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Scamp 13′ trailer

How to Repair A Scamp Toilet (Dometic 711-M28)

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How to Repair A Scamp Toilet (Dometic 711-M28)

IMPORTANT — make sure to order the correct flush ball / spring cartridge / shaft kit for your toilet. I was originally given incorrect information on the type of kit, and the black faced cartridge in this video should not have been used for my Dometic 711-M28. I was told by Dometic a toilet with a metal lever has to use a white faced spring cartridge and toilets with all plastic pedals use a black faced spring cartridge. The spring cartridge cams are placed in different locations depending on color which will affect rotation. Additionally, the plastic shaft has been switched to brass for better wear. Here’s the kit I switched to after this video.  This is an essential tool which makes the job much easier.

When placing the seals on the toilet, make sure the cutouts on both seals are stacked on top of each other (the lower seal saying “This Side Up” and both stacked seals are aligned with the cutout on the toilet base). Also, the screw on the metal clamp band should be at the very back of the toilet (otherwise, there is a risk of seepage).

What happened to our toilet?
Our 2020 Scamp 13’s toilet has worked really well until very recently.  Two days into the start of a twenty day trip up the California coast into Oregon, the flush ball stuck on our Scamp’s toilet.  The white plastic ball is the main barrier between the toilet bowl and the black tank which sits below (preventing odors from coming into the bathroom).  The flush ball opens when the flush pedal is depressed (which also causes water to be released into the bowl simultaneously).  In the past, lubricating the seals around the ball with silicone has worked well to get it moving again after being stuck.  This time though, the ball was really stuck and I put a rubber glove on and forced it open.  Unfortunately, this resulted in the ball becoming completely inoperable.  We made it through the rest of our trip by plugging the hole at the base of the ceramic toilet bowl with a rubber toilet bowl plunger (saving us from having to cancel the trip).  This solution worked really well, but was only temporary.

What Else Can Go Wrong?
According to the Dometic parts list, there are 23 parts to the 711-M28 model toilet.  So, there are a lot of possible points of failure.  However, the usual culprits of toilet problems are a cracked water valve (results in leaking toilet), broken spring cartridge and/or rotor shaft (results in flush ball not opening/closing), and a dirty or damaged flush ball and/or bowl seals (results in flush ball not opening/closing, water not holding in bowl).  Dometic has a handy trouble shooting guide on page 6 of its handbook.

How can these issues be repaired?
Fortunately, it’s not impossible to trouble shoot and take apart the mechanisms of this toilet.  And, parts can be ordered online.  I’ve created a step by step video showing the disassembly of the toilet.  Often, just the first few steps will be necessary if one just wants to clean or replace the seals (flush ball seal and bowl seal) between the toilet and the base (e.g. for when the toilet bowl stops holding water or the flush ball becomes stuck).  To repair other parts though, the flush pedal cover and mounting screws may need to be removed to provide access to the water valve, spring cartridge, rotor shaft, and flush ball.  Make sure to dump and flush the Blank tank and turn off the water supply when working with the toilet.  Note:  be careful not to overtighten metal clamp (just tighten until snug and toilet bowl is secure and stable).  If the clamp is too tight, the flush ball may be compressed too much against the seals and the flush ball may get stuck, water may leak out of the bowl and/or the plastic half clamps may crack.

How to diagnose what’s wrong?
In addition to reviewing Dometic’s trouble shooting guide, the company has great customer service and will be happy to assist (800-321-9886).  Our issue was a little strange (inverted flush ball) and we were referred to a local tech center.  The guy who answered the phone was extremely helpful and answered all my questions.  In the end, no one really could explain how our flush ball became inverted.  The advice was to get the Flush Ball & Shaft Kit and replace the flush ball, rotor shaft, and spring cartridge.  After this repair (as documented in my video) everything worked great!

