Many commercially made shower units for tent and RV camping are available. Most are stand-alone units that offer a range of additional accessories that adapt to RV's or teardrops. Relatively few are designed to be used on a teardrop and even fewer are designed to be used with the built in LP (propane) or water connections available on the better teardrops. Most use small disposable bottles (16 oz.) of propane for heating the water which have to be replaced relatively often. On less expensive units, you also have to supply your own bucket to hold the shower water while it is heated. Some of these units really require two people to operate effectively - one to shower and one to operate the shower without undue wastage especially when water is at a premium. Four "D" cell battery powered units are significantly better than 2 "D" cell units since they have twice the reserve power. Some of the stand-alone units start heating water within a minute or two. Almost all of the other units reviewed here take from 10 to 20 minutes to heat water to about 105 degrees F. Even if a unit is designed for a larger stove, it will still heat water on a smaller stove but will simply take a little longer.

The limiting factor for showers for a teardrop camper can be the amount of water carried with you. Of course, extra containers of water can be carried in one's vehicle. One neat trick we have seen when water is truly at a premium is to bathe in seawater and use a small amount of fresh water to rinse. A shower unit connected to a campground spigot and the LP hookups on better teardrops offer essentially unlimited amounts of hot water. You could even wash that nasty dog.

The one big advantage of the stand-alone showers is that you can shower some distance from the trailer and avoid wet muddy spots by the trailer. After choosing a unit that seems to fit your needs, be sure to completely check all the details on their website or at a retailer.

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Solar Heated Showers: Large, black or silver clear sided solar heated bags, usually about $20 to $35, are available from several manufacturers. Generally the sun heats the water hot enough to use only when it has several hours direct exposure on a warm day. Also they generally work best when outdoor temperatures are already warm enough to not truly need a heated shower. Paha Que’ Wilderness Power Shower ($100) is a solar heated bucket with built in battery powered pump.

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Decker's Hot Camp Showers, (www.hotcampshowers.com), has a wide selection of camp shower units plus accessories and adapters for propane and water. Models for camping range from $49 to $269 with accessories and adapters ($8 to $90) for teardrop owners. The Super Shower Campfire System is a unique stand-alone unit with a copper coil that is placed in your campfire or on the stove. As the water is heated, it circulates by thermal siphoning. Three gallons of water is hot in about 10 minutes. You hang or elevate the unit, replace the copper coil with the shower head and shower. The model of special interest to the teardrop owner is the Extreme Stove Top Hot Water Shower Model ES. It also holds three gallons of water, enough for a thorough single shower, and has a temperature sensing strip that shows you when the water has reached 100 degrees F. It is stainless steel, has a pressurized tank like a pesticide sprayer, and doesn't need to be elevated or electrically powered by a pump. It is also a reasonably small (18") self contained unit with a six foot shower hose. You simply fill the container, place it on the stove, heat the water, pump it up, and shower. The Extreme SC (for self contained) is identical top the ES model but comes with a 10,000 BTU stove. Hot Camp Showers even has a vehicle mounted system ($339) that is connected to your vehicle cooling system for hot showers. The only disadvantage of the vehicle mount system is the need to run your vehicle to warm it up before showering. Decker's also has their Hot Tap Series - the Hot Tap Traveler, Hot Tap DP, Hot Tap EP, and the Hot Tap SC. All use 16 oz disposable LP cylinders or an accessory for LP bulk tank adapter and/or a spigot adapter. All orders from Decker's over $100 include shipping.

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Zodi Outback Gear: (www.zodi.com), also has a selection of camp showers very similar to those of Decker's Hot Camp Shower, albeit somewhat fewer in number. Zodi Hot Tap Series #6183, #6184, #6185, and #6170 are all stand-alone units differing in important features. All can be fitted with adapters for water spigots and bulk LP. Their shower pole and privacy enclosure are functional and well designed. Zodi also has a convenient stove top model that should appeal to the teardrop owner. It is the Extreme Series #8150 which is identical to the Extreme Stove Top Hot Water Shower Model ES. Zodi also had a Stove Top Series #6190 that fit on top of standard two burner stove found in teardrops and camp stoves. Unfortunately, they no longer manufacture that unit. Another unit, the Stove Top Series #5110 is designed for a higher output 35,000 BTU single burner stove used in many hunting and fishing camps. Aside from using the teardrop stove for a heat source, it is basically a stand-alone design.

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Coleman: (www.coleman.com) has an inexpensive stand-alone camp shower that does not heat the shower water and is powered by four "D" cells. You heat the water on a camp stove or teardrop stove and you need a separate metal bucket. Coleman also has a stand-alone Hot Water On Demand Camp Water Heater that uses 16 oz disposable propane cylinders and a rechargeable battery pack or AC/DC power cord to power a pump. It comes with its own water container and has several accessories available such as a spray adapter, carrying case, water hose adapter and bulk propane adapter and it starts heating water in about a minute.

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Safety Central (www.safetycentral.com) Bivouac Buddy® Portable Shower is a unique gravity fed shower and shower and toilet enclosure. It is an eight gallon reservoir which you fill with heated water (from another source) and then hang from a tree or their Buddy Pole ($89) or Free Standing Buddy Pole ($109) or Trailer Hitch Attachment ($49). Note that eight gallons of water (at 8.3 lbs/gal) plus the weight of the unit is about 80 pounds - a bit much to lift into place or fill for every shower. It comes in several colors and will provide enough water for three showers. It has an on-off shower head and a storage sack. Safety Central also has a Stansport Battery Powered Portable Shower that is similar to the less expensive unit offered by Coleman except that it has an on-off shower head to save water and collapsible 3 gal. bucket. Safety Central also offers a wide variety of personal hygiene accessories and portable toilets and shower enclosures.

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Jimmy's JTB ThunderBox (www.2daloo.com) RainMan Hot Camp Shower is manufactured by Jimmy's JTB ThunderBox in Australia. Unfortunately, these units are manufactured in batches and are assembled when enough orders are accumulated. Consequently, you might have to wait a while to get one. There are no distributors in the US. This is a cleverly designed stainless steel pressurized canister (like a pesticide sprayer) with a temperature display on the side. It holds four gallons of water, enough for two quick showers. It has a unique telescoping shower pole that extends from 28 3/4" to 72" and a shower head that controls the water flow by tilting the shower head. Water is heated by placing the canister directly on the stove or beside your campfire. This unit is almost ideal for the serious teardrop owner since it is self contained, simple and you can shower at a distance from the teardrop. Unfortunately, it might be too tall (28 3/4 inches) for many teardrop designs since there may not be adequate clearance between the stove and the teardrop galley cover.

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Cabela's (www.cabelas.com) has a small Outback Porta-Shower that is very similar to the Battery Powered Shower from Coleman. It has a convenient off-on switch to save water.