Don636 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 There is another thread on here today about a lack of space at the drivers seat in an Autosleeper Warwick XL and I suspect it is because the washroom is at the front of the van behind the drivers seat and it restricts rearward travel of the seat. They have done this in order to fit in a larger washroom with a separate shower and it got me thinking about all these motorhomes with large washrooms and fancy separate shower cubicles and how often people actually use them. We have a PVC with a fairly standard wet room type of shower arrangement which can function perfectly adequately as a shower but it is quite cramped in there and you need to work out what to do about getting dried off and dressed. In our van we can open the door to block off the rear lounge and step out onto a mat in the front of the van to get dressed (just remember to close the blinds!). We tend to use the campsite showers most of the time, only using the on board shower if we are 'roughing it'. I would have thought that two people using the shower every day would require the water tank and waste tank to require filling and emptying every other day, which I would find a hassle. In a relatively small PVC (6.36m) I think giving over a lot of space to a large washroom/dressing area with a separate shower cubicle is not the best use of space and in our van for instance this space is used for more storage, which is more useful more of the time. Others may have different priorities. How many of you out there regularly use the on board shower and how many use the campsite showers most of the time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero boy Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 ...it probably dends on a number of factors..... how/where do you tour....if its only campsites then use the site facilities, but you wouldnthet me tripsing out in the rain when we have a perfectly good facility in the van... i guess, from ypur term 'roughing it' you dont camp away from sites too much...? we ise a mix of aires and sites when abroad, the greater proportion of our touring. and a mix of sites, cl/cs and THS (temp hol sites) when in the UK...... so, this 'break' we had 6 days on a THS site (no ehu pr toilets/showers) and now 4 nights on a CL (ehu but no toilet/showers)...... in fact, just as we like it.....quiet, countryside, no glampers who cant do without 'home comforts....so, we have been using our shower every day.....bit with large fresh and waste tanks, this isnt a problem. is a shower a waste of space in a van? No, as its an integral part of us living on it for around seven months a year.....ot means we can go where we like, when we like, without sifting through possibilities to ensure the right facilities.....we always have them with us.... for those who 'never' use the shower, or the toilet or the kitchen.....what's the point of a van..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave C Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 We always use our on board facilities - that's why we have a van that has them. Never found it any hastle to fill water tank and empty "grey" water tank and cassette. (And we don't empty "grey" water onto the grass either.) Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Our Hymer 584 has a good size bathroom and shower,use it all the time, never use site showers. Water is no problem, we carry 140 litres, fresh water ,the waste tank holds 100 litres, just top up and empty as we travel around sites. Brian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keninpalamos Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Hey! nor do I empty grey water onto the grass but I havn't used a campsite in years. I do wonder though where do boats including cabin cruisers, narrow boats and so on, with sinks and showers etc. empty their grey water, as if I didn't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sshortcircuit Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 We each have a daily shower and on average use 8 litres of water a day and with 110 litre tank ample capacity. How you use the shower will greatly influence how much water you need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 The OP's point is surely that shower rooms take up a lot of space in MHs, so could we manage without them? I wouldn't want to be without a decent sized shower which you can use without struggle or disproportionate effort cleaning down afterwards - and in a 7 metre MH there should be space to have one. The swing-wall bathroom in our Hymer B674 is a masterpiece of design and works very well. But in smaller MHs the compromise becomes more challenging and since many of us use camping sites and tend to use the site's shower facilities when available, a less commodious on-board showering facility becomes desirable, to save space for more useful things. Placing a black plastic water container on the roof in the afternoon sun so the warm water can be used for a shower might work for a family with young children needing hosing down before bed but it's never going to appeal to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 If the concern is amount of water used, I presume people now that in a M/H you should have a sailors shower. ( turn shower on,wet body, turn shower off, soap body. turn shower on, rinse .) minimum water used. Brian B. :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 We spent 60 nights away last year so the shower would have been used at least 120 times. Wouldn't be a Motorhome without a shower. Only have a 100lt tank, but carry another 40 Lt in the garage that way we only need to service every 4-5 days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 We rarely shower in the motorhome. We chose a small motorhome this time with limited shower space with that in mind. It's probably more to do with our reluctance to stink out the van; if we use sites with toilet blocks, we might as well use their showers. A larger motorhome with an adequate shower would cost us another £7,000, the equivalent of between 300 and 450 nights away on a site with a toilet block. I've always been happy to shower in the van, my less than petite missus not so. When we do use the shower, we have what Brian B calls a "sailor's shower". In this current van, we've rigged up a shower curtain outside the toilet compartment to provide additional private dressing space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero boy Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 ....as Lenny says, if you dont have a shower in your van (or 'dont' shower in your van) then, for us, this would seriously restrict the way we tour.....although we dont wild camp that much (the odd supermarket carpark, etc) we do use aires on our travels abroad and 'no facs' CLs in the uk.... to have to make a bee-line for a full facs site every night os not something that we wish to incorporate into our bumbling around.... dont get me wrong, when we put our feet down at some full facility site nr the Med, we'll stay and enjoy it all, including the showers.