How to prevent toilet issues?
First, always keep water in the toilet bowl when travelling (except when driving) to prevent odors from coming up from the black tank and also to keep the seals between the toilet and its base from drying out.  Additionally, since one of the most common issues is the toilet flush ball getting stuck and/or the toilet bowl not holding water (e.g. water drains quickly into the black tank even though the flush ball is closed), a good preventive solution is to use plumbers grease and toilet seal lubricant regularly between trips to keep the seals from drying out and the flush ball moving smoothly.  One of the first signs of trouble is if the toilet bowl can’t hold water.  As noted above, water is important in the bowl because it keeps black tank odors from escaping.  Additionally, water draining from the bowl when the flush ball is closed can indicate dry or dirty seals or even damaged seals.  Before taking the toilet bowl off its base though, try using plumber’s grease and toilet seal lubricant (as shown at the end of my ten minute video).  If that doesn’t work and the toilet still can’t hold water, then remove the toilet from its base and try cleaning both seals (or replacing the seals if they appear damaged).  The company says the seals can last 15-25+ years, so it’s likely the seals will just need a good cleaning with soap and water and a toothbrush.  It is recommended to occasionally remove the seals between the base and the bowl when not holding water.  Soak them in warm water with a little dish soap to loosen any calcium scales, iron deposits or dirt build-up.  Let dry, then spray very lightly on both sides with silicone.  Note:  put seals back in same position with notch in the 4 o’clock position and the seal that says “This Side Up” under the black seal.  Also, make sure plastic half clamps come together at front of toilet bowl (they will have a gap at the back) and make sure the metal band screw is at the very back of the toilet (at the gap of the plastic half clamps).

Helpful items:

Toilet Seal Lubricant
Thetford RV Toilet Seal Lube & Conditioner

Plumbers Grease
Slik Seal Plumbers Grease

Dometic 711-M28 Toilet Parts:
Flush Ball & Shaft Kit:  Part #385318162
Genuine Dometic

Dometic Seal Kit:  Part#385311462
Genuine Dometic
Generic Version

Water Valve Kit:  Part#385314349
Genuine Dometic
Generic Version

 

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. 

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!

California Highway 1

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California Highway 1
October 19th – 25th, 2022 (6 nights)

October is the perfect month to drive up California Highway 1.  The weather is often clear and not too cold and the coastal scenery is magnificent.  On this trip, we chose to stop in Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Oakland, and Bakersfield (on the way home).  The main goal of the trip was to see my sister’s new puppy in Oakland.  Here’s a short video of some of our drive up California State Route 1.

Our first stop after leaving San Diego was Santa Barbara.  We departed on a weekday and purposefully waited until around 10 a.m. before leaving San Diego so that we would be driving through Los Angeles after rush hour traffic.  This strategy worked out really well; we were able to have a mostly traffic free drive.  We parked our 2020 Scamp 13’ in my cousin’s driveway for an overnight in Santa Barbara.  We had a great afternoon exploring Alice Keck Park, which has a nice variety of bird species (e.g. hummingbirds, ducks, geese…) as well as fish and turtles in this pond.  We sat down on a bench near the water and several ducks walked up to where we were sitting and sat down close by (very welcoming).  Some of the ducks are very colorful.  We also observed turtles swimming with their heads occasionally popping up above water.  Some turtles were sunning themselves on top of semi-submerged rocks.  We could have stayed at the park longer walking the nature paths and admiring the wild life, but needed to leave to meet up with my cousin Jon and his wife Ida for dinner.  My cousin, who is vegan, took us to Rascals, a vegan Mexican restaurant which offers tasty food (even for non-vegans!).  We had a great dinner catching up since it had been a couple months since our last visit.  We were treated to a colorful sunset that night as well as a beautiful sunrise the next morning.

We travelled up the 101 from Santa Barbara and joined California Highway 1 (SR1) where it starts in San Luis Obispo.  The four hour drive from Santa Barbara to Big Sur offers magnificent views of the coast and sheer cliffs.  But, be warned, the narrow windy stretches can be very dangerous, so it’s very important to be fresh and aware when driving (especially when towing!).  We passed some beautiful places along the way to Big Sur, including Cambria, San Simeon (Hearst Castle), and Ragged Point (especially windy) before arriving at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.  Note: before arriving at the campground we planned to stop at Julia Pfeiffer State Park (day use only) to see McWay Falls (a waterfall that drops onto the beach sand/ocean).  However, the parking lot is very narrow and doesn’t allow campers or trailers, so we couldn’t stop.  Additionally, since we were only spending one night at the campground, we didn’t have enough time to backtrack the ten mile / 30 minute windy drive to Julia Pfeiffer State Park.  Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park campground is within a lush forest, including large old growth redwood trees.  Our site, #17, is under a dense canopy and almost completely shaded.  Fortunately, we didn’t need to bring solar panels on this trip because we were only staying one night and all our other stops provided power.  There is a threaded shared water spigot by campsite #17, although we didn’t need to use it this trip.  There is very limited cell phone service at the campground (we were just able to send texts without images).  There are lots of trails here and we did a bit of walking before dinner.  Along the way, we met a couple who had just purchased a Scamp 13’.  They came over to our campsite and we filled them in on the updates we had made to our Scamp over the first several years of ownership.  It’s always fun to run into other Scampers (Scamp owners tend to be very enthusiastic about their Scamps as these trailers have a cult like following)!

