White Dog
Senior Member
Greetings all. It has been a while since I've been on the forum. Turns out cancer (my wife's) can consume a lot of time and even more energy. Fortunately she is doing well and we are leaving on our first extended trip in the new Grandby on Thursday. Finally!
A year ago, when we were thinking about the FWC, my wife said she was all for it as long as I came up with a way she could have a shower every morning. Seemed fair enough since I like a morning shower too. So, over the summer, between medical stuff, I thought about how to do this. I ended up with a short list of requirements that lead to the design:
1. It had to be strong enough to withstand the day-to-day banging around while travelling.
2. I didn't want to have a lot of 'stuff' permanently hanging off the side of the camper and I didn't want to start to drill too many holes in the new camper.
2. It had to be easy and quick to set up and take down.
3. It had to be able to keep from blowing around too much in our prairie winds.
4. It had to be reasonably light and easy to store.
I thought about getting fancy, bending aluminum pipe, and machining fittings but time was limited. Besides, I wanted to see if I could create something that would be easy for almost anyone to put together.
Here's what I ended up with.
The frame is made up of 4 parts, all of regular copper plumbing pipe and fixtures plus a bit of brass flat stock and rod and a few other bits and pieces I had lying around the shop.
I made up two frames, one for the top made out of heavy wall 3/4" pipe (we call it Type 'L' up here in Canada) and the second, exactly the same size but made of regular 1/2" pipe. The top frame supports the curtain, the bottom slips into a fold around the bottom of the curtain to act as a counter weight and to keep the curtain from blowing around in the wind. I made ours 35" side-to-side and 27" deep. There is no real reason for these dimensions other than it 'seemed about right' to my wife and me.
The sides look slightly bent but that is a photo artifact. They are actually straight. The corners are regular 90dg elbows soldered in place. This is the 3/4" frame. The 1/2" is exactly the same except I soldered end caps to the open ends to protect the curtain fabric.
The second two parts are the vertical supports, identical in shape and construction.
This supports attach to the outside of the camper using two short pieces of T-Track permanently screwed through the FWC siding into the top structural member just below the drip cap on the side of the camper. I coated the back of the T-Track and the stainless steel screw with silicone to keep water out. I located the whole structure so that the electrical connection was not inside the shower curtain (for obvious reasons), all the access doors could open, and neither the furnace nor hot water heater exhausts blew on the fabric (or person in the shower).
I get T-Track from Lee Valley Tools but most of the woodworking suppliers carry some version of it. It is relatively cheep and strong.
The support is the same 3/4" copper pipe as the top frame. At the top of the support is a 3/4" T soldered to the top of the main support pipe.
I made up a couple of brass disks for each support, drilled 9/32" holes in the center, and silver-soldered them into the end of the copper T.
I then made up a short length of brass rod that passed through the two disks both ends being threaded 1/4-20. Allthread would work just as well. On one end of the rod, I screwed a knob-fitting using Loctite to keep it from unscrewing and on the other the special nut that slides into the T-Track.
In the middle of each support is another T. This is where the upper 3/4" frame supporting the curtain attaches.
Note the hole that will accept the pin to keep the upper frame in place.
On the bottom of the support is a 90dg elbow which keep the support away from the side of the camper. I slipped a 7/8" crutch tip on the outer end of the elbow to protect the camper. I made the whole support just long enough so the crutch tip rested on the molding on the bottom edge of the camper.
Here is how the it looks on the camper without the curtain.
For those wondering all along what the piece of 1/16" stainless steel wire was for, it should now be evident. It is the brace to support the frame and attaches part way out the arm of the frame with a 1/4" bail-pin (at least that is what we call them in this part of the world). Bail pins are available at any farm supply dealership.
The frame is attached to the support with the same type of pin.
Now for the curtain.
A friend of ours sewed up the curtain from vinyl-coated nylon. It is light and dries quickly. She is a fabric artist and way over-did the detailing but we appreciate it. She even sewed pockets on the inside for shampoo and soap.
The curtain has a pocket sewed around the top and bottom for the frames and little scallops cut out for the bail pins where the wire supports attach. A couple of grommets at the outside corners of the bottom pocket are for light cord that passes through holes at the ends of the bottom frame. This keeps the curtain from slipping around on the bottom frame. The curtain is also 4" shorter than the distance from the upper frame to the ground so it doesn't get covered in pine needles and sand.
So here it is all finished.
After we use it for a bit, Iwill probably paint the copper to match the color on the outside of the camper just to pretty it up.
In use, the curtain and frames stay together. They collapse together for storage. The upper frame is pulled off the supports after the bail pins are removed from the frame and wire support. The supports are removed by loosening the knob and sliding them off the T-Track. The whole setup and take-down takes less than a minute each. Eventually, they will store in a case and travel on the roof rack I am going to build for the top of the camper. For the moment, it will travel on the bed during the day and the back seat of the truck at night.
If you are wondering why we picked 'Mossy Oak' for the fabric, we didn't actually. Out fabric artist friend who's idea of 'wilderness' is a sale at the fabric store, found the material on sale. She was all excited about this 'lovely fabric' that was perfectly suited to our camper not realizing it was 'Sunday Best' for the hook-and-bullet crowd. In the end, she did a great job and we really like the fabric. It will be perfect when whitetail season comes around.
