How often do you use your shower | Poll

[NY24]

Most days would be the most accurate answer.

[SeeMore]

Other - a few percentage points off 100 as more rarely encountered situations dictate. 1) Runs from very cold to warmer regions with water systems winterized mean we have done a couple of CG uses. 2) Boondocking has provided the occasional use of nearby waterways for a spritz as we saved precious water in the tank for a longer stay. 3) On occasion, overnight stays with far flung family provide the opportunity for a more luxurious waterfall in their residence.

I like to use a squeegee and microfiber cloth after a shower to dry the stall and minimize the clean up so it is always spotless for the missus Besides, I hate the thought of walking to/from the facilities as we never seem to be near it.

[ALANSD]

Originally Posted by Stefrobrts

I guess I'm the only one to vote never so far We have used it maybe twice in 13 years. Seems there is always a campground shower available somewhere. Using the shower in the trailer just fogs up the inside, everything needs to get wiped down when you're done, and fills up the blue boy.

''

we are the same on this. 4 Airstreams and 15 years in and we have used our shower maybe 3 times. In our 66 I redid the pex and have not yet hooked up the shower. It has a nice new hand held deal too.

I have no problem with the facilities at campgrounds and such. I think most people are too afraid of bacteria ..could be why the get sick a lot. I have terrific immunity, and work in a school with little kids.
After all its called ...camping....

[gghayes]

Thank you all for the very informative answers. We have never used our shower in the interstate, but are going to Utah in May, staying in the National Park campgrounds.Some do not have electricity or water, so I will have to "learn" how to use the wet shower and the generator. It will be an experience.
Gloria

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by ALANSD

''

I have no problem with the facilities at campgrounds and such. I think most people are too afraid of bacteria ..could be why the get sick a lot. I have terrific immunity, and work in a school with little kids.
After all its called ...camping....

I agree with you completely.

I can't remember the last time I was sick, even with a cold. I've never had the flu....


Maggie

[InsideOut]

Originally Posted by Janet

We are in the midst of a reno on a 1964 globetrotter (19 feet) and mulling over bathroom options. This current bathroom is in bad shape. The tub and sink would need extensive fiberglass work to repair, the black tank is toast and so we are considering pulling them out and starting over.

The current bath configuration is like this:
Attachment 256679

We are considering moving the toilet to the curb side so it's no longer in the direct line of sight down the center of the trailer and then turning the bathroom into a wet bath. (drain in floor, circular curtain, etc). Something like this:

Attachment 256680

Is a wet bath more nuisance to manage than a full shower? This is a small trailer and the trade offs for regained floor space and not having to stare at the throne are appealing and may be a fair trade for the hassle of gearing up for the occasional shower. Sink choices are to either go without one in the bath (the kitchen sink is 4 feet away) or add a small elevated corner sink tucked in behind the toilet.

How often do you actually use your shower?

Hey Janet - sorry I'm late to the party on this...as you know, we've had both a '64 GT with the full bath set-up and our current '56 Safari with a small wet-bath we call "the Birdbath". What's funny is our smaller trailer had the larger bath...

I am truly conflicted on which I prefer.

I loved the extra elbow room in Maxwell's full bathroom and the fact that we didn't have to take out the towels & TP before showering, but I also love having the extra living space we have with the wet bath in Birdy. Our wet bath is very small - quite a bit smaller than what you are proposing. It looks like the one you are shooting for is a lot like the mid-60's Caravel, which is a better size. I also love the "airline-styling" of the '64 GT - but if your fiberglass is shot, that puts another tick in the "rip it out" category.

We camp 30+ days a year and I will say that with the wet bath, we are more inclined to use campground shower facilities when available. But we do use ours all the time when boondocking or on the road. The thing is with our on demand water heater in Birdy, we have endless hot water (with hook-ups), whereas we were limited to the small (6 gallon?) water heater with the GlobeTrotter so "long showers" were not enjoyed often, even in the larger space. I guess the best of both worlds would be to have our on demand hot water with the larger shower! But if that were the case, we might as well stay home ~ got to rough it a little bit, we are camping after all! :roll eyes:
"staring at the throne..." never bothered me with our GT because we had that nifty little fold down bench that covered it - most visitors never even knew it was there.

I would imagine if I was full or half-timing rather than camping, I would have a stronger inclination towards having a full bath....just depends on how you plan on using it IMO.