The next morning, we used the campground’s free central dump station (2 dump stations side by side) before making our way further north onto Carmel-By-The-Sea to visit the old mission.  This drive was much less windy and took us less than an hour.  Along the way, between Big Sur and Carmel-By-The-Sea, we passed several beautiful areas along the coast.  We took some aerial photography at a scenic seaside location on California Highway 1 as well as at the famous Bixby Bridge (built 1932).  The Bixby Bridge is Big Sur’s version of the Golden Gate Bridge!  It’s one of the highest bridges of its kind in the world (over 260 feet above a steep canyon).   We were able to pull over at the north end of the bridge on the side of the road (there is also a small parking lot at the end as well, but it was full and a bit crowded for our setup).  People were trying their best to get good photos of the bridge by positioning themselves at the edge of a steep bluff, which looked a bit risky.  Fortunately, our drone allowed for a safer approach – a flight out over the ocean for some stunning views of the bridge, dramatic cliffs, and sea below.

After our photo touring, we headed north to Carmel-By-The-Sea to visit the old mission.  An aerial video I took can be seen here.  The Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo was built in 1797 and is one of the most authentically restored Catholic mission churches in California ($13 admission fee).  It’s a beautiful church and one of only three California missions built of stone (made from native sandstone quarried from the nearby Santa Lucia Mountains).  Fortunately, there was plenty of street parking at the side of the Mission for our Scamp 13’.  After a nice visit, we continued our drive to my sister’s house in Oakland (about a two hour drive).

Driving into a big populated city like Oakland while towing a trailer requires special care.  It’s important to be extra cautious as many city drivers in dense urban environments can be reckless.  Fortunately, we managed to arrive at my sister’s home without incident and quickly positioned our Scamp 13’ into its very cozy spot in the driveway (just a couple of inches from the chimney!).  We greatly enjoyed our three days visiting my sister and family in Oakland.  We got to meet the new puppy (and nephew’s new kitten) for the first time and had fun taking walks throughout the city.  We walked on Alameda Island (nice homes and pretty streets), Mills College campus (now a part of Northeastern University’s many campuses), and the Skyline National Recreational Trail (up in the hills with beautiful views above the bay).  We even took a tour through a famous cemetery, Mountain View Cemetery, and walked Millionaires Row (where many wealthy and famous people from San Francisco chose to be buried).  We saw the Ghirardelli Mausoleum where Domingo Ghirardelli (of chocolate fame) and his family are buried.  An interesting story of how he and his family came to rest at this cemetery can be found here.  No visit to Oakland would be complete without lunch at A+ Burger, and our visit didn’t disappoint.  We visited Treasure Island on our last night to take in the beautiful view of the City lights at night from across the Bay.

We divided the eight hour trip home into a couple of four hour segments, with a stay over at the halfway point in Bakersfield.  We selected the Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area (our first time here) to spend the night.  Located in the middle of seemingly nowhere (amid farms and dry earth), is a large lake, Lake Webb, surrounded by beautiful trees.  An aerial video I made can be viewed here.  The campground is only about a five minute drive off the 5 Freeway, down a long mostly deserted straight road.  The campground appears as an oasis (very green with trees and water) in the middle of a desert.  There were only a few other campers when we arrived and the late October weather was in the low 70’s.  We were warned at the entrance that the temperature here can get well above 100 degrees during the summer!  We had site #51 ($25/night plus $8 reservation fee) which is right on the lake and is an 84’ long pull through site (full hookups, there’s also a central dump for those sites without a sewer hookup).  We had beautiful wrap around views of the lake inside our Scamp.  There was one bar of Verizon cell phone coverage and plenty of HDTV channels.  Note:  the sewer hookup diameter at site #51 is the same as our hose (which we’ve never seen before), so I had to physically hold the hose over the sewer pipe while dumping.  We noticed on the drive getting to the campground, there is a bike path parallel to the road that provides a nice long ride through farmland.  We enjoyed walking near the lake and watching the ducks, coots, hawks, and other birds swimming on and flying over the water.  This is a popular lake for boating activities (swimming is not allowed).  We were told the busiest time is the Fourth of July (also one of the hottest times of the year here).  We found the Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area to be a perfect midway rest stop on the way from San Diego to the Bay area.