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don636 Posted August 24, 2015 Author Share Posted August 24, 2015 I have used our shower in the van a few times (using the sailors method) but tend to use the site showers as there is a bit more space and I don't have to wipe the place down. My wife on the other hand can't be bothered using the shower in the van as she finds the space restrictive, does not like the sailors method and hair washing in particular uses lots of water. It can be difficult sometimes finding a source of water that is easy to get to and finding somewhere to dump grey water is even more difficult. You can fill the water tank with a container but this is a bit of a faff. We tend to conserve water as much as possible to limit the need to empty and fill up, and that is with a 90l tank. For weekends we fill up before we leave home and dump the grey water into the manhole at home. If we both used the shower every day we would probably need to fill the tank again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 On the rare occasion we do stay on a site prefer to get out of bed straight into the shower, can't be bothered with using site showers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rupert123 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 lennyhb - 2015-08-24 10:46 AM On the rare occasion we do stay on a site prefer to get out of bed straight into the shower, can't be bothered with using site showers. Electric moped, cannot make the effort to walk a few meters to a shower, thought I was in a bad way Lenny but you are obviously a lot worse. (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breakaleg Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 We took delivery of an autoquest 115 (sunseeker, dealer special) the shower area is a decent size curtain covers the toilet area, Iam 6 foot 4 inches tall and more stones than I care to admit but we find it large enough to use regularly. good supply of water from the shower head. We mainly use cl's or cs's I have disability problems and need to empty toilet every day as it is to difficult for me when full (to heavy to carry or pull) so we fill up with water every day anyway, we do this because we don't know how easy the access to a tap is at the next site. We do use large sites now and then and the disabled shower is a joy to use, we were going to by another autosleeper nuevo but the sunseeker was £15000.00 cheaper thats a lot of diesel. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAS Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I can`t see the point of a shower in a campervan conversion myself. I would rather have a bigger toilet area with a proper fixed sink and larger wardrobe. In fact my shower houses the beer, cold drinks and all the clothes that need to be on hangers. If we need a shower we will stop at a site with facilites. We don`t go abroad as we`re both still working however we do stop at rallies and THS`s. It`s like the oven.......I keep the dirty laundry bag in there. (!) (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Leake Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 We have a Warwick XL and of course we use the shower. My wife has two,large plastic crates stacked one on top of the other to store all the food we could buy whilst we are away but she insists on taking with us. Likewise we also regularly use the oven for storage of bread and cakes etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 ROFLMFHO, If I get time later I'll give a full explanation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timabob Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 The big advantage we've found this summer in the UK (our first motorhoming summer) is the ability to easily find sites at weekends, but CC, C&CC and CLs. The CLs and sites with full facilities are often booked solid weeks in advance, but if you pick a site without toilets and showers there are nearly always spaces. I addition cost. We've booked for next Friday on a CL on the South coast with a view over the sea - £6 per night!!! Bank holiday weekend! My caravanning colleague, when I told her this, confessed that last year in the Dordogne they paid £60 per night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 short answer...NO! Have been Motorhoming for more than 20 years and only in one van ever used the shower, and that was when we were away for some 7 months touring Europe. We have a shower /toilet room, which is fine for toilet and wash purposes, and doubles up as storage for hanging wet coats and wife' long dresses etc. Also as a safe place to put nbags for shopping whilst travelling and until we put things away properly. Personally, can't see the point of filling up then getting rid of the water needed, and also having to dry the shower areas and even then you cannot avoid the condensation produced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgnbuk Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 We both shower daily in the van when away, and a separate shower cubicle is a "must have" for me - not interested in wet rooms, shower curtains, swinging walls, daft shower-inbetween-sink-and-toilet arrangements - a separate cubicle with a bi-fold door is much more civilised ! Can't do with traipsing about sites and queing to use communal facilities (when on sites - frequently use stellplaetze and event "fields" without such facilities) and many communal showers are poorly designed, with little dry space to leave clothes and towels while you shower, I'd much rather use the clean & convenient facilities I drive around with & I certainly don't feel I am "roughing it" using them. With 100 litres fresh water on board we can easily do 4 days between fresh water fill-ups & waste dumping and have done so at the likes of airshows and bike race meetings. And with full water (100 l), gas (11kg), diesel (90 l), two bicycles, clothes & provisions and the two of us, the West Yorkshire Trading Standards weighbridge at Gildersome shows I still have around 200 kg payload to play with (on a 3.5 tonne van) so its not as though carrying the water to be independant is much of an issue. Washroom layout is one of the critical areas for me when chosing a van & in both my first CI Carioca & current Roller Team T-Line the washroom arrangements sealed the deal. I rather fancy a Pilote G600LR or G650LR when I change next & the spacious "across the end" washroon is one of the major attractions. Having perhaps paid more attention to the useability of the shower than many appear to, I can say with reasonable confidence that those who do not want a well though out washroom have a wider choice of vans than those of us who who do ! To each their own ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordThornber Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Dave C - 2015-08-24 8:19 AM We always use our on board facilities - that's why we have a van that has them. Never found it any hastle to fill water tank and empty "grey" water tank and cassette. (And we don't empty "grey" water onto the grass either.) Dave Absolutely 100% agree Dave. Martyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I use my shower when 'en route' but if i go a site then i use the shower and toilet facilities. Why anyone would go on a campsite and then not use facilities provided and paid for, i find rather odd to say the least! Do the same people book a room in an Hotel......and then spend the entire night sitting in a chair in the foyer? After all, why use your own shower when you get facilities like this? http://i.imgur.com/Yvyo8oZ.jpg http://i.imgur.com/wl9PTR9.jpg All taps, showers and toilets electronically controlled. No taps, no timers, no nonsense....and all scrupulously clean. Of course, when you shower in your van, you need to clean it out after.....use the shower block and it gets done for you! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caddies104 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Hi all Would be great if we could find a van with no shower and in its place was an American fridge (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manxli Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Hi We've had our Flash 02 for over a year now and have never used the shower. It seems to be OK, just to wash 'all the naughty bits' and armpits etc using either kettle boiled water, or (in winter) the first batch of water heated by the webasto diesel heating pipes which run along side the water pipes under the bed. I tried the Truma heater once, but it took for ages to heat the water up and we just can't be bothered. However, will try again soon. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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