Hope this helps...good luck with whatever you decide to do ~

Shari

[Cyquest]

We use our tub/ shower most of the time. If on full hook up, we'll use the shower. If we hit back woods up north we use a Coleman black shower bag to conserve water.Because when you have 3 little ones, someone is bound to get muddy. Including this big kid.

[dbj216]

Showers or baths are a luxury. We humans like to splash around in warm water. Frequent showers are a big waste of water. Bathing every day is not necessary unless you are bailing hay in July. Morning showers are a complete mystery to me. Why would one bath before doing anything? I have never gotten real dirty sleeping. A person bathes coming in from the fields, not before you go out there. Vintage Airstream showers aren't just everything. The campground bath house is sometimes nicer.

My son's 69 Globe Trotter has a wet bath stuffed into the rear street side corner. Again it is too small and short for comfort and a wet mess after a shower. He would rather have a big bed back there with just a small "water closet" for the toilet.

I had to rebuild the bath in my 66 Trade Wind due to a rotted subfloor. I installed a small shower pan. I rather regret it now. It takes up wardrobe space and it is too small and too short for comfort. A rear bath is built under the spherical shape of the end caps. A shower drain requires a p-trap and drain pipe to the gray tank. Head room is a premium. I'd think twice before installing a shower in a small trailer.

David

[Foiled Again]

Originally Posted by PaulnGina

Seems to me that a wet bath is the height of efficiency. You can sit on the throne, take a shower, brush your teeth, and shave all at the same time.

Saves time for more outdoor activities!



PaulnGina
1987 Avion 34W
1995 Ford F250 7.3L PowerStroke

Blessed and highly favored

I opted for not being explicit in my response, but I got Wrath of God Food Poisoning once, and the wet bath allowed everything I cast out to land in a safe place for disposal. No "Oh no the waste basket is full" panic. And when arising finally in a weakened state, grabbing onto the sink as prop and safety handle - priceless.

If you like to get drunk - get a wet bath and spare the world the cleanup.

P

Of course now I have an Eddie Bauer - If I want, I can fold up the seating and use a small child's plastic pool in the main room, dump it out the rear hatch, and have a spa tub complete with any skin lotion or bubble bath I want.

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

I opted for not being explicit in my response, but I got Wrath of God Food Poisoning once, and the wet bath allowed everything I cast out to land in a safe place for disposal. No "Oh no the waste basket is full" panic. And when arising finally in a weakened state, grabbing onto the sink as prop and safety handle - priceless.

If you like to get drunk - get a wet bath and spare the world the cleanup.

P

Of course now I have an Eddie Bauer - If I want, I can fold up the seating and use a small child's plastic pool in the main room, dump it out the rear hatch, and have a spa tub complete with any skin lotion or bubble bath I want.

Omg! You are a friggin riot!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[Janet H]

Originally Posted by dbj216

Showers or baths are a luxury. We humans like to splash around in warm water. Frequent showers are a big waste of water. Bathing every day is not necessary unless you are bailing hay in July. Morning showers are a complete mystery to me. Why would one bath before doing anything? I have never gotten real dirty sleeping. A person bathes coming in from the fields, not before you go out there. Vintage Airstream showers aren't just everything. The campground bath house is sometimes nicer.

My son's 69 Globe Trotter has a wet bath stuffed into the rear street side corner. Again it is too small and short for comfort and a wet mess after a shower. He would rather have a big bed back there with just a small "water closet" for the toilet.

I had to rebuild the bath in my 66 Trade Wind due to a rotted subfloor. I installed a small shower pan. I rather regret it now. It takes up wardrobe space and it is too small and too short for comfort. A rear bath is built under the spherical shape of the end caps. A shower drain requires a p-trap and drain pipe to the gray tank. Head room is a premium. I'd think twice before installing a shower in a small trailer.

David

We had a minuet with a tiny corner shower - I could not even stand up straight in it and the shower pan was very small. The best way to use it was to have a "helper' hold and operate the shower hose/head whilst you quickly soaped up and turned in a circle to rinse. Only good in a dire emergency...

The idea here is to move the throne over to the side and then turn the center of the bathroom space into a wet bath which would mitigate the headroom issues. The longer we look at this it seems like the best solution.

