The Scamp Page

We are now living in a 19 foot fifth-wheel Scamp travel trailer which we purchased in December, 2004. We have modified the trailer somewhat to make it more suitable for full-time living. Mostly, we wanted more organized storage space for our things, and a beefed-up electrical system to allow us to camp in places without electrical hook-ups. We are traveling around the United States, staying in campgrounds for a few days or a few weeks and then moving on. Our current plan is to spend this summer in the northern US and then work our way south and east to spend the winter in Florida.

Our present fifth-wheel trailer is not our first Scamp. We previously owned a 16 foot Scamp trailer. We traveled quite a bit with it during the late 1980's, spending our vacations camping in out-of-the-way places throughout the western United States. We sold our little Scamp when we began preparing for our retirement aboard Razzle Dazzle. Here are some photos of our 16 foot scamp:

Bisti Badlands   |   Mount Lassen   |   Mojave Desert   |   Wilits

We enjoyed our original Scamp very much; the only thing we didn't like was the need to convert the dinette area to a bed each night and back again each morning. This dual-use conserved space, but made it difficult if one person wanted to go to sleep before the other. We decided that if we were to live in the trailer for long periods of time, we wanted a separate bed. The fifth-wheel Scamp has a queen sized bed in an elevated space above the hitch. (See the floor plan.) It turned out to be a great choice.

We tow our Scamp with a 2005 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, with a 4-cylinder engine. We have had no problems towing the trailer with that small engine. We get about 20 mpg when traveling on flat stretches of freeway, a little less when going up and down hills. Although we have to slow down to about 40 mph on the steepest mountain grades, we are usually able to keep up with traffic. The fifth-wheel configuartion is wonderful; we never feel that the trailer was pushing the pickup around. And, it follows us around the tightest circles, including making u-turns on residential streets.

Jim has remodeled parts of our Scamp. He installed two solar panels and upgraded the electrical system so that we can spend more time away from campgrounds and the power grid. He increased the size of the water tank and added an electric water pump, for the same reason. He has also installed a microwave oven and some added storage for the extras we need for full-time living in our Scamp. While we were staying in the Fort Wilderness Campground at Walt Disney World, Jim added some holiday lights to enhance our appearance during the Christmas holidays.