So, if you are planning a trip along California Highway 1, consider going in October.  The views are incredible and the weather can be practically perfect in every way!

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. 

Lake Almanor, Rocky Point Campground (PG&E)

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Lake Almanor, Rocky Point Campground (PG&E)
June 11th – 20th, 2022 (9 nights)

Summer is the perfect time to head up to the mountains, relax and have fun at beautiful lakes.  The weather is usually nice and sunny and not too warm or cold.  On this trip, we chose to visit a relatively unheard of lake, called Lake Almanor (elevation 4,505 ft.), far up in Northern California near Lassen Volcanic National Park (about 5 hours north of San Francisco).  Since the trip is a long distance from our home in San Diego, we chose to make some overnight rest stops before and after reaching Lake Almanor.  On our way up, we stopped at my cousin Jon’s home in Santa Barbara and spent the night.  Our next stop was at my sister’s house in Oakland, where we spent a couple of nights hiking and relaxing with family.  The final leg from Oakland to Lake Almanor took us about 5 hours and we arrived at our campsite, site #52, by the lake around 1:30 p.m.  Returning home, we stopped first in Oakland and then at my brother’s house in Pacific Palisades.  The total trip cost for gasoline was $544 with our 2020 Volvo XC40 tow vehicle averaging around 20 mpg towing our Scamp 13’.

In the Lake Almanor area, Rocky Point campground is one of PG&E’s campgrounds which the utility shares with the public for a reasonable nightly rate.  We paid $30/night for our no hookup site (no hookups are available here) and $7 to use the central Dump station.  Reservation windows for each season become available at different times in the spring and it’s best to check PG&E’s website for details.  It’s also a good idea to reserve your campsite the first morning PG&E’s online reservations system opens.  We reserved two campsites on April 25th (one for us and one for our friends) (the online reservation system actually opened a week earlier but it was only for those making reservations for stays of a week or longer).  Here’s a video of the lake and campground area.

Lake Almanor is actually a reservoir which PG&E uses to generate electricity through a dam (hydroelectric project).  The lake has 52 miles of coastline and was completed by Great Western Power in 1927 and named after the three daughters of a company executive:  Alice, Martha, and Eleanor.  Lassen Volcanic National Park is a short drive away (we didn’t visit this time because we stayed at its Manzanita Lake Campground last summer) and its towering snowcapped Mt. Lassen is visible in the distance of Lake Almanor.  There are plenty of fun things to do at this under-the-radar location and the nice thing is that there are few crowds to deal with here (unlike at Yosemite National Park).  Water activities on Lake Almanor’s 28,000 acres (e.g. boating, stand up paddle boarding, jet skiing, kayaking, fishing, swimming, and sunbathing on the beach) along with hiking and biking on the paved Lake Almanor Recreation Trail (which goes on for miles) are some of the favorites.

We had plenty of engaging activities the four days we stayed at Lake Almanor.  And, best of all, our friends, Phil & Claudia, were able to join us on this trip which made for a seriously fun time!  On our first day, we took a bike ride on the Lake Almanor Recreation Trail (total length around 19 miles round trip).  The ride is moderately challenging with drops and climbs and goes along the lake through forests.  We only completed about 10 miles round trip and travelled from the campground to Pratville (closest small town to the campground) and back.  This little town is made up of several small businesses which include a general store, Carol’s Pratville Café (all the locals rave about the food and ice-cream here), and some small lakeside resorts and cabins.  There are occasional benches on the trail that look out on beautiful views over the lake which make for pleasant rest stops.  Our ride took us about three hours and we were tired when we got back to our campsite.  After our long ride was the perfect time to try out our new hammock!  Lying in the hammock and looking at the lake and sky was totally peaceful and relaxing.  We also had a chance to play one of our favorite games, Sequence, with our friends.

