Outdoor shower worth it?

[DanoT]

I heat water on my stove and use a Hot Jugz.

http://www.hotjugz.com

 

[100acrehuphalump]

After a year of traveling and sleeping in my truck bed and finding a lake, river or stream to bathe I built a shower system into my M416 trailer using a 26 gallon ATV sprayer tank with a 70 psi pump powered by solar and the water is heated by my Eccotemp L5 on demand hot water shower. I grew to love taking a shower in the middle of nowhere after a long hot and dirty day. I've ordered my new Hawk with just the outdoor shower hookup and no heater so I can hook up my Eccotemp system to it. I saved about $500 in doing so and will have more room for storage.

 

[Outnabout]

Thanks for the variety of ideas and opinions. Thinking time.

 

[bike4mee]

yes to outdoor shower. I have made friends day by offering them a hot shower after a moab bike ride, long hike in the mountains. We bought a commercial foaldable shower enclosure, which hangs from a dowl rod hidden in the yakima rack bar (needed only on those rare well watched campgrounds) I must remove the mixing unit every winter because of freeze and crack thing I found out the hard way. enjoy it

 

[BillM]

Solar shower, we hang it off a tree or the camper, heat water on stove if cloudy.

 

[RicoV]

Observe happy wife in pic below, and you'll see why I like our little (custom) outdoor shower setup.

 

[bsharp007]

Yes the hot water tank is totally worth it not just for a hot shower but for cleaning the dishes.

 

[Smokecreek1]

In all these years I have never used the hot water shower once; but just like allot of things I carry and hardly ever use-I have it-just in case. A girl I worked with for years once told me when I was thinking about buying my FWC, that I would never catch a girl if I didn't have a way for her to shower while out in the boonies ; no luck so far, but I'm still ready if the opportunity arises! Yes to the hot water tank, Stan talked me into it a long time ago, and I have never been sorry! What for? Washing dishes, hands and for that every once in a while hot wash cloth bath and shave in the sink! Don't know how many times I was in a hurry and didn't have time to heat up the water for dishes and presto it was done; but I seem to be getting real lazy in my old age! .

Smoke

 

[LuckyDan]

Don't have it in my Grandby, did in in my motorhome. On demand hot water is one of the very few things I miss about it. The shower part less so than the water for dishes and such. That wrote I don't think I want to give up storage space in the camper to get it.

 

[bike4mee]

anybody retro a 4wc with a instant hotwater heater? I know there out there

 

[100acrehuphalump]

anybody retro a 4wc with a instant hotwater heater? I know there out there

I will be receiving my Hawk in exactly two weeks. I got the outdoor shower option but, without the DSI hot water heater because I already have an Eccotemp L5 on demand hot water heater/shower which I plan on adapting to work with the outdoor shower. I will post pictures once I have the two together. Dan

 

[100acrehuphalump]

Observe happy wife in pic below, and you'll see why I like our little (custom) outdoor shower setup.

We're you guys camped out at Colorado National Monument Last year around early to mid June? I saw a setup just like this at the campground there.

 

[bike4mee]

Nope not us. we were more in the 4 corners area. enjoy and send pic of that set-up

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Please excuse me for just jumping in like this. This is a very relevant topic since I am about to place my order for a new Grandby. I've debated the outside shower too.

For those who would rather have the space, aren't you giving up some of that space by bringing along the portable units you all speak of? Maybe not as much volume, but at least the installed unit wont get misplaced in the garage, basement, closet... In fact the only way you can lend it to the grand-kids is if you let them take the camper. Probably wouldn't fit on their Civic though.

Thanks, Arthur

Nope, a small tub for a sponge bath packs nicely.

 

[Bombsight]

Does anybody use one of these? ...

 

[SeldomSeen]

Here's another user of the helios shower. If you fill it and store it in the sun, it heats up like a solar shower, or a jetboil or two of boiling water mixed in makes a nice hot shower. Packs down incredibly small, and the foot pump is pretty ingenious. Also works great for cleaning up the bikes after muddy rides, washing the vizsla after rolling in fresh cow poop, and doing the dishes. I'm actually surprised at how often I break it out. http://www.nemoequipment.com/product/?p=Helio+Pressure+Shower+(Grey)

 

[longhorn1]

We have the outdoor shower on our 2014 Grandby. I used it once in Big Bend National Park to rinse off. I'm glad that I have it. Many of the parks that we have stayed in have showers. Most National Parks won't allow it, even with ecologically free soaps. When we start doing some dispersed camping, I think it will come in handy. jd

 

[Foy]

Our camper trailer, a hardside A-frame pop-up, has a 6-gallon water heater and an outdoor shower hookup (and no indoor toilet or shower--only a single small hot and cold water sink).

We purchased a pop-up shower enclosure and a 4' x 4' x 3" high foldable "pan" inside of which the enclosure sits. We set it up next to the driver's side of the camper adjacent to the shower fixture door. The pan has a standard hose outlet in one corner. By placing the outlet at the downhill corner, we can drain the gray water into a bladder or portable gray water tank, thus keeping in good stead with the NF, NP, BLM, and State Park CG prohibitions against dumping gray water on the ground. The shower enclosure is our privacy screen for the porta-potti, too. It looks a lot like Rotti's and may be exactly the same unit.

While it's great to have abundant hot water for showers (and dish-washing, etc), the enclosure, pan, hose, and gray water catchbasin are a bit much to deploy when on the road reaching one's destination. We thus used ours sparingly, only while at Twin Lakes, MT and on Rock Creek, MT, as while at other sites for > 1 night, there were either showers available or we just did without.

Foy

 

[TravelAmateurs]

We liked the idea of the Helio shower since it packs small and can be pumped via foot, but thought it was too expensive. Randomly searched again today and it's $25 less on Amazon and Moosejaw! $75 still isn't cheap but I wanted to be able to quickly rinse off dishes, feet, etc. outside without having to fill and hang our solar shower.

 

[DaveL]

The Helio works great for us. We got it this summer for $99 (yikes!) - $75 is a lot more reasonable - But still worth it because it is so compact, holds a lot of water and is so easy to use. Holds pressure nicely and gives a nice flow. If there's water left over after showers (easy to get 2 out of it), I keep it pumped up for the odd rinse or hand wash.

BTW - just discovered your blog a few days ago, TravelAmateurs, and blew a couple of envious hours with you! Love your writing style! We're following you . Have a great, safe trip!