Message Forums

You may remember I got the Cabela's bug very badly some months ago and got one of these The reason was so that we can use more basic (much cheaper!) sites and still have a shower.

Well, last weekend I finally got the chance to try out the whole set up. Having got the Outdoor Revolution Outhouse set up ( also it's first proper outing) I set up the stove on its stand, put the shower heater unit on that, and stood the shower pipe/head on its stand ( which was a separate purchase from Cabela's). My friends (old and new - we were at a farm site at Wardlow Mires for a weekend music session) gathered round and toasted the new set up with Bucks Fizz kindly provided by Maureen a.k.a. EmmaB.

Then came the moment when I plunged the pump into the bucket of water and switched it on....and NOTHING happened  !!

Luckily, being a woman (and assisted by Ann, also a woman...) we  reached for the instructions, read the trouble shooting section and solved it by clearing an airlock by sucking on the shower head (no rude comments please )

Once the water flow was established it was easy to light the cooker and soon got water of a warmth sufficient for use. My friend Helen then had the honour of trying it for real as she was dying to wash her hair!

The flow-rate was satisfactory - a half-bucket of water was more than enough for a 10 minute shower and the blurb claims that one set of 4 D cell batteries will pump 230 gallons. The temp is controlled by altering your gas rings, and the only slight downside was that the bright red paint gave of some pong when the unit first heated up, but this soon dissipated.

You wil also note from the pic that the  "shower tray" was a v crap apddling pool I got for pence on ebay, and when inflated it proved to be pentagonal rather than round - tee-hee!

SO all in all, I am well pleased with this set up and will be charging 50p a shower in a farmer's field somewhere near you soon! (And £5 for the peeping toms who want to queue round the back.....)

Hi foggers

Thats really interesting, we have a solar shower and sometimes half fill it with water from the kettle and then some cold water but i find it very hard to hold up, I use some porch poles to take the weight but was looking for something better. how much did the shower cost with all the added extras for it to come from america? 

Where hoping to do a lot more camping on basic sites in the future and the shower thing is the only thing holding us back at the minute, dont mind ruffing it for 4 or 5 days but dont fancy 2 weeks of it, without coming up with a better shower solution.

Hi Fiona- we have had a solar shower too but the GB weather is not reliable enough to get that up to temp every time!

Haven't got the price info to hand...I shall have to do a quick search on here cos I know I posted about the costs when the parcel arrived in June...

Aha - see here for my original post. As you can see it was not cheap for the shower plus stand, by the time I had paid VAT and import fees... around £90 would be my guesstimate, but for the pleasure of a shower for years to come I am happy with it. (This is why I thought about charging people to use it!!)

Quote: Originally posted by Alfred E Newman on 13/8/2006

---

Hi Foggers....I still suffer from the Cabelas bug!!...great kit...why camp in squalor when you can camp in luxury? but I do agre that import taxes etc make the kit v.expensive but at least I have solved the shipping costs...

---

My family used to use one of those garden spray containers (the large ones with a pump on top) we'd heat up the water and pour it in and mix with cold water) the spray end we changed for a shower head, pumped it up and off we go.

A very effective and cheap diy job.

I recently acquired it from their loft and looking forward to visiting some quiet sites in the new forest and trying it out again.

Thanks everybody, will try and talk the other half round but if he wont buy the stove top model will try the spray container.

Hi Foggers....I have family in the states and we ship classic cars to the uk so its just a case of getting  putting the two deliveries together, we import a lot of spare parts so a couple of extra items just go in the container

Quote: Originally posted by Neill on 14/8/2006

---

Hi foggers where did you get your tarp from (from your gallery image)

---

Hi Neill I have just posted a new thread as you are not the first to ask me - see here for the info on the tarp!

And to Alfred - thanks for explaining - perhaps you should look into importing US camping kit, as the only GB suppliers I could find for the Zodi shower kit would have cost me £164 plus p&p so my Cabelas order still worked out cheaper from US despite shipping costs & import duties i.e. total was about £129.