a community theater.  We spent a couple of hours wandering and then were ready to retreat to the quiet solitude of Dripping Springs Campground to relax.

Dripping Springs Campground, located in the Cleveland National Forest, is a small but very beautiful campground run by the US Forest Service / USDA (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).   Sitting in a canyon nestled between mountains and adjacent to the Agua Tibia Wilderness, the campground has a creek that runs alongside and a number of very popular hiking and horseback riding trails.    This is also the home of the two inch arroyo toad (a species of toad endemic to California and Baja California, Mexico) whose picture is featured on a sign next to the creek.  The campground has 34 single campsites, 9 equestrian sites (although we saw tent campers using these sites), 2 horse corrals, potable water, and vault toilets.  The best sites are the ones on the farthest end, closest to the trailhead and creek (the host said if you can fit into it, including tent only sites, you can take it!).  We really enjoyed the peacefulness of site #10, which is adjacent to the creek.  We could only get Verizon cell reception at the entrance to the campground.  We downloaded movies onto our laptop at home, so we were able to enjoy cinema in our Scamp in the evenings!

We scheduled an olive oil farm tour at the Temecula Olive Oil Company for Saturday; eight minutes south of our campsite in Aguanga.  We also invited our friends Colleen and Perry (travelling from Canada and who happened to be staying at an RV park in the area for a couple of weeks).  We met at the farm at 10 a.m. and had a really interesting tour which lasted until noon.  The farm owners and tour leaders (a married couple) began their careers with extensive experience in the wine industry and worked in various roles for large corporations.  They then switched their focus to olive oil and have worked their farm for the past twenty years.  During the tour, we were given an inside look at what it takes to grow olive trees and mill olive oil, as well as told personal stories of the owners’ lives and how they came to establish the Temecula Olive Oil Company.  We sampled over ten varieties of their oil and vinegars while listening to the farm and family’s history.  With our bellies full of high quality olive oils and our minds full of olive jokes (yes, olive ‘em)…, we walked the grounds and saw some of their animals (including their pigs) before enjoying a great picnic lunch next to the magnificent olive grove.

We had two beautiful clear sunny January days during our Temecula visit, with rain approaching on Sunday.  So, we did what any meandering Scamp nomad does when foul weather approaches: we cranked up our stabilizers, hitched up, and headed out!

Replacing the RV Door Lock on a 2020 Scamp 13’

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Replacing the RV Door Lock on a 2020 Scamp 13’

Our 2020 Scamp 13’ was delivered from the Scamp factory with the Global Link RV Entry Door Lock which is commonly used across many travel trailer brands.  This lock serves to secure the trailer’s door by providing two locking cylinders (the main cylinder and a dead bolt) within the latch.  Typically, if the door latch does its job then one doesn’t really think about it.  But, for our Scamp, this wasn’t the case.  The original lock was not only very difficult to lock and unlock, but also sometimes wouldn’t unlock (from both the outside and inside of the trailer).  On one of our first trips with our Scamp, we found ourselves locked inside the trailer subject to a lock that wouldn’t open regardless of the inside lock positions.  We ended up having to remove the lock and reinstall it (which seemed to work for a while).  Eventually, on another trip, the end of the key snapped off inside the lock when attempting to lock the deadbolt from the outside of the trailer.  Since our trailer was under the first year warranty, Scamp replaced the lock without charge.

The replacement lock we received wasn’t much better than the first one.  This second door latch was always very difficult to open and lock, and, similar to the first one, presented a lot of resistance when engaging the deadbolt.  We learned to live with it and were always very careful when turning the key when locking and unlocking the deadbolt.  The lock was always a source of concern whenever using it; we always wondered when it would fail next.  A couple of years later, the key snapped inside the lock when we were on a trip at Sequoia National Park.  Fortunately, we were able to still lock and unlock the deadbolt with just the remaining part of the key (with more than half the key still broken and stuck inside the lock) for the rest of our trip!  Not wanting to try a third example of this same lock (“fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”), we began searching for a lock replacement as soon as we arrived home.  We originally liked the idea of a keyless entry lock as it would be great not having to deal with keys.  We looked closely at this lock as well as another one.

However, because the 2020 Scamp 13’ door is designed with a small recessed fiberglass space for the door lock, none of the keyless entry systems we could find would fit (because of their extra wide design which accommodates the numbered buttons).  So, we concentrated on finding a lock design that would match the original lock’s physical specifications so it would fit inside the hole in our Scamp’s door.

There are numerous locks available which look virtually identical to the original Global Link RV Lock which was installed on our Scamp by the factory.  However, not all locks that match our physical specifications for the lock cutout are:  highly reviewed, comprised of 100% metal (some have plastic parts), and have unique laser cut keys.  We chose this lock by Welluck because it meets the above criteria.  Additionally, it is waterproof and comes with 4 laser cut keys (cut on the inside for enhanced security).  The company states that each key set is unique (although we haven’t been able to confirm this).  Lastly, we really like that the Welluck lock is offered in white, a very unique color among locks, and matches our white 2020 Scamp 13’.

If there is appropriate cut out space in the door, installation of this lock should be very easy (see video above).  Simply remove the existing lock by unscrewing the 4 bolts on the back plate, 2 door plate bolts, pull existing back plate, and then pull the front of the lock out from the front of the door.  Installation of the new lock is the reverse of the same procedure.  First, push the front of the new lock through the hole in the door front, screw in the side metal cylinder plate, and then align the hole for the deadbolt pin and position the handle slider mechanism forward and secure the back plate with the 4 bolts.  Check to see the proper operation of the handle/deadbolt and keys after installation.  After installation, we were pleased to find that this new lock is very sturdy and much smoother in function than our previous two manufacturer supplied locks!  And, the key to our hearts with locks is a key that works without struggle or hesitation!

 

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.