Shower and toilet enclosure thread

[Curtis in Texas]

All these store bought shower enclosures are nice, but, for the more frugal (Cough) Cheap Bastages out there , Like me, here's how I solved my shower problem before I went Class "A" motorcoach.
Get yourself the largest "Hoola Hoop" you can find, and two shower curtains. Hang the curtains from the hoola hoop and your all set. (Over lap the ends by two holes for better privacy.) You can hang the Hoola Hoop from a tree or off the side of your roof rack. Motorcycle tie downs are great for this. Fully adjustable. A side note: I use the shower curtains as a rain fly for the roof rack contents. I don't even undo the curtain from the Hoola Hoop, I just leave it all together. A bungee mesh net over that and it's all good. This way it's on top for fast access. We use it as a bathroom with hassock in it too. The hassock makes a great stool in the shower too.
I have a Yackama Rack on my 4 wheel drive rig and the cross braces are great for sliding some conduit into them to hang the hoola hoop on. Since I had a roof rack I made up a wooden grate that filled the RR basket floor. It was removable and with the slats close enough it made a perfect floor for the shower. A few solar bags tied to the roof and the evening showers were a breeze. Anyway, my girlfriend, at the time, loved the convience of a shower on the trail. I can't seem to find the shower stall pictures I took of it with the Girl Friend in it. But, you get the idea.
( Don't tell anyone, but the Roof Rack Basket was a sales table from Virgin Records.) I did say I was frugal didn't I?


And since we're talking about being cheap, er I mean frugal, here's another idea.

Here's a picture of the mosquito netting I made for it for sleeping in the back. It's held in place with bungee cord sewed into the edge. I put some overlapping slits in the cover to give me access to the air mattress bed in the rear. I made some socks to slip over the rear door frames so I could roll the back windows down for a breeze. or up to slow the air flow down. The entire mosquito netting packs into a bag the size of a travel bag shaving kit. (No Kidding) Before you ask, the netting I got at my local Army Navy Store for about $10. bucks. Bungee cord, same place.
If you look close you can see the camp stove hanging on the back of the swing out tire carrier. It hangs off simple shelf brackets. Another one of my creations.

Here's the entire rig going up to Moab Rim.

Not your typical Rodeo. It has 20 forward and 4 reverse gears. ARB's in both ends. Talk about a Mountain Goat!

Anyway, I hope you don't mind if I put in my 2 cents worth and share some other things that worked for me.

Curtis in Texas

 

[Antichrist]

Vince had this cool shower deck in Baja. I need to get one . I was using my spearfishing fins to stand on.

In case anyone is interested it's $10US cheaper here:
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=146577

All these store bought shower enclosures are nice, but, for the more frugal (Cough) Cheap Bastages out there , Like me,

I've been using a cheap bastard shower for quite a few years. A woodpile tarp, which is about 4'x 12' and wrap it around 4 tent poles. Adjusted to the right height, it hides all the naughty bits.

 

[Corey]

So far after looking here and Googling, I have it narrowed down to three shower tents.

This past week I was up at Mt. Rainier National Park for my vacation with the PETT system.
The tent alone is OK for the toilet, but it sucks for a shower.
There is no floor in it, and dirt was splashing up on me from the ground.
Plus the PETT tent half way blew over a few times due to a poor guyline rope system they use.
I touched on that in my gear review in this section.

So, here are the three I have been looking at that are actually big enough.
The PETT one is also cramped unless you are built like a bean stalk.

Columbia Shoshoni Falls Shower Tent

Cabela's Shower Shelter

Cabela's Fast Set Shower Shelter (HUGE)

Of the three, the smaller Cabela's looks pretty good.
I like the big one too, and it might be worth the trouble to set it up when camping on a vacation for three + days.

 

[FlyingWen]

We use the Pett Potty system now and I honestly can't imagine camping without it!

(Thanks to our model, Articulate)

While we do have the Pup tent that came with the potty, I do not recommend using it in windy areas. It does come with an anchor system, but figuring it out was somewhat complicated.

