Teardrop Caravan toilet & shower facilities
At the time of writing this blog we are starting to ease lockdown restrictions in the UK from COVID-19. There is talk about caravan and camping sites being able to open at some point, later this year and what measures will have to be in place.? There are plenty of things that can be done to make sites covid secure although there is one that is of concern, which is shared toilet facilities. Limiting the number of people into a toilet block to maintain social distancing is possible, however the cleaning after each use will likely not be possible and represent a risk using shared facilities.
We personally enjoy using our Teardrop Caravan in places that have no facilities so we often need to take our own. We had not thought we would be thinking about taking our own to a caravan site that has facilities but that has changed. So in this blog we would like to share what our setup looks like and what the options are when camping with a Teardrop Caravan.
The type of Teardrop Caravan you have will determine the level of facilities you can create. We will talk specifically about our own setup using a Bushcamp Explorer and what the other options are for different models.
Toilet Facilities
For our toilet facilities we use a quick erect pop up toilet tent and a Thetford toilet (Porto Potti 145). There are many different pop up tents on the market or toilet tents built using a frame which can be stronger in high winds but take a bit longer to put together and pack away. Our own toilet tent is an Australian brand (Joolca En-suite) which we brought back into the UK after living in Australia for 8 years. We are hoping at some point to be able to provide these to the UK market as we think they are far superior to many of the toilet/shower tents available in the UK. I reviewed this tent while I was in Australia and have a video showing it. If your interested then this is the video below…
In terms of the toilet there are many brands and types to choose from. We wanted something small, easy to use and easy to travel with. We went for the smallest of the portable Thetford toilets (PortaPotti 145). We purchased the bag to go with the toilet to store it away while travelling and of course the bottom section of the toilet can be closed to avoid any spills. The bottom half comes away and a tube folds out to allow for emptying at a dump point. There are only 2 of us so this size works well, however you will need to choose a size that will work for you as you don’t want to be always queueing at the dump point.
If you have not used a portable toilet before do not worry about it, they are pretty simple to use, follow the instructions with the chemicals, use it and then simply empty it out at the dump point and give it a rinse. If you have never emptied a chemical toilet before it is not as unpleasant as you may think. The chemicals give a certain smell and it doesn’t take long to empty at the dump point with most being nicely organised to make it easy.
What about toilet paper? Well we use the toilet tissue from Thetford that breaks down easily in the toilet and we use their chemicals to charge the toilet and for the flush (yes, this has a flush also). There are other toilet papers that will break down and your local caravan and camping shop will be able to help you.
What’s it like using a portable toilet in a toilet tent? Well personally We love having our own facilities and it’s nice to be outdoors, easy to use and most pleasant.
Shower Facilities
Having your own shower facilities is the next step up from having your own toilet facilities. You will determine if you really need shower facilities depending on how long you are normally away for. Once you have the toilet tent erected you have somewhere you can go for a bucket wash if you don’t want a full shower system.
We have been using lots of different shower setups over the years with version 1 of our shower being built on a Scout campsite around 23 years ago using a 12v pump and a pan of hot water. Since then this has developed over time and you can create something quite simple using a battery powered pump and shower head with a pan of hot water. Setups like this are pretty simple and not expensive to put together. Of course showers are limited unless you move to a more elaborate setup. The next step up are portable gas powered instant hot water systems which can connect to a tap, your caravan water supply or some to a portable water container. The Coleman Hot Water on Demand system is very good using portable gas canisters and connects easily to a 20L collapsible Coleman water container, however these seem hard to come by in the UK.
For our own setup we use a Bushcamp Explorer with it’s own hot water system and an external shower outlet. This makes things very simple, plugging in the shower to the side of the caravan and using the hot water system on the Bushcamp. This sort of setup is only available with a few models of caravan that we sell but has a number of advantages.
The system that we have installed is a Truma Combi system which provides blown hot air into the cabin as well as a 10L hot water tank powered by gas and optionally electric as well. We have both the gas and electric powered which does mean when using an electric hook up all the hot water and heating is provided easily using electricity.
In terms of the shower tent you can just use the same tent you use for the toilet tent or if you are somewhere for a while you may want a dedicated shower tent. Our own setup using the Joolca Ensuite shower tent has two compartments with a connecting door meaning you have a wet side and a dry side for getting changed and keeping the toilet side dry. If you watched the shower tent video you will see this also has an integrated shower hose to plug into the caravan making things really quick and easy. Until these are available in the UK a different shower tent will need to be selected. Once we know when these are available we will let you know.
