**UPDATED Adding an outdoor shower box to a 94

Keep the water inside the pipes, tanks, and sinks
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jb1rd73
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**UPDATED Adding an outdoor shower box to a 94

Post by jb1rd73 »

As the title says I bought a 94 with that worthless tub shower combo and toilet smack dab in the middle of the walk way, first thing I did was remove the shower and toilet and am wondering if anyone has dropped the BW tank and if putting a new threaded toilet flange is a home project or do I need to get it done at an RV place? As far as the shower is concerned I want to relocate the street side water fill by running up and over the rear doors and the shower box will get mounted in the upper portion of the PS closet above the HWH compartment, do any of you have an outside shower setup like this and if so how did you rig up a mounting point for a shower curtain hoop? I have the box and platform figured out just not sure about the curtain setup. Any help would be great. What exactly does the street side filler valve supply? Is it strictly for long stays or does it fill a tank also? Cheers, Jason
Last edited by jb1rd73 on Thu Apr 30, 2015 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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skater
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Re: Relocating toilet to shower adding shower box in a 94

Post by skater »

I not convinced its worthless, but that's okay. The street side water connection is for a city water connection. It shouldn't fill the tank.

I'm not clear what your plan is but if I understand it I think you'll have problems routing the water line between the fiberglass top and the metal van.
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jb1rd73
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Re: Relocating toilet to shower adding shower box in a 94

Post by jb1rd73 »

I'll post pics of the routing when I get it apart. On my van there are little panels that look to have enough chase room to come up out of the PS cabinet over the rear doors and down to the city fill spigot. If not I will run shielded/insulated pipe down and under the van possibly above the holding tanks. Getting ready to go out and get started.
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weekender
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Re: Relocating toilet to shower adding shower box in a 94

Post by weekender »

Very far from what you are looking to do, but I have a 93 with the shower, tub combo, toilet in the middle as well. While I have used the shower/tub inside, I found as well that I wanted to have an outside shower. My hose reaches thru the rear doors. All I did was to mount a bracket to hold the shower head above the rear doors. My shower head came with an on/off switch on the handle, so once I set the temp where I want it, I can turn the water on and off with the shower head-- I have a small mat I place on the ground-- good to go
jb1rd73
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Re: Relocating toilet to shower adding shower box in a 94

Post by jb1rd73 »

So after lots of noodling and mock ups I decided the easiest solution was to keep the toilet in its factory location and proceed with the outside shower box install. I am considering the possibility of mounting the shower box where my non operating 3rd brake light is, have to wait for it to arrive to get actual dimensions. I have to remove the access panel to reroute the outside water filler so if it will work dimension wise it shouldn't be an issue to hook up.
jb1rd73
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Re: Relocating toilet to shower adding shower box in a 94

Post by jb1rd73 »

Shower out,Toilet reinstalled, wall painted. ImageImage


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jb1rd73
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Re: Relocating toilet to shower adding shower box in a 94

Post by jb1rd73 »

Got the toilet and temp shower plumbed in, I used flex vinyl hose and barb fittings with clamps to make sure we like this configuration. If it meets our needs I'll plumb it in with new Pex and crimps. ImageImageImageImage


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jb1rd73
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**UPDATED Adding an outdoor shower box to a 94

Post by jb1rd73 »

The mock up and trial shower were a def improvement and therefore decided that it would be prudent to add the actual shower box and get it plumed in permanently. At this point I have installed the box and am waiting for some pex parts to finish with the permanent plumbing lines. What follows is the box install only. This is not for the faint of heart, cutting a 8"x10" hole in perfectly good fiberglass is not fun. I positioned the shower box where the 3rd brake light used to be (mine had not worked from the time I bought it and since there was already a through hole I figured I would capitalize on it) this was also a handy spot as it is where the medicine cabinet is on the inside. With a little trimming of the bottom shelf the whole unit slides right back in place and should there be any issue in the future it is only 3 screws holding it in place, remove those and the entire backside of the shower unit is accessible. Don't be fooled by this project though it was not technically hard it was taxing and time consuming, def a measure 3-4x's then cut, then trim, then trim some more. On the backside of the shower box I made a template out of 1/2" plywood that fits around the back of the shower unit and acts like a giant washer/support. I then drilled for all of the accessible holes on the front side of the box and used 10-24 stainless hardware to sandwich the box, fiberglass and wood together, I applied a generous amount of 3M 5200 adhesive to the box and the wood frame and immediately cleaned the excess off. The fiberglass will give way before the adhesive, this stuff is no joke. Plumbing will be pex running through the left side of the med cab and into the closet and down to the original pump location. City water will be rerouted as it is now up and over the doors rather than across the floor like the original lines were run for the old tub/shower.

