Showering!

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djw2112 said:
I don't know I never rode back there lol  But thanks, sadly its wrecked now and probably parted out all across the US and UK by now.  That is an award sitting on the footpeg from the (Wing Ding) Goldwing show that year.  It won first place in the custom classic, first time i ever entered it into a show :)  I used to build those trailers that was my first one just working stuff out in design.
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:)) :)) :))
 
djw2112 said:
I agree solar showers are really great as long as you plan in advance to get the water warmed up and it's OK with the campground.

I remember long ago when I was camping at keystone state park just outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma in the summer time. Back then I was traveling and camping doing the Goldwing Motorcycle and small pull trailer deal. I got there on a Wed so I had the whole first row to myself which was on the high side of the property overlooking everyone else. There was alittle rock wall on the back side of my space that made for a perfect shower stall. It even had a rock bottom that drained away and the little ledges for the shampoo, soap, and everything, it was as if Jesus himself bathed there and created it just for him :)

Since noone was around I set up my solar shower and in no time it was ready to go. I stripped and about half way through my wonder private shower some new neighbors pulled up (a man as his wife)in the slot next door to me, and there I was in the buff having a wonderful nature shower lol I went to cover myself and the man rolled down his window and yelled "as you were, your not bothering us" so back to it i went while i watched them set up how to shower when camping. Solar showers dont last long but boy hot water sure makes all the difference, especially in attitude, and after a long day on the bike just awesome.

Here is how I used to travel
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My wife & I should both draw our elk tags this year (mine: bull second season and her: cow) and I will be camping in my wall tent for the whole month of November. With camping for that long, I'll need to build a good shower. I'm thinking of somehow using a bilge pump for the pressure and a turkey fryer to heat the water. Any ideas, photos or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 
The shower mini-tents are really frowned upon by managers of state and federal land, but there are a lot of inexpensive non-hookup campgrounds where they have showers. In fact, most state and federal campgrounds will give you a choice of hookup or non-hookup, and most times there will be showers you can use legally.

Also, in national parks and areas where there is a lot of boondocking, or non-hookup camping, there will be places where you can pay a few bucks for a shower. Might even try truck stops for showers. Otherwise, you will have to stick to a sponge bath and dumping the used water in a place provided by the campground.

PS - When I was a child, my parents had a cottage on Lake Huron. I had a lot of cousins and aunts and uncles who used to visit, so often they would bathe us little kids in the lake. Not allowed anymore, as the problems with using soap in such places are more well-known, but in the 50s, they just took us kids and a bar of soap into the lake to get us clean.
 
For what its worth, Many Years ago I converted a van into a camper. I used an adapted beer keg as my water tank.. It had a faucet with a hose thread, which also supplied a small sink mounted to the top of the keg, inside the van. The sink drained thru a hose that went out of a hole in the van floor, into a bucket.

I could pressurize the keg through an air fitting with a small air compressor.

I ran a hose with a spray nozzle out of the van to shower.. I wore swim trunks while showering out doors, and stood on a rubber mat. It was easy enough to reach inside the swim trunks to get washed down there.

The whole process involved wetting myself down with spray from the nozzle, lathering up, using a wash cloth, then rinsing myself off, shutting the spray off between, wetting, lathering and rinsing.

The beer keg could hold about 12 gallons of water which didn't take long to reach ambient temperature in a van during the summer. I rarely used more than 3-4 gallons for a shower.
I doubt that you would want to use a full beer keg in a tent camping situation, but might be able to use a bit of the overall concept, (maybe a smaller pony keg, which would fit nicely on a turkey fryer) depending on how often you plan to do this and how long your trips would be. Wish I had pictures to post.

Now I have a TT with a great luxurious indoor shower stall and plenty of hot water.;)
Safe travels and all the best.
 