We use the Paha Que Privacy Tent, but as mentioned earlier, it is a 2 man job to set up. Once the tent is up however, it is solid and VERY stable!

Bottom line: if you have ladies camping with you or if you are trying to get the Mrs. to camp more often.. I recommend the Pett!

 

[bat]

I realize the burning of toilet paper needs to be done with caution not to start a fire. In mexico without burning the toilet paper the Coyotes dig that stuff up and poop paper is seen wondering the grounds.

 

[rambrush]

We set up a base camp up in Montana every year. I use a trekker commode shelter, Cabellas shower tent and there new 10x20 tent. For a shade shelter we use the Eureka.
The wood slate hinged thing is cheap and rough on the feet. no longer used at our place.
The shower 5 gallon bag that comes with it is cheap and does not work very good at all. We went with a better design out of Seattle. Left it in the shed in Montana so not currently available to provide the manufacture.

 

[Corey]

I bet this is it.
http://www.rei.com/product/752797

So you like the small size Cabela's shower tent, the one in the middle pic I posted above?
I think I am going to order that one up here soon.

The bigger one sounds like it might be a lot of extra work to setup, plus I would not be able to set that monster up in my apt. first

 

[rambrush]

Yes that is the bladder bag that works great. The blue nozzle pulls out to dispense water. The stock cabbelas unit is controlled from a valve on the bag. (Not very ez to use)
Yes I would suggest the Cabbelas unit. Actually both the top and middle appear to be by same manufacture.
We have had ours for 2 years now and no problems. This year we left the bag hanging inside and a storm came through and uprooted it. Put it back up restaked and discovered no problems.

 

[Corey]

Great, thanks for the info.
I will order that soon.
I will also get that bladder bag above to use in conjunction with my Zodi Extreme unit I have now.

Kind of use the Seattle one as a backup in case the Zodi runs out.

 

[atavuss]

we have used the Cabela's shower shelter along with a PETT toilet two different trips this year. first trip we set the shelter up and used the rain fly, it stayed bone dry inside after a 2 or 3 hour thunderstorm with hail.
second trip we had an 18 y.o. female that had not camped since she was three or four years old, she liked the PETT toilet and the privacy of the shelter. it was windy the entire time we camped the second time and the shelter blew over twice. the second time it blew over I tied the shelter to some trees and it was ok the rest of the trip. one of the plastic corner pieces that holds the poles broke and Cabela's shipped me a new one no charge in less than a week.

pros=
stays dry through rain if rain fly is used
two windows plus top is screened for ventilation
roomy
privacy
floor is built in and self draining

cons=
just about takes two people to set up, three people is even easier
time consuming to put up
need to tie it off so it won't blow over
zipper catches on "fly" of fabric

as for the PETT toilet the only cons were you have to be careful of how you sit on it with three legs it can be tippy
smell can get bad especially in warmer climates
we used one bag for three people for 2.5 days and still were able to close the bag
I would recommend taking latex or nitrile gloves to remove, tie off, and dispose of the wag bags.

 

[the dude]

We used the porta-privy from Cabelas on our trip to alaska. It sets up in seconds and take down is about the same AFTER you figure out how to twist the darn thing up. Quality is OK but I am concerned about zippers and seams. It got used for 25+ days this year so for a $49 item, it's been great.

The floor is removable with velcro fasteners and I found it plenty big (I am a large man)

The two man set up would really discourage me from purchasing some of the tents mentioned. We had a couple road side showers that where over before anybody had a clue what was going on due to the ease of set up and break down.

 

[ujoint]

I have the same Cabela's model. It's nice, but does take a while to set up. I only use it occasionally.

 

[Corey]

Just bought it, will be here in a week.

 

[rambrush]

You will be very happy when it arrives. The corner shelf unit is pretty flimsy. We stick shampoo/liquid soap bottles in the pockets on the back wall.
It is way easy to setup and only requires one person

 

[hoser]

I also have the $50 porta-privy. True, it is barely adequate in material quality but everything else about it is great. Easy to set-up and take down once you get the hang of it. The size is large enough for most people. At this price, it could be replaced every few years. However, I would gladly pay more for better materials.