A year ago, when we were thinking about the FWC, my wife said she was all for it as long as I came up with a way she could have a shower every morning. Seemed fair enough since I like a morning shower too. So, over the summer, between medical stuff, I thought about how to do this. I ended up with a short list of requirements that lead to the design:
1. It had to be strong enough to withstand the day-to-day banging around while travelling.
2. I didn't want to have a lot of 'stuff' permanently hanging off the side of the camper and I didn't want to start to drill too many holes in the new camper.
2. It had to be easy and quick to set up and take down.
3. It had to be able to keep from blowing around too much in our prairie winds.
4. It had to be reasonably light and easy to store.
I thought about getting fancy, bending aluminum pipe, and machining fittings but time was limited. Besides, I wanted to see if I could create something that would be easy for almost anyone to put together.
Here's what I ended up with.
The frame is made up of 4 parts, all of regular copper plumbing pipe and fixtures plus a bit of brass flat stock and rod and a few other bits and pieces I had lying around the shop.
I made up two frames, one for the top made out of heavy wall 3/4" pipe (we call it Type 'L' up here in Canada) and the second, exactly the same size but made of regular 1/2" pipe. The top frame supports the curtain, the bottom slips into a fold around the bottom of the curtain to act as a counter weight and to keep the curtain from blowing around in the wind. I made ours 35" side-to-side and 27" deep. There is no real reason for these dimensions other than it 'seemed about right' to my wife and me.
The sides look slightly bent but that is a photo artifact. They are actually straight. The corners are regular 90dg elbows soldered in place. This is the 3/4" frame. The 1/2" is exactly the same except I soldered end caps to the open ends to protect the curtain fabric.
The second two parts are the vertical supports, identical in shape and construction.
This supports attach to the outside of the camper using two short pieces of T-Track permanently screwed through the FWC siding into the top structural member just below the drip cap on the side of the camper. I coated the back of the T-Track and the stainless steel screw with silicone to keep water out. I located the whole structure so that the electrical connection was not inside the shower curtain (for obvious reasons), all the access doors could open, and neither the furnace nor hot water heater exhausts blew on the fabric (or person in the shower).
I get T-Track from Lee Valley Tools but most of the woodworking suppliers carry some version of it. It is relatively cheep and strong.
The support is the same 3/4" copper pipe as the top frame. At the top of the support is a 3/4" T soldered to the top of the main support pipe.
I made up a couple of brass disks for each support, drilled 9/32" holes in the center, and silver-soldered them into the end of the copper T.
I then made up a short length of brass rod that passed through the two disks both ends being threaded 1/4-20. Allthread would work just as well. On one end of the rod, I screwed a knob-fitting using Loctite to keep it from unscrewing and on the other the special nut that slides into the T-Track.
In the middle of each support is another T. This is where the upper 3/4" frame supporting the curtain attaches.
Note the hole that will accept the pin to keep the upper frame in place.
On the bottom of the support is a 90dg elbow which keep the support away from the side of the camper. I slipped a 7/8" crutch tip on the outer end of the elbow to protect the camper. I made the whole support just long enough so the crutch tip rested on the molding on the bottom edge of the camper.
Here is how the it looks on the camper without the curtain.
For those wondering all along what the piece of 1/16" stainless steel wire was for, it should now be evident. It is the brace to support the frame and attaches part way out the arm of the frame with a 1/4" bail-pin (at least that is what we call them in this part of the world). Bail pins are available at any farm supply dealership.
The frame is attached to the support with the same type of pin.
Now for the curtain.
A friend of ours sewed up the curtain from vinyl-coated nylon. It is light and dries quickly. She is a fabric artist and way over-did the detailing but we appreciate it. She even sewed pockets on the inside for shampoo and soap.
The curtain has a pocket sewed around the top and bottom for the frames and little scallops cut out for the bail pins where the wire supports attach. A couple of grommets at the outside corners of the bottom pocket are for light cord that passes through holes at the ends of the bottom frame. This keeps the curtain from slipping around on the bottom frame. The curtain is also 4" shorter than the distance from the upper frame to the ground so it doesn't get covered in pine needles and sand.
So here it is all finished.
After we use it for a bit, Iwill probably paint the copper to match the color on the outside of the camper just to pretty it up.
In use, the curtain and frames stay together. They collapse together for storage. The upper frame is pulled off the supports after the bail pins are removed from the frame and wire support. The supports are removed by loosening the knob and sliding them off the T-Track. The whole setup and take-down takes less than a minute each. Eventually, they will store in a case and travel on the roof rack I am going to build for the top of the camper. For the moment, it will travel on the bed during the day and the back seat of the truck at night.
If you are wondering why we picked 'Mossy Oak' for the fabric, we didn't actually. Out fabric artist friend who's idea of 'wilderness' is a sale at the fabric store, found the material on sale. She was all excited about this 'lovely fabric' that was perfectly suited to our camper not realizing it was 'Sunday Best' for the hook-and-bullet crowd. In the end, she did a great job and we really like the fabric. It will be perfect when whitetail season comes around.
