Hello everyone!
I've been a long time lurker/egg camper dreamer here for some time. But no more! I just picked up my very first RV - a 13-foot
Scamp from a long ways out of state. I have a feeling I'll enjoy camping in my
Scamp every bit as much as treating it as a neverending DIY project.
The very first thing I want to do is retrofit a shower into the front bathroom. I've been inspired by this excellent thread -
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...amp-25793.html - to come up with my own plans. I'd like to share my thoughts with you guys and hopefully get some feedback on it.
Shower Floor
There are 2 options for this -
1. The obvious route to consider - and which the OP of the above quoted thread took, is to put in a factory shower floor. However, I looked through the
Scamp fiberglass parts catalog online -
Fiberglass Body Pieces - and couldn't find a shower floor for the 13 foot. There is only one listed for 16/19'. I've sent them an email to see what they would recommend - haven't heard back yet. Has anyone recently been able to purchase a 13-foot front shower floor direct from the Scamp factory? Also, do you know if what is being
sold now will fit in a pre-fire (1999) bathroom?
2. If I can't get a factory shower floor, or if what is being offered won't fit, I'm thinking of fabricating my own shower pan assembly. This would consist of some kind of lipped shallow tub (Purpose-made RV mini shower pan? Rectangular planter tray? Commercial baking dish?) sunk into a particle board false floor, which would be raised to the height of the pan, lined with vinyl, cut to the needed geometry and caulked with silicone.
Now I'd like to think that I'm fairly handy and capable of decent workmanship
- but at the same time I don't want to start tearing everything out and making the job bigger than it absolutely needs to be. In this case - I think there is room enough for a 'dry shower' - so my plan is to have the custom shower pan stop where it meets the commode, use a shower curtain, and leave everything else as it is. Messing with the toilet and black tank seems to be a lot of work with questionable return.
Walls
Scamp sells a
fiberglass shower surround part (but not for the 13'). The price is fairly high, and on top of that there is the likely exorbitant cost of having a piece with those dimensions shipped out here. Am I missing anything to think that lining the walls with linoleum/vinyl flooring would achieve the same effect for much less money and effort?
By using a shower curtain to keep the water out of the commode area - I can avoid having the vinyl go near the edge of the shell where the curvature is going to make things difficult with laying the vinyl. Cutting
windows out of vinyl would be so much easier than out of
fiberglass. Not to mention the interior partition wall would need to be waterproofed separately anyway, if I went with the factory surround. I just don't see any upside to getting the factory shower surround.
Drainage
Initially - I'm thinking I would just holesaw through the particle board floor and a put pail underneath the drain hole. However, at some point, I'd like to install a gray tank under one of the benches. And then I would have to set up a pump and plumbing to get the shower water into the tank (I understand that's how the factory shower works?) Any suggestions on how to route the plumbing?
Hot Water
This is one piece I've given the least thought to. Where is the factory installed water heater usually located? What's a good place to put the water heater so it can a) get plumbed to the
propane and b) vent outside c) Access the fresh water tank d) Deliver water into the front shower? That's a lot of requirements to design around! Does anyone have a make and model to recommend?
If you've done a successful toilet-to-shower conversion - I'd love to hear how you went about it!