The second part of this equation is that with an above floor gray tank planned, showers would be only possible when hooked up to services or a blue boy unless we looked a some sort of pump solution. Going slowly on these choices as they are substantial changes and that old airliner molded tub/sink combo is cool...

[dbj216]

Yes, the fiberglass tub/shower with the sink over it was a rather nifty design in the 60s. You can kinda sorta see it in my picture. My rotted out subfloor necessitated a major repair project.

The black tank in my trailer was woefully inadequate. And I had no gray tank. So I wanted to improve the functionality of my trailer. I now feel the shower would be lower on my priority list.

Where ever the toilet goes, so goes the black tank and its drain and vent. And if there is that shower, you need a gray tank for that. A shower or a bath is what, maybe 10 gallons of water? (Water pump is 3 gallons a minute, and shower is 3 minutes at least, unless you're in the Navy.) Or take a sponge bath with a gallon of water. The whole bathroom thing gets rather complicated. Tent and pop up campers don't have all these luxuries and their associated complexities.

Food poisoning is NO fun. Especially while traveling. A little bit of water in China sickened me for three days. We humans are pretty fragile.

Keep us posted on your proposed design if one materializes. The poll results indicates half of us Airstreamers use the shower 100% of the time. And that makes a functional shower a selling advantage.

David

[kfrere]

Sometimes a shower is not just for getting clean. My job (which I can do by phone/computer from a campground and my clients don't realize I'm not in the office) can be very stressful. I can get in my large shower, turn on my tankless hot water, and stand under the streaming pressure of my residential shower head for 10 minutes and I've gotten a mini, stress-relieving spa treatment.

[Rich W]

I think it would be interesting to see the results broken down by usage with trailer size. In a large trailer with unlimited hot water and full hookups I'd use it every day too. Our 23' AS shower is pretty small and limited hot and gray water. I can go maybe 5 days before bringing out the blue boy for the gray water and that's without the shower.

We've each taken a shower in it, decided it's better to use the campground facilities and keep the AS shower as a broom closet, laundry hamper, etc..

The wife doesn't like to boondock so we stay in federal, state and local municipality parks with facilities, sometimes RV parks. Private CGs can run the gamut of quality but Good Sam ratings help us pick ones with good facilities.

[Janet H]

Originally Posted by richw46

I think it would be interesting to see the results broken down by usage with trailer size. In a large trailer with unlimited hot water and full hookups I'd use it every day too. Our 23' AS shower is pretty small and limited hot and gray water.

Yes, I think this may be the critical piece of info. I often camp off the grid and so showers in these circumstances are rare; limited by both fresh water reserves and gray water storage.

When camped at a park with bathhouses AND a full hookup I found that in our old minuet I preferred the bathhouse - our shower was just too small. In our current Overlander (large bathroom/shower) I prefer the trailer; I suspect that this holds true for others as well. Still, in the Overlander, I have never taken a BATH in the tub. It functions as a very deep shower pan, storage for various lumpy stuff and the occasional dog wash. So the question here is not 'should we have a shower" but instead "should we try to fix the tub". Does it serve a purpose, etc.

[nvestysly]

As you said, lot's of things to consider - it's not just whether to have a shower but can you make use the old one or make some sort of new one.

I voted 100% - that is, when we're traveling in our trailer, 100% of the time I take a shower it's in the trailer. In our trailer the toilet and shower are in the same cozy room but separate. When we travel in our B190 the same 100%, but it's a wet bath and not nearly as convenient.

I have nothing against campground showers but there are many times when we are not in a traditional campground and the reason for an RV is to have self-contained amenities like a shower, regardless of whether it's "dry" or "wet."

We considered several B190 vans before we purchased the 1998 model with a wet bath. The earlier models had separate shower and toilet and I would have favored that but the toilet was straight down the hall. We didn't buy that model for other reasons. Had we purchased one of those units I'm sure there is something we could have done to disguise the loo.

My suggestion for your trailer is to look at any and all options regarding repairing the existing tub/shower. Ultimately, it's your decision but a wet bath is less than optimum IMO if you have other alternatives.

[GettinAway]

It's one of the reasons we went with the 23FB. We gave up living space, but picked up bed and bath space. We do most of the living outside, so it was a no brainier for us. I'm 6'5". I needed the bigger shower and bigger bed. Maybe someday we will move up to a 25'.. But for now we're pretty content.