Has anyone moved a rear bath to the middle?

[adamfried]

Hi all. I just demo'ed my AS and I'm considering moving the bath to the center of the trailer. Anyone ever done this or seen this or am I crazy? Opinions?

The AS is empty right now and I'm deciding on the layout. I'd like two bedrooms, front and rear with kitchen and bath in center.

[J. Morgan]

If you are going back with new stuff you can do it any way you want. You are not crazy at all.

Make it yours!

I ended up with more or less a studio apartment, no dedicated bedrooms. I am sure some folks think I am crazy though...


1/2 Ton 4WD Truck, 72 Sovereign Hensley Arrow

[ehodg66]

I'm doing the same on a 72 tradewind. Check out hofarc.com. He's done a few midship bathrooms.

[kb0zke]

Just keep weight and balance in mind. Also, since you are rebuilding yourself, keep maintenance in mind. Factories have teams of engineers who sometimes don't talk to each other, which makes it hard on the poor guy who has to fix something later on. Make it easy on yourself and any future owner.

[GeocamperAS]

Look at my photos. I moved my rear bath to the center. A couple of things I had to plan around were the windows and wheel wells. Did not want a window in the shower. Also they make shower pans to fit over wheel wells but I thought that made the small shower seem even smaller. Also cost of a flat pan was a lot less.
Plan for the location of the gray and black tanks and more importantly and challenging the routing of the drains. Don't forget about the vent stack.

[adamfried]

Thank you everyone. I'm planning on rebuilding most stuff myself. It's glad to hear this is possible! I want two bedrooms (sleeping areas) . Hmmmmm.....now to learn about weight and balance!

[adamfried]

Anyone want to see how you demo an AS in 100 seconds?
http://youtu.be/LHs96fn6EiU

[HiHoAgRV]

Unless you get really lucky with the original windows, you will have to make some non-standard compromises. I've looked a doing this on 3 different Airstreams and the side windows drive the bedroom wall location and I would have ended up with the foot of the bed up against the wall.

"Custom" wasn't an endearing term that would have describe the final outcome.

Frame work was needed on all 3 so relocating tanks wasn't a big deal, just some welding.

In every case, it started off with 'I already have this trailer...' and ended up with it being faster and cheaper to find a more suitable trailer

[SuzyHomemakr]

I moved the bathroom on my '72 Ambassador. I got around most of the plumbing problems by installing a composting toilet. It's a wet head, with a custom epoxy-cloth floor pan. Rear bedroom is now a mostly walk-around queen bed. My formerly black water tank is now a gray water tank, with a dribble system so that I rarely have to actually drain it. Here in Florida, nobody notices a stray puddle or two!

See '72 Ambassador makeover - Airstream Forums for the gory details.

[adamfried]

Any recommendations on the compost toilet? I've been considering one. Thx!!

[Silver Hawk]

Vintage makes tanks to go under floor to accomplish this - either as replacement tanks for mid bath or to move back to mid. They will put the hole for the toilet where you want it. Also to add gray and fresh tanks under older models.

[timzog]

Hi Adam,
I've been thinking a lot about composting toilets. The two I'm considering are the Natures Head and the C-Head. My parents have a Natures Head in their remote lake cabin and it works great. The C-head is cheaper than the Natures Head but needs to be emptied a bit more often. They both seem well built and conceived. The key feature of both of these is that they separate #1 from #2 at the source so they avoid making the really disgusting combo that goes into most black tanks. It dries out the #2. You do have to dump the #1 pretty often in either case. The C-Head has an accessory that would allow you to connect to a waste tank so one option would be to have the pee go directly to your grey tank. Not sure about the implications of that, but it would simplify one part of the disposal, perhaps at the expense of making your grey tank smell worse.
BTW, glad that you like the bunks in my Caravelle. The top one has a removable section which makes it a lot more roomy inside. Best of luck in your renovation. Hope it goes faster than mine did😄


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[Aage]

Originally Posted by HiHoAgRV

In every case, it started off with 'I already have this trailer...' and ended up with it being faster and cheaper to find a more suitable trailer

I have to say that IMHO this makes the most sense. There are just too many things to move around, structural things, from the top all the way down to the ground to make it practical.

If you want to actually camp in it in this lifetime, buy a second trailer, one with an interior good enough to camp in.