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On the boat there were two methods... and I should mention its either warm water or no water for me. boil the kettle for my morning coffee, and mix some left over hot water and cold water in the sink (I don't have hot running water on the boat) and use a wash cloth or the solar shower. the solar shower would be tied to the mast and the hose led into the head where I could shower in peace when in the anchorage.
This also reminds me of the adage 'if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there does it make a sound'...? same goes for smells.
Regards Steve (still looking for an RV to buy before winter)...
 
I think a lot of this information is 30 to 60 years old. Dumping grey water (all "wash" water is grey water) is frowned on in so many places. The occasional grey water disposal about once a week wasn't a problem. Multiply that not only by 7 but by anywhere from 2 to 50 then multiply it again by 52. I've been in campgrounds that were in use almost constantly. In the western states, you might still get away with it. But that is also changing due to cidiots who don't know what they are doing. In the southeastern states, where it is warm enough year round that dispersed and designated campgrounds are in use almost every week or even almost every day, the environment simply cannot absorb the waste water. And then you also have to factor in the cidiots again.

In our shower-free/toilet-free pop-up, we used a portable cassette toilet and a big Rubbermaid tote for bathing (it was a bath tub for the babies and a shower pan for adults). We heated water up on the 3 burner cooktop. We could dump our waste water in a nearby grey water dump. BUT this was in the late 1980's. By the 1990's, that allowed practice was being phased out. Yes you can dump a small amount of water from washing dishes. But if you were caught dumping 5 gallons of water into the grey water drain, the park rangers would start asking questions. We ended up with a little tank to carry our waste water to the sewer dump. Eventually we ended up staying in places with bathhouses.

I would not have a camper without a bathroom/shower/holding tank. I've been doing this too long and seen too much. I've also stayed in several places that had full hookups but no bathhouse.
 
sajesak said:
My wife & I should both draw our elk tags this year (mine: bull second season and her: cow) and I will be camping in my wall tent for the whole month of November. With camping for that long, I'll need to build a good shower. I'm thinking of somehow using a bilge pump for the pressure and a turkey fryer to heat the water. Any ideas, photos or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
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We use a NEMO Helio water tank. It works pretty well, but there are two problems: 1) the O ring on the cap comes off too easily (and then you can't pressurize it) and 2) the carry strap tore off after about 15 months and 10 or so trips with it. NEMO was kind enough to send me spare o-rings free of charge. I fixed the strap by duct taping a rope to still attached end but haven't used it that way yet.

When the NEMO bag goes, I"m going to either make a PVC tank to put on the roof rack of our teardrop or DIY a system to pressurize a Scepter tank (see video below).


 
I am definitely a "low profile" kinda guy and would be embarrassed at breaking a rule. I always assume these days that dumping grey water/shower water on the ground is not allowed except at the most remote boondocking locations - At that with no prying eyes I would drop water on the ground. I am not a super staunch environmentalist. Heck they use Dawn to clean oil off of birds - LOL...

The second issue is privacy. If anyone is in line of sight or can pass by, especially young kids there is no way I would shower outdoors, even in a portable shower. Definitely don't want to risk an indecent exposure charge at a kid and have to report my address for the rest of my life. I am an old white guy and the reality is the world is predispositioned to think we are up to no good all the time.

Having been a sailor I am really good at sailor baths and can go at least a week or longer if I need to.

I have also done a lot of squat and bucket baths when I lived in the Philippines. Very common in the provinces to have no indoor plumbing.

My kid does the Planet Fitness trick. He's done this since his late teens and has lived in his car, a pickup with shell and even a short tie in the back of a 26 foot uHaul.
 
When doing mountaintop work, we would warm water for a sponge bath, but the best way to wash hair was in the dry snow.

By the way, steer clear of dry shampoos. Most have already been taken off the market. I guess they have nasty VOCs.
 
Back when I did more tent camping the cleanup go-to was a package of large wet wipes. Used ones went into the campfire.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Oldgator73 said:
What’s the difference in that than using your shower in the RV and letting the grey water run out on the ground? Asking for friend.
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Not much, except the RV shower goes through the grey tank where it can pick up food based contaminants from the kitchen sink. These attract vermin.
 
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