Shower Shelter

[kcowyo]

Wow, I'm sensing some serious anger and hostilty.

Oh, there was anger and hostility my friend, there was anger and hostility.....

Let me clear up what you're sensing. I would be in jail or sitting at Satan's right hand if I had vowed to do to a human being, what I told that tent I was going to do it, if it didn't get it's sorry @ss back in that bag.....

The sad irony? I really needed a shower after being drenched in sweat, wrestling that silly thing back into the bag.

 

[Willman]

I'm buying a PETT. :violent-smiley-031:

About time!!!!!!

You will have to take Mark F'n with ya to use the ^&*%$#% thing...so he can put it back for you!

:shakin:

 

[kcowyo]

I may just give up showering altogether.... or I may do what the other travellin' dirtbags do, and head to your house Nic, for a little rinse-a-roo.

 

[ntsqd]

The sad thing that the other Engineers that I work with do not seem to get is just how much a little frustration here and a little frustration there adds up. It is a constant battle for me to make them understand that the tooling that only we're going to be using wants to be as user friendly as we can make it. God help us if we were designing consumer product.

I won the last battle by asking if I got to whine, biotch, and complain every time I had to use the tool that they were too lazy to add a couple User Friendly features to.

 

[Willman]

I may just give up showering altogether.... or I may do what the other travellin' dirtbags do, and head to your house Nic, for a little rinse-a-roo.

Ether way......Your welcome anytime!

 

[Dave]

Me too. I spent an extremely frustrating morning yesterday in Idaho, trying to fold it back up. Mine went back in the bag but I doubt it will ever be useful again....

Screw that stupid thing, I hated trying to store that big awkward disc anyway. I'm buying a PETT. :violent-smiley-031:

Same boat. I used the Outback Privy on our last trip through SoMo and while I did get the hang of it, I was sweating and covered in dirt by the time I got it in the bag. And speaking of the bag...the zipper split the first time I used it during the trial run in the living room. So now, when I finally get the awkward twisted up pile of fabric into the bag, I get to deal with a busted zipper.

Storage is not easy due to it's size and shape and setting it up is not all that great either, stupid thing did not want to square up the last time we set it up on our trip.

I will admit, I was impressed at how well it weathered a storm though. We had a doozy blow through one night and I thought (wished) for sure I'd find the Outback hanging from a tree. It hung on tight and didn't even pull a stake out of the ground, though I did have all four corners staked down as well as the guy lines at all four corners.

I will also admit that showers were a great touch to a windless week with warm temps and many bugs.

So, speaking of the PETT shelter. How DOES it set up? I can't seem to find any instructions on the innerweb...could it be so simple that no one talks about it?

Anyone tried a Trekker shelter?

 

[kcowyo]

I've seen Willman's PETT in person a couple of times now. Looks like it sets up like any other tent, with (collapsible?) tent poles, stakes and such. Takes him 3 minutes, tops.

What I like about the PETT over the Porta-Privy, is that it all folds up like a camping chair or roll up camp table. So it would be easier (for me) to stack it up with the Zodi, two camp chairs and the potty chair in the FWC. The discus shaped Porta Privy was just awkward to store for me.

Here's a pic of the Porta Privy in action the afternoon before it bested my gentle disposition.

I should say that normally the PITA pack up procedure wouldn't have been enough to get me all fired up, but it was the last morning of a 3 day trip where we encountered a few more annoyances than I'm used to.

Oh, and I changed the hose and shower head from the stock Zodi unit to a kitchen sink trigger-type dispenser. The pull & push head on the Zodi unit was so-so at best. The trigger sprayer was much better although I could have used an extra foot of hose. Too short to go through the access sleeve on the back of the tent. For $7 at the hardware store, it was a great upgrade.

 

[Dave]

The trigger sprayer was much better although I could have used an extra foot of hose. Too short to go through the access sleeve on the back of the tent. For $7 at the hardware store, it was a great upgrade.

I upgraded our Zodi bug sprayer shower head to something from the garden department and retained the stock hose. Much better but seems to depressurize the tank much faster. I have an idea on how to fix that though.

In regards to the short hose, could you put the tank in side the shelter? That's what we did with ours...not while running the burner of course. Makes pressurizing mid-shower a much more private affair.

 

[kcowyo]

I guess I could put the tank inside, but I have a phobia about hot metals and nylon being in the same vacinity while one is exposed. I also don't want to risk puncturing or tearing the tarp floor with the stand legs. And honestly, I'm not sure I'm coordinated enough to shower quickly with the tank inside the small tent space.

As for priming the pump mid-shower, since I really bought the thing for her, well that's just an opportunity for a free peak in my book.

 

[craig]

Despite my frustrations this weekend, I still like the Porta-privy. Once you master it, it takes 30 seconds to setup and 30 seconds to put away. It worked great as a privacy shelter for the toilet and with the floor in it also worked great for showering. I like that it doesn't have any poles or other pieces to lose.

The only frustration for us is collapsing it when we are out of practice. Even fully expanded, but flattened, it fit in our truck. If I forget how to fold it up every once in a while and have to carry it home like that, I'll be OK. A quick watch of the video once we were home and my wife had it put away in a snap.

I pack camp chairs, privacy shelters, and several other items vertically like books rather than stacked. We usually just slide the porta-privy in between a couple of our chairs, with a net over the top. It is easy to get in/out.

Other than the pockets on the inside it has been fairly durable for what it is. We don't use ours a whole lot though, so I can't speak to the long term durability.

 

[spressomon]

Ditto on the durability comments of the PortaPrivy. I'd gladly spend a few more bucks to get a heavier duty cover and zipper and also better/durable plastic interior pockets.

 

[Bogo]

Dredging up old threads...

So here's something that i've wondered about after reading about shower setups. How do you guys address tromping around in the mud/water/dirt while taking a shower? Do you guys put a matt down or something? Where shoes? Im kind of confused about that part.

As for keeping feet out of the mud, I have a neighbor who made me what amounts to wooden door mats. Pieces of redwood strips 1x3 that are 30" long x 15" wide, I have two of them and they are easy to store and keep you off the ground. I prefer that over the standard plastic tarp that comes with the shower shelter.

Hum... Just thinking out loud. Sounds like a perfect excuse to get a pair of those waffle style composite sand ladders. Put two of them side by side on the ground should be good for a 24" wide shower floor. Ya might still wish to wear flip flops due to the size of the holes. Just trying to get multiple uses out of everything taken along...:sombrero: Somebody needs to try it and report back. I don't own a set of them yet or I'd try it in the barn shower. I do like the wood mat idea and already use that in the barn shower.

 

[craig]

Most of the shower shelters come with a ground tarp. You stand on the tarp, the water flows off of it, your feet stay clean.

 

[rambrush]

What i have started using with mine is shade cloth makes a great runway to shower water drains through and life is good. Buy all kinds and sizes from Gemplers.com

 

[morgan01]

Hi,

It works when there is rain and we are caught in it. at that time we think about nothing else but the shower shelter.