Looking at some scamps

[glennco]

Hey everyone, thanks for putting together such a great forum. It's an incredible resource.

My wife and I are looking small camper for our growing family. Currently thinking about a Scamp 16 side bath or similar.

Our only concern is really the size of the bathroom on this style camper. How small is it for showering, by feel? Has anyone ever set something up for an outside shower?

We need to sleep 3 currently, but are considering a side bath over a side dinette just because it seems that a camper with a front window is way more airy inside.

Any other thoughts.

Thanks for any help in advance, and thanks for the great site and forum.

Paul

[Thomas G.]

Welcome Paul,

A shower takes up a lot of space for its function, so this has been discussed a lot. Here is a Google link to such discussions.

http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/m...e+shower&sa=Go

I personally use a small privacy tent for summer camping with a solar shower bag and an electric pump.

Amazon.com: Stansport Cabana Privacy Shelter, Green/Tan: Sports & Outdoors

[Jim Bennett]

Hi Paul, welcome to the site.

The baths in most of these trailers is quite small, but you can shower in them if desired. I like them as small as possible, so as to not take away space from other elements, like storage, or just open space. In a 16' trailer, considering an outside shower is not a bad idea, especially if more than 2 will be using it. There are lots of good kits available to mount to the trailer, taking advantage of the hot water supplied. But, you can either use the campgrounds facilities if there are some, or just do a good sponge bath in between.

[glennco]

Thanks for the responses so far.

Interestingly enough, some of those threads talked about adding an external access door to access your storage. The other day my wife and I took a look at new airstreams, and the Sport models utilize an access door, then you pull the shower hose outdoors for use in showering outside. It's an interesting option for cleaning off muddy kids prior to going inside.

Any thoughts on that idea for an external shower?

[Bob Miller]

RE: Reply #3: I don't think that it's ever a good idea to have more than two consenting adults in any shower at the same time, irregardless of how big it might be. Hard tellin' what might happen if two people drop the soap bar at the same time!!!!!

BTW: We made use of a shower tent and an outside shower panel with our 13' Scamp. It worked just fine. when no c/g showers were available. We spliced an external shower panel to the hot and cold water lines for the sink.

[Jim Bennett]

So Bob, if I read you correct, it is okay to have more than two consenting adults in an exterior shower then?

Paul, lots of options like this one have been discussed here.

[Bob Miller]

More than two is always dangerous, even if just to save water.

One dropped bar of soap can upset the group dynamic for a looooog time.

[Lora]

Thank you for reminding me of a story my father told. He & Mom took a cruise for their 40th anniversary. He said the shower in their room was so small that if you dropped the soap you'd have to open the door to be able to bend over and pick it up!

[Ricky 4]

We have a 16 ft Scamp with a side shower/toilet.
It is quite small but we usually stay at a campground with a shower.
We do use the toilet, at night, because we dont want to go out in the dark and walk to the shower/toilet.
It has worked well for us-no complaints.
Mrs.C

[Francesca Knowles]

My Trillium has no inside shower, and I frankly think them a huge waste of space. And as a matter of fact, this is an opinion evidently shared by many owners of much bigger rigs!

We have a big circle of friends with RV's, all of which are bigger and "better appointed" than our trailer. Without exception, they use the (really cramped) shower stalls in their Rv's for storage, and avail themselves of the campground facilities when hooked up, or of outdoor solar showers/sponge bath-type hygiene when boondocking without a nearby lake.

Francesca

[Big O]

I think the showers in a small trailer are very overrated. I like the toilet in my Casita for middle of night first thing in morning but I use the campground bathroom and shower. I like the idea of the privacy tent with a potty you could use when you didn't want to walk. I think that if you don't get the bathroom in a casita you can get bunks. That might be a nice solution with smaller kids traveling.

[glennco]

My wife and I have tent camped forever. We'd go on 5 day trips in 40 degree weather with friends who have campers, and on the last day they'd let us take a shower. At that point we decided if we were getting a camper, it had to have a shower. It isn't like we want to have a luxurious shower everyday, but after a few days in the woods there is nothing better than a shower.

[Carol H]

I have the side bath model and having a bathroom with a shower was the reason I moved up to a trailer. The side bath in the Scamp is pretty small - you would need to be pretty creative to fit two people in the bathroom at the same time - even the best of friends might have troubles with it
It does the job though when camping in places without facilities.

[deryk]

Yup, its why I wanted a shower too! After bein all sweaty and dirty during the day I want to hop in my shower (hopefully with as many consenting adults as I can find lol ) and wash off the grime...be nice on sunday morning when my friends are all dirty and Im clean and shaved and ready to travel!

deryk

[Jared J]

I haven't used my camper yet, but I can't imagine not having one. I'm installing an external hot/cold setup like Jim posted, but the quick detach hose for mine has a garden hose end that came with a nozzle. I just wanted it to clean things off outside.

Yes, the shower is small. It's also plenty usable. Those things have what? 10-12 gallons of water if you're using your fresh water tanks? Now, divide that by the number of people, and number of days you'll be there. Your showers are going to be a few minutes at most, hence why I went to 40 gallons of fresh water. You're not going to be taking a 30 minute soak in there (unless you were on city water, even then, I wouldn't).

If the campground shower is nice, and available, I'll use it. However, at least two of the places I will go to don't have any. Also, what happens if their facilities break down? The ones I know of also shut down for the colder half of the year.

[Lora]

Hey, I think you missed that patch on your elbow!

[deryk]

lol bamchickabambam

[glennco]

Good news, we found our little scamp. We drove up to Fargo ND to pick it up yesterday. It's a '07 Scamp 16' FB. The PO has done quite a few mods to the trailer including:

- Door switches for the front closet doors
- Additional lighting over the b-room door
- Outside storage underneath the scamp in front of the axle.
- a Reese LDH

Today I hauled the scamperoo to backus in order for scamp to install a furnace. The roads were terrible but it tracked well. Very nice folks down at scamp, I was happy to have them work on the scamperoo.

Here's one pic, I'll post more in a couple of days. Tomorrow we begin the long drive bac to E WI, so it'll be a couple days before I take more pics

[Carol H]

Congrats Paul on your nice find!
You may want to look for a drop receiver to get the trailer a bit more level before heading home on your long drive. As it sits in the photo you may find it wants to do a little swaying at speeds over 50mph with the noise up that high.

[Donna D.]

ditto to what Carol said!! Nose down a bit is better than nose up.

Thanks for posting the pics. Make many, many good memories along the way.