Combined John / Shower 72 23-25’

[AV8]

I am considering buying a used AS for a cross country trip with my family this coming summer. I like the idea of having the smallest trailer we can all fit in comfortably. I like the looks of a 25’ with twins in the back, but the 25’ in the 70-72 year range have the combined john / shower. That seems like it would be difficult to keep clean, and generally cause problems. We are new to trailer camping, so I don’t know how much you tend to use the built in shower anyway. I know from sailing, you look for shore facilities when ever possible.

Any thoughts from those who have lived with this arraignment?

Rick

[qqq]

Rick,

First of all, Welcome to the Forum,

I have the john/shower on my 71 Safari & I hate it I also hate to wash in front of a window...

Hart

[87MH]

For family travel, I would suspect that the campground shower would be the choice. Relatively few of the campgrounds I have encountered have full (sewer) hookups, so all of the shower water would go to the gray water dank for disposal. I don't know the size of the gray water tank on the Argosy, but, even being careful with the shower time, two of us can just about fill up the 43 gallon gray water tank on the 345 in a couple of days.

[Tin Hut]

We have two twins on our 24 footer with the toilet/shower combo. Like previous poster, we try to use the campground facilities when available so don't have much of an issue with it. I would prefer the combo than moving up to a larger trailer. Even for toilet use we try to use the campground facilities and use ours for those middle of the night gotta goes.

[Moonshot]

On my 1963 24 ft Tradewind there was no wet bath. The toilet and bathtub were separate.

Same for my current coach, 1979 Argosy Minuet 24 footer.

Scott

[Davydd]

Rick,

I bought a vintage '71 Tradewind with the combined shower/bathroom. Since I haven't used it yet I don't know if I will like it or not. What I do know is that in my 59 years I was always a tent camper so this thing is bound to be a luxury in the extreme for me.

So I kind of assumed I would mostly use it like jfsjr mentioned in a gotta go situation. And because of that, I'm more concerned about those crawl over bed arrangements. But then again crawlling out of a sleeping bag and unzipping a tent fly was not exactly smooth.

[alori]

We have the same bath. I like the trailer but the only draw-back is there isn't a grey tank so suggest you get a '73 or newer. We will be selling as soon as we find another with grey tank.

[pepper48]

My unit has the "wet bath" and I like it. It gives me at least 18 inches more living area than those with tubs. I do find that some precautions are needed. First, we keep a rubber backed rug on the bathroom floor to keep from scratching the surface from foot traffic. Second, I purchased a stopper that has a lever on top that expands to seal the drain. It's like some older boat drain plugs. This is something you will want because the surge from dumping your blackwater tank will result in some backup in the floor without it.

Part of using the wet bath is personal preference. I use it most of the time. My wife prefers campground showers where they are available.

Finally, a word of warning. The year models you listed will not have greywater tanks unless they have been retrofitted and don't count on two adults sleeping on the front gaucho.