A few tips needed on appliances in our new 1975 14ft scamper

[Zacvv]

Hello all!

I was on this website a while back asking about what to look for when buying a trailer. Since then the one we looked at turned out to be a dud, so we kept looking and found our 1975 scamper!
Its perfect for me and my girlfriend and the dog. Now my question is it has a obviously old furnace and fridge in the trailer that doesnt want to work.
Is there any tricks to getting a pilot to light? Special ways you can clean it?
The guy we bought the trailer from mentioned that the fridge only seems to work when the trailer is sitting level? I have had the unit plugged into main power but it still didnt run. Is this something that you would expect to run on the main power? Or is it just a 12v thing?

Sorry for the big questions here and story! I Look forward to showing you some photos of how much we have renovated the trailer!

[bid_time]

I had a early 1970's era popup. The gas tube on the pilot light to the furnace was so small it would take centurys to bleed all the air out of the line to get the pilot to light. I hated trying to light that pilot light so much - it was inacessible, had to contort to get to it, and it would take forever plus a day to get it lit.

[westend]

One thing you may be running up against is that some older trailers ran on single stage regulation from the propane cylinder. If you have a two stage regulator on your propane cylinder, you may be regulating the pressure too low. This is usually identifiable by a very low flame on the kitchen stove.

Also, you should realize that your rig is 39 years old and many of those years, especially the latter, the appliances have had no maintenance. I'd suggest to break down the furnace and clean everything. A wasp's nest/spider web in the intake/exhaust is all that's necessary to cause a failure.

I'd also suggest that you discard the brake wiring and install new wire, vacating any series daisy-chained layout and rewiring the brakes all with separate wires to a parallel configuration.

I've done a lot of these things when I rebuilt my rig and there are pictures and descriptions in the thread in my sig line---the Cowboy/Hilton.

Best of luck!

[Ex-Tech]

BTW, there is no pilot light on your refrigerator. The only flame is the main burner.
Fridges from this era with manual controls, used a bypass thermostat that regulated the burner flame from high to low. It was always on, unlike the electronically controlled fridges of today.

[Zacvv]

I have got the stove working it had a pretty low gas supply but kept itself going rather well.

This is not the tandem axle trailer i was originally going to get. This is much smaller but i have noticed that the brakes have been rewired before and are now not connected. I have been driving around without the brakes and have not noticed it been overly bad to brake with it set up like this.

So you think i should try lighting it with a blowtorch?

[Caveman_Charlie]

Are you sure you have gas (propane) to all the pilots ? Try lighting a stove burner first to get all the air out of the system.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

I have some friends with a pilot light for their water heater. They use a blow torch to light it as nothing else seems to work.

[Francesca_Knowl]

Zacvv wrote:


Does anyone know what the weight should be on a trailer for it to have brakes?

LEGALLY speaking, it varies from State to State. 2,000 pounds is a common cutoff point. Also, although you don't say what you're towing it with: tow vehicle mfr's often require brakes on the trailer if over a thousand pounds.
Side note:
Is this the tandem axle trailer you mentioned in earlier posts? If so, I think it likely came OEM with brakes, and needs them.

[jimw606]

You might find some more info here, if you haven't tried there yet.

www.scampcamper.com

[Zacvv]

No not sure on the exact way i should be lighting the pilot. I have tried to do what it says on the instructions with nothing working at all. Im worried that maybe there is a part to the pilot maybe that is needing a clean?
I cant hear any gas at all when i try to light the pilot.

Im buying a battery in a week so i can see if that helps get the fridge to work.

Does anyone know what the weight should be on a trailer for it to have brakes?

[Caveman_Charlie]

In your original post you asked if there are special tricks to getting the pilot to light? Are you having problems getting it/them to light? Do you know the procedure on doing this ?

[Caveman_Charlie]

Ex-Tech wrote:
First, your refrigerator, if original, will most likely not have circuit board. Fridges from that era used manual controls to switch from gas to electric. And yes, Rav refrigerators need to be close to level to operate and if operated out of level, can be severely damaged.
Also, an absorbs ion fridge will usually take 24 hours to read operating temperature.

Yup, X3.

[Francesca_Knowl]

Ex-Tech wrote:
First, your refrigerator, if original, will most likely not have circuit board. Fridges from that era used manual controls to switch from gas to electric.

Beat me to it...my 1978 trailer's still-working original fridge requires no electric power to run on propane.

Question for the O.P.: Is the trailer aluminum sided?

[Ex-Tech]

First, your refrigerator, if original, will most likely not have circuit board. Fridges from that era used manual controls to switch from gas to electric. And yes, Rav refrigerators need to be close to level to operate and if operated out of level, can be severely damaged.
Also, an absorbs ion fridge will usually take 24 hours to read operating temperature.

[Wagonqueen_Truc]

Mine was a Dometic from 1976. We burped it and it worked. What can I say. LOL