Taking out the med cabinet
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Med cab out
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Third light out
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Metal and wood reinforcement at clam shell seam
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Box fit in
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Close up
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Ready for use
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Backside of install
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Close up of backside backer plate and box
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Minniemouse
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Re: **UPDATED Adding an outdoor shower box to a 94

Post by Minniemouse »

Wow...what a job! It looks more complicated than the plumbing we did in a 100yr old house we restored. It has been some time since you posted these pics. Is it all finished, and are you happy with it? Before you started I would have asked you a few questions.
Where are you planning to use your b190? Most campgrounds have hot showers. You can use a portable shower to hang outside, or use the shower hose out the back door. The last is to make a comment. We have often used our B190 to travel in weather that is not good for outside showering. It sure is nice to be inside in a warm place with hot water to clean up...even if it is not a real "shower". The great thing about the b van is that you have the necessities with you everywhere. It is so convenient! You can look at the wonderful new class b motor homes made in the past few years. The toilet is inside the shower, but still a shower sprayer that requires sitting down. It does seem that the design with the toilet so prominent in the back of the van is objectionable to us...at first. We removed the folding door and put up a privacy curtain on a nice wood rod. It has been a big improvement, but best to make a lined curtain to keep out the cold, and heat while driving...since we have no A/C vents in the back.
Minnie Mouse, North Carolina southeastern coast
jb1rd73
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Re: **UPDATED Adding an outdoor shower box to a 94

Post by jb1rd73 »

The only complicated part is the stupid PB that they originally used, so I just did a sharkbite to pex coupler and ran the rest with pex and pex expander rings not crimp on. It is finished finally and I am super happy with it. We use it all over the state but the main thing is just rinsing off after mountain biking and having nice hot water after kayaking. Taking a proper shower isn't that high on the priority list but it is completely doable (we have an expandable shower rod that fits between the back doors when open and a shower curtain slides on and provides enough privacy). More importantly, it has freed up a bunch of storage space.
Minniemouse wrote:Wow...what a job! It looks more complicated than the plumbing we did in a 100yr old house we restored. It has been some time since you posted these pics. Is it all finished, and are you happy with it? Before you started I would have asked you a few questions.
Where are you planning to use your b190? Most campgrounds have hot showers. You can use a portable shower to hang outside, or use the shower hose out the back door. The last is to make a comment. We have often used our B190 to travel in weather that is not good for outside showering. It sure is nice to be inside in a warm place with hot water to clean up...even if it is not a real "shower". The great thing about the b van is that you have the necessities with you everywhere. It is so convenient! You can look at the wonderful new class b motor homes made in the past few years. The toilet is inside the shower, but still a shower sprayer that requires sitting down. It does seem that the design with the toilet so prominent in the back of the van is objectionable to us...at first. We removed the folding door and put up a privacy curtain on a nice wood rod. It has been a big improvement, but best to make a lined curtain to keep out the cold, and heat while driving...since we have no A/C vents in the back.
jb1rd73
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**UPDATED Adding an outdoor shower box to a 94

Post by jb1rd73 »

Here is the solution I came up with for the final plumbing install of the shower. It is not the most elegant but after going through the process of running the temporary flexible plumbing up and over the rear doors and then trying to duplicate with the more rigid Pex we decided to go the original route and figure out a shield for the exposed Pex at the rear door since there is no longer a tub to protect it.
To cut down the amount of connections (90's couplers etc) we used 30" flexible supply lines from the back of the shower box through the side and bottom of the storage cabinet, to the vertical connection
Image
City water connection, need to come up with a protection solution but still trying to figure out the storage space in that area
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The shielding solution I came up with was a cable cover for hiding TV wires, it was cheap and easy to work with
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Sharkbites really made this a whole lot easier, this was the main area of concern and it turned out pretty good
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The cable shield was not deep enough to contain the junction fittings so I simply cut them out, in hind sight its nice because if there is going to be a leak, most likely it will be at one of these connections, now that they are visible I can visual inspect everytime I open the back doors
Image
The back of the shower box with the flexible supply lines. The two biggest reasons going this route were dictated by the fact that the "swivel" 90's I originally bought did not have the correct fitting and the "ear" 90's could not be installed without removing the entire shower box because of clearance issues. The benefit to this is less connections and easier to replace on the road if need be.
Image
If I had to do it over I would have tried to find a RV box that I could see in person, this one is ok but I think there are probably better options. I would run the pex through the floor and above the holding tank so as to not have any exposed Pex. Or just wait until you have to replace ALL of that stupid PB plumbing!!!
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Re: **UPDATED Adding an outdoor shower box to a 94

Post by VT964x4 »

I appreciate the tight photos and explanations, really nice work, thanks for sharing the process and the final product.
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Re: **UPDATED Adding an outdoor shower box to a 94

Post by Reddeer »

Pretty inspiration stuff! We stripped the shower and toilet out last year - like the extra storage space.
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Re: **UPDATED Adding an outdoor shower box to a 94

Post by Cgzito »

This is great. I would like to do something similar.
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