Foot-operated washing machine

[Alf S.]

Originally Posted by honda03842

For us it's once a week 2 loads for no more 2 hrs at a laundromat. Easier than doing a number of small loads in a bucket. Even our friends with big rigs with washer and driers end up using them all the time because the washer and driers are small capacity units.

Hi: honda03842... I really like my wife operated washer. Since bleaching all the kids striped sports socks pure white I've not been asked to do the laundry again. Only question I have is "Where did all my quarters go"?
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[k corbin]

The key to the solution does not belong in what washer you buy but in what clothes you buy. But more about that later, we will address washers first.

Washboards work great and you can flat pack them. Plungers work great too and are also compact. Buckets are handy for camping and you can pack stuff in them that can then be temporarily removed for use as a wash bucket. You can get small wringers to mount on the bucket, use the keywords "chamois wringer" It takes no longer to wash clothes that way than the foot powered machine. The foot powered washing machine is clever but weighs too much and takes up too much space. Saving space and weight is normally a major consideration on longer trips. For shorter trips this subject has a null value.

Getting water out of the clothes so they dry quicker is very important. If you feel you are going to need to do laundry on trips and want to do it with hand washing then the solution is to purchase clothes designed to make that chore very easy. Buy quick dry clothing dress in layers of moisture wicking fabrics to keep warm and dry or even cool and dry. Do not bring articles of clothing that are thick and heavy. Blue jeans are thick and heavy which makes them difficult to wash and dry. If you are going to wear blue jeans all the time bring enough to last for a couple of weeks so you can go to a laundry in town or at an RV park or truckstop. It is much easier to do hand washing methods for summer vacation trips as you will want light weight clothing. So basically any hand washing method will work but the key to making the chore go quickly is to avoid heavy clothing. Heavy clothing also requires considerably more water to get it clean which is another reason to avoid it if you want to avoid going to a coin operated laundry.

[Mikmay]

Once again after being inspired by some of the posts here I have come up with a new idea for the HC1 .after talking with the engineers at happier camper we will now offer a barrel that can be attached to your rim just fill it with water and as you drive down the road the spin action will super clean your clothes. After a half hour just pop the drain plug and your clothes will spin dry the rest of your trip.should be a relatively cheap option after we check with our lawyers as to the legalities of it.

[ZachO]

Ha!

[Mike Magee]

Here's an idea, the Easy Wring Spin Mop & Bucket System: O-Cedar
Use the bucket to wash clothes. Put an item or two at a time into the spinner section and use the foot pedal to spin the water out. Rinse as needed, spin again, hang to dry.
If the trailer's vinyl floor gets dirty or if you want to wash the outer shell, the mop will come in handy also.
I bought one of these this summer (Home Depot had the best price at the time) and I really like it. Very light weight and doesn't take up too much space.

[k0wtz]

I know lets build a whole camper around a washing machine! Oh its already been done with the 500k rigs. All tongue in check we have camped out for a month and only washed clothes once in that trip.

pack lots of clothes a have a place in your tv to strore the dirty ones. We found we never dirtied up that many clothes!

[Gene680]

John Steinbeck in his book “Travels with Charlie” put his clothes in a 5 gallon bucket, with a cover and with soap and water then hung it with a bungee cord in his truck camper. It jiggled up and down cleaning his clothes. He then put clean water and repeated. If you’re traveling a lot that sounds like it would work [emoji38]

[k0wtz]

I am beginning to think there is some funning going on here!

[ZachO]

There are some very good ideas people could engineer.

In the end, for me, in today's society there are just so many towns...a laundromat just makes more sense, for me. Plug-ins for electronics, washer and dryer, wifi. Once a week or once every two weeks, perfect timing for a trip into town if long-term boondocking, and if you're actually traveling, you'll obviously go through towns way more often than that.

And if you do laundry in the camper while traveling, you miss out on getting the local, middle-to-lower income flavor of whatever town you happen to be passing through.

For those who want to stay in one place for long-ish periods and have kids or other high-laundry needs, plenty of good options have been brought up!

[k0wtz]

hey guys! How about a single popper motor to run that washing machine you could pack it along with the rest of the stuff! I hadn't thought of that yet you reminded me of growing up with a 2 holer in the back yard.

oh for those days once again that would make me at least 68 years younger as I don't remember much before 6!!

[Mitzi Agnew-Giles]

I never travel with much. In motel-ing days I had a maximum of 3 ultralightweight outfits and I washed each days outfits in the sink and hung dry. I considered that I was doing very well since in my Boy Scout days everything for 3 week long canoe trips at the Northern Tier High Adventure bases had to fit in a 5 gallon bucket, including sleeping bag and air mattress. I usually had room to spare after packing.

I have Washeze for laundry when travelling these days. Www.washeze.com No more heavy liquids that might leak for me!

The Scrubba didn't leave me feeling comfortable about laundry. I really can't do a pair of jeans in mine and I had a hard time closing the top.

Back in 2004 the one working laundromat in town got hit by lightning and burned and I couldn't use my combo washer dryer because hurricanes kept knocking out our electricity every time we'd get it restored from the last storm. I bought the only washboard in stock at a local hardware store. It was "family" sized and I thought it worked well. When I was waiting for the Snoozy to be built I went to www.columbuswashboard.com and bought the "lingerie" sized board. It's small and takes next to no storage space in the camper. BUT everywhere we have travelled there's been a laundromat in the campground.

I have loosened my ultralight weight packing rules. Now I pack 3 outfits and a heavier one for cold weather. We did just fine on the month long trip to Newfoundland back in June and in fact I never wore my cold weather outfit. ;-)

[Raz]

We started with a bucket in the bed of the pickup. Maggie added the agitator for use when camped. Great for tee shirts, underwear, etc. Jeans take days to dry.

[C&G in FL]

I think I’ll stick to weekly trips to the laundromat. It’s washed, dried, and folded within a couple of hours. We have to replenish groceries weekly anyway and can get food and do laundry in the same trip. It’s washed, dried, and folded within a couple of hours. Plus, I won’t have to figure out where to store/transport another camping “gadget.” During the “off-season” all the quarters we receive in change goes into a can. Typically, this provides us with an adequate number of quarters to make it through the camping season.