Mounting a shower tent

[Adventurebound]

Hello all. Looking for ideas or experiences in mounting an outdoor shower cube to the side of my Hawk. Ideally I would like to come up with a mounting solution to be able to detach it when in storage or for those tight tracks where branches might snag. How have others mounted thiers? Any particular spot they drilled at or just located the framing and went through there?

https://www.alu-cab.com/product/the-alu-cab-shower-cube/

 

[Lighthawk]

We've used an inexpensive popup tent with an astroturf mat inside for ten years now. Add a small popup plastic table for toiletries. Works great!

On a very windy DV night I cut a hole and clipped a carabiner through the spring steel metal frame. An adjustable canvas belt scavenged from the closet at home goes through the upper back step on our FWC Hawk as an anchor. Depending upon how many rocks we're parked on, the length of the strap can vary. I use small inexpensive tarp bungies at the base on the corners, using rock anchors and one plastic 6" stake (another find at a campground) to keep the tent from blowing around. Haven't lost the tent yet!
If things are calm, we sometimes deploy the tent away from the camper for other uses.

We put a beach chair just outside, with towels waiting. It's just a few steps into the heated camper! (factory blower + Wave 3). My wife approves and keeps coming with me on subzero camping trips with this setup. That's the most important thing.

I usually get our 2 gallon Zodi Extreme up to 110F for a steamy shower in the backcountry. Cheers!

 

[XJINTX]

I realize they might be a bit more than you want to spend but a lot of owners are now installing the Quickpitch En-Suite or same such over their outdoor showers. I ordered mine and waiting to pickup and install.

 

[Ida_Steve]

#1 Adventurebound
We went with the Ironman 4x4 ensuite shower tent set-up.
Easy with the optional brackets. Easy to remove and store. Took less than 1 hour to install.

https://ironman4x4america.com/instant-ensuite-shower-tent/

https://ironman4x4america.com/awning-quick-release-mounting-brackets/

 

[Ida_Steve]

Couple more of the install above.

 

[BigRanchInSky]

This DIY option is what I came up with. Basic, easy, simple, cheap, didn't need to put any holes in the camper.

Wind Fairing, Ford OEM Backup Cam, Hawk Exterior Shower F...

 

[Vic Harder]

With all of these outdoor shower solutions, what do you do about the grey water produced? Is it ok to just have it go on the ground? And my OK, I mean both legally and environmentally?

 

[AWG_Pics]

We use that not very soapy, REI biodegradable camping soap.
https://www.rei.com/product/407166/campsuds-biodegradable-concentrated-soap-2-oz
But, we are not clean fanatics when in camping mode. Both of us became used to backpacking & tent camping with the accompanying au natural condition over many decades. So a quick shower with not very effective soap, that is biodegradable works for us.

And I might add, any shower while camping seems like a great luxury!

 

[Adventurebound]

#1 https://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/21209-mounting-a-shower-tent/#entry246835Adventurebound
We went with the Ironman 4x4 ensuite shower tent set-up.
Easy with the optional brackets. Easy to remove and store. Took less than 1 hour to install.

https://ironman4x4america.com/instant-ensuite-shower-tent/

https://ironman4x4america.com/awning-quick-release-mounting-brackets/

Thanks. That's exactly what I was looking for and was not aware someone made brackets. I never even looked at the ironman setup as I had a set of thier lights and they were pretty bad on the quality side of things. How is thier ensuite and brackets? Holding up OK?

And how did you mount them? Through framing or just used a backer plate?

 

[heinphoto]

Our Zero Declination shower came with a mounting kit designed for the FWC camper. Basically 3 bolts that you mount through the wall of the camper, secured on the inside wall. If you look at photos of the bare FWC frame you will see that the top section (above the black stripe in the photo) is a solid aluminum sheet on both the inside and outside extending from the cab over section all the way to the back wall. We just mounted it to this area rather than trying to mount to the actual frame members.

You do have to plan carefully so that the bolts and washers on the inside wall of the camper clear counters/cabinets and don't block the slide-out bed if you have one. You also have to take into account the water heater and furnace exhaust locations so that you don't mount the tent in a spot where the fabric might melt/burn. The Zero Declination has a zippered panel against the wall of the camper that can be dropped to help prevent this.

-Scott

 

[heinphoto]

Here is a photo showing the three locations where we ended up drilling to mount the drop tent. You can see that one had to placed inside the cabinet above the 85L refrigerator, another high enough to clear the counter, and the third just back from the bed rail. It's a bit of a puzzle. The location of everything is different depending on the model and floorplan. Ours is a side-dinette Grandby.

 

[Keeferton]

I have a 23 zero shower tent just sitting in my garage and I figured I might as well throw it on the side of my hawk front dinette. Plenty of room above the stove/sink area on the driver side for hardware to clear. A couple questions before I go drilling holes into my brand new camper.
1. Is there anything in the walls above the sink area I need to watch out for?
2. I'm assuming best to drill from the outside of the camper in?
3. Anything besides hardware and butyl tape needed?

It seems pretty straightforward based on the construction but there is something unnerving about drilling holes into the side of a perfectly good camper.

 

[Vic Harder]

Drill high enough to get into the c-channel. There are wires in there. Best bet is to pull the paneling back a bit and take a look before drilling

 

[BlueSky]

Maybe it is just me but I avoid drilling the sides of the camper, especially when there is an easy alternative. For an outdoor shower stall I open the rear door 90 degrees. I clip one end of a tarp to one jack bracket, clip the middle of the tarp to the top corner of the door, and clip the other end of the tarp to the other jack bracket, creating a triangle shaped space. I have a couple of strings attached to the bottom grommets of the tarp to hold it outward if needed. Everything, including a silicon rubber pad to stand on, fits inside the propane hatch. Yeah, tarps look third-world, but the thing is only up for like ten minutes then it disappears. I hang a Stearns 5 gal solar shower bag on the top/back of the camper (installed a hook). For cold weather I have an indoor shower setup as others have done.

In my experience, everything bolted on the exterior gets destroyed by wind, UV, air pollution, and tree branches.

 

[bsharp007]

Just mount it to the side of your camper super easy and if you buy the declination zero shower tent it comes with all the hardware you need. I've mounted it on two different FWC now and it was very easy, of course I measured probably 10 different times, inside and outside. Here's what it looks like with a roll over hawk. Had to move it slightly towards the front because I got the larger fridge so no cabinet on top of the fridge for one of the bolts, still plenty of room for the king size bed to deploy.