On the following days at the campground, we took more walks (and even walked to the dam) and played more games.  We watched ospreys feeding and even saw one drop a fish into the lake!  We relaxed in our new chairs on the beach and took our inflatable kayak out onto the lake.  We enjoyed watching movies at night in our Scamp 13′.  The weather was beautiful our entire visit (mostly in the 70’s during the day), but early the morning we left it snowed (mid June)!  We saw snow on car’s hoods and a winter wonderland, with the forest blanketed in white powder, as we drove down the mountain!  With so many things to do at Lake Almanor, our only regret is not having spent more time relaxing in our new hammock!  There’s always next year!!!

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. 

A Bright Idea for Mounting Flashlights!

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A Bright Idea for Mounting Flashlights!

After a year of travelling in our Scamp 13’, the benefit of having a good flashlight within easy reach has been reinforced on more than one occasion.  When the Sun sets, it can get pretty dark out in the wild pretty quickly.  And, it’s not uncommon for us to be outside after dark to:  retrieve trip food and water from our SUV, watch the stars, and sometimes join friends for dinner around a group campfire.  At some of the places we have visited, it has been difficult to see even a foot ahead of ourselves (such as Anza Borrego State Park).  Without a flashlight in these extremely low light conditions, it can be hard to find one’s way back to the camper!  And, there are times when having a quick light is necessary to find a critical item or make an adjustment outside the trailer (such as switching between propane tanks).

For a while, we kept a traditional flashlight attached by 3M Scotch Fasteners (e.g. like Velcro) next to our dinette on the side of the sink.  It worked OK, but because the flashlight’s round head would not lay flat against the wall, we frequently bumped it causing the flashlight to fall onto the dinette bench or floor.  Then, we had a magnetic idea!  What if we could find a flashlight that would lay flat and, in turn, be less prone to knocking off the wall?  Well, we found such a light, and not only is it flat, but it also has a magnetic backing (as well as hanger)!

This rubber coated AlltroLite is small (3.7”x2.4”x1.3”) but packed with enough LEDs to be really bright!  There are two modes:  one turns on the 3 LEDs which face forward and acts like a traditional flashlight and the other mode activates 24 LEDs which turns it into more of a work light.  Not only is there a magnet on the back of the flashlight, but it also has a hook which rotates 360 degrees for hanging.  The flashlight is sold in a 3 pack and comes with the required 3 AAA batteries for each light.  We’ve found the lights to be very bright and nice and compact.  The LED bulbs are rated at 100,000 hours, so they are likely to last many camping trips!

The magnet added a new twist and we quickly figured that magnetism would be a good way to mount the flashlight to the Scamp’s wall.  We liked the idea of using the magnet instead of fastening tape because we wanted the flashlight to be as close to the wall as possible due to the desired corner mounting location being an easy target for brushing up against.  Also, the flashlight would be easier to pull off and re-attach to the mount with a magnet vs. fastening tape.  The only wrinkle in our plan was that the Scamp is a fiberglass trailer and its walls are mostly fiberglass, so a magnet won’t stick to its walls.

For the flashlight’s magnet to stick against the Scamp’s fiberglass wall, we chose to use a thin stainless steel strip taped to the fiberglass wall.  We chose a small piece of sheet metal stock which is very thin (around .02 inches thick) so the mount would keep the flashlight close to the wall.  Using a pair of metal snips, I cut a small strip (only about the width of the magnet and length about the width of the flashlight).  This ensures that the magnet has sufficient area to which to attach.  I also made sure to trim away all sharp metal corners for safety.  I then unrolled some clear double sided Gorilla tape (rated to support up to 15lbs!) and stuck the tape to one side of the metal strip (trimming away any excess tape extending over the strip with scissors).  After this was done, I peeled away the very thin Gorilla tape adhesive cover, attached the metal strip to the flashlight’s magnet (non-adhesive side) and then pressed the entire assembly (flashlight and steel strip) onto the wall (adhesive side facing the fiberglass) at the location where we wanted the flashlight.  Viola!  The flashlight now was secure on its mount hanging on the wall!   We are really happy with this magnetic solution and mounted one flashlight at the door entry and one inside, near bed.  Now, we have easy access to a light whether we are outside the Scamp or inside by the dinette!  This approach has been very illuminating and hopefully you too will come to “see the light” soon!

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.