Red
Rover’s Bathroom
Shower Head.
The Oxygenics
shower head provides a pressurized stream using little water, and thus is in
demand for RVs.
Our Oxygenics
shower head did not have a shut off valve (I believe the new ones do), so we
added one from a plumbing supply house.
Some shut off valves allow the shower head to drip (to maintain the
temperature). We found a complete
shut off (on the second try).
Shower Curtain. We threw out the stiff vinyl shower
curtain. In its place we used one
and a half nylon shower curtain sewn together. Nylon dries quickly and thus
avoids mildew. It is held closed by
Velcro closures attached to its ends.
Someone suggested sewing in a zipper closure – might have to try
that. Also extra width shower
curtains are available online – so sewing two together is not really
necessary. We noticed that when the Fantastic Vent fan was blowing out, it
sucked the wet shower curtain against you, making showering impossible.
Fantastic Vent sold us a ceiling fan reversing kit. When taking a shower you
set the fan to suck air into the shower thus blowing the curtain outward away
from your body and drying you off at the same time. We use a 12” plastic folding stool
to sit upon when shaving legs.
Alternatively, sit on the toilet to shave legs first, then stand up and
pull the curtain closed for the rest of the shower.
Carpet Water Protectors. On our
Roadtrek the floor carpet covers the lip of the lowed floor and gets wet when
you shower. We solved that problem
by buying a rubber bath mat and cutting it into pieces to unroll and shield the
floor carpet from water spray. Store the bathmat pieces beneath the toilet
sub-floor.
Note: The wood-look
interlocking foam flooring (see Kitchen page) is taken up before showering.
Drain
Squeegee. All the water from the shower
won’t enter the floor drain and may run to the front if parked with the
rear slightly high. We bought a
shower squeegee to blade the left over floor water into the drain. Then the floor will dry in minutes.
We store the squeegee beside
the towels above the toilet.
Note the grommet visible on
the bath towel. Placing a grommet
along the middle edge of the towel allows hanging the bath towel securely on
hooks in the Roadtrek or in campground restrooms. We put grommets on all the towels and
washcloths in Red Rover.
Taking a Shower. Some Roadtrekers say they never use the shower. Why not? The
procedure is easy. Take up any floor covering so you are standing on the
fiberglass pan. Place the rubber mat protectors on the exposed carpet lips.
Draw the shower curtain around you. Aim the shower head into the drain and
adjust the water to the desired temperature (or use a water heater thermometer
and shut off the heater at your desired temperature). Spray yourself all
over. Shut off the water and apply
shampoo and soap. Turn on the water and rinse off. This shower method uses only
a couple of quarts of fresh water.
And the vent fan downdraft will make drying a cinch. We find we can get about four showers
and four days use out of the gray tank.
And four days from the black tank.
That means every-other-day showers and four days between dumping tanks.
Toilet
Chemical for Black Tank. A lot of Roadtrek owners swore by Happy
Camper, so we tried it and it works quite well. Find it on Google. It is a long lasting white powder
– 1/3 of a scoop treats the black tank leaving the tank odor free. Many
products are sold to de-odorize black tanks, but Happy Camper is the best we
have found.
We have the large size as
well as the small size container.
We carry the small container and refill as needed from the larger
container. They also offer a tank
cleaner that we intend to try sometime.
After dumping add a gallon of
water and a 1/3 of a scoop of Happy Camper.
Laundry
Basket Use and Storage. Walmart sells a pop up mesh laundry
basket that folds into a flat disc. We put dirty
clothes in it and store it on top of the toilet when traveling. When we are
camped it sits in the passenger foot well behind the rotated passenger
seat. There it is easy to reach and
completely out of sight. When not
in use it is folded and stored with the towels on the shelf above the toilet.
Towel
and Washcloth Storage. We put brass grommets in all our RV towels and
washcloths. They hang on all kinds
of hooks easily. They are stored clean and folded on the shelf above the
stool. After being greeted by an
avalanche of towels on several occasions when we opened the bathroom door, we
bought a motorcycle cargo net from Harbor Freight and two expanding
refrigerator rods sold at RV stores.
The rods anchor the net top and bottom, and the net keeps the towels in
place.
We have two regular bath
towels, but we also carry various sizes of compact camping towels. They do a fine job, but are not as
pleasant to use as regular towels.
The camp towels also do a good job wiping the wet feet of dogs back from
a morning walk.
Toiletries
Storage. Shampoo, soap, hair brush, comb, nail clippers,
toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, sealable baggies, shaving stuff, Wet
Ones, and other small toiletries are stored in shoe pockets. We trimmed two
sets of pockets to fit and screwed them to the inside of the bathroom door.
Toilet Use. We NEVER flush toilet
paper into the black tank. Our friends who have owned two Roadtreks
insisted this was important, so we followed their example. This is because TP sticks to the sensors
and can create a hard to remove tower in the bottom of the tank. Plus should you have a macerator there
can be additional troubles. Used toilet paper and Wet Ones are inserted into a
zip lock sandwich bag and thrown out.
If you anticipate depositing a fairly big load of feces into the toilet
bowl, run about 4” of water in first to avoid clogs. Stained bowls should
be wiped clean immediately and the TP placed in the zip lock bag.
Hook and Eye. Adding a
hook and two eyelets will allow you to lock the bathroom door closed for
traveling or completely open for use as a privacy screen. If the Roadtrek is not level the door
may not want to stay in the open configuration.
