For those who have placed porta potties under the front couch or under the front modified into a small dinette: How have you set it up? Do you have a door so that the porta potti can slide out? Or do you pick it up from a trap door in the top? Or do you have some kind of mod so it can be used in place? I am guessing that once the fresh water is added most porta potties are pretty heavy, aren't they?

I had mine under the goucho until I made the front dinette mod, and then it moved to under the back bed.

I slid it out from under there when needed, and slide it back under when done.

It's just me in there, it doesn't make any difference where it was when being used.

Yes, they can be heavy with water and refuse in both tanks, but a smooth floor made the sliding a non issue.

I have been impressed with this Front Dinette / Potty Mod: (link Below)

Ken James' Trillium

We don't put fresh water in the top tank. I use a little squeeze bottle of water to flush with. Started with a detergent bottle, now I use a small lemon juice bottle (think that has a smaller squirt area). This way the flush water goes where I want. I should try using the top tank, maybe the Thetford 135 works better than our older porta.

Nancy

Ken's Trillium mod is AWESOME. I think definitely some kind of front dinette mod with the porta-potti under a seat or under the bed in back will be the way to go. The only problem is I've really been hoping to figure out a way to sleep two and not have to crawl over each other to get up during the night. Guess it's hard to have your cake and eat it, too, in a 13 footer!

Before my father died in August of 1972, he bought his very first brand new Chevy pick up truck in the month of June and put a cab in the back to ready for our family trip to Florida (and room for 4 kids not all squished in the backseat of the sedan) He had made bunk bed that slid from single to double size (this was a tall cab) and made a box for the 'potty'. Ken's mod made me think of it, and I hadn't in years!!

It was a re-enforced plywood box with woodgrain sides along with what I remember to be a thick (probably 3/4 plywood) painted seat that you completely removed (not hinged, it was braced on 4 sides) to empty (no solids allowed!!) and a regular ol' 'bucket' was inside. He also put a hinged padded top so it could double as a seat when not used as a 'potty'. This made for more streamlined traveling with his 4 daughters!!

I can still remember riding down the road (I was 9 at the time) and asking my mother in the truck cab (via the intercom from the front cab to the back cab) if I could use the 'potty' and her saying "Yes, just make sure the people behind us can't see you!" (there was rear door on the cab with frilly curtains). This was before I-75 went straight thru, so we had to wander thru the Smokey Mountains (not by-passing them like we do now!) and stayed the night at road side parks. My parents slept on the hard truck-bed floor, while the daughters (aged 9-15) slept in the beds.

That was the last time we went camping as a family...and probably the last time I went 'potty' in a bucket, but it was a dressed up bucket!

Just thought someone would be interested in my dad's porta-potty/bucket modification.

My Dad's truck was a Ford... and we only rode in it, not camped, but your story reminded me of it.