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Shower Enclosures:

You will also need a privacy screen or enclosure for your shower and a mat of some sort so you are not standing in sand or mud. Several enclosures are available from Decker's Hot Camp Showers, Zodi Outback Gear, Cabela's, Paha Que, REI, Bass Pro Shops, L.L. Bean and many more local and internet based retailers. Basic comparisons are available in Table 2. In general, all of them are easy to erect and all get the job done. They range in price from $40 to about $300 depending on features. One significant advantage to teardrop camping is how efficiently and quickly you can set and break camp. The same thinking applies to shower enclosures - the simpler the shower enclosure is to assemble and set up and dry out after showers are done, the better it works. Most of the units are not designed for long term exposure out of doors and will eventually disintegrate in the sun. A good shower enclosure can also be used as a toilet and as a dressing room. In a pinch, you do not need a shower enclosure. Just wear your swim suit, bathe and rinse well. The inexpensive, smaller showers with a pump powered by four "D" cells are often simply used with a Hula Hoop, shower curtain and a pack of shower curtain rings. You just need to hang it someplace. For a shower mat, a simple inexpensive synthetic door mat works really well and keeps your feet and your towel out of the mud.

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Decker's Hot Camp Showers, (www.hotcampshowers.com), has three shower enclosures all of which are easy to erect and use. The Townsend Shower Tent is large, supported by fiberglass poles, and has a zippered door, screened windows, and comes with a 48" X48" poly floor panel. It folds down into a carrying bag and has nice touches like a loop to hang a light, cords to hang towels or clothes and pouches for toiletries and soap.

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The Paha Que Tepee: (www.pahaque.com) Tepee is a large shower enclosure that also folds down into a duffel bag. It is supported with shock cords and aluminum poles, and comes with a ripstop floor panel, a mesh roof and side panels on bottom for ventilation, drying and drainage. It also has shoulder height zippered openings for access to clothes and towels hung on the external support poles, pouches for toiletries, waterproof pouches for personal items and toilet paper and an interior hammock for gear. This is the only unit to come with a clear vinyl panel for solar bag water heating. The only downside to an otherwise high quality unit is the weight at 15lbs. This is probably the shower best suited for family (i.e. more than two people) use. Paha Que' Teepee also has an optional Drain Floor (about $45) that is more durable than the standard rip stop nylon floor.

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Pop-Up Tents: Pop-Up Tents The Dive Inn from Decker's and the Outback Porta Privy from Hot Camp Showers and the Privacy Hut Enclosure from Bass Pro Shops and Zodi #1063) are cleverly designed spring steel supported pop-up tents that offer exceptional portability and ease of use at the beach or even hike-in camp sites. They literally spring open and set themselves up in seconds. They are all remarkably similar. The Outback Porta Potty and the Dive Inn fold down into a convenient 24" diameter storage bags; have zippered doors, mesh corners for drains and open tops for easy drying and pouches for toiletries and soap. The Dive Inn has screened windows and weighs 10 lbs. The Outback Porta Privy weighs in at 5 lbs and has convenient zippered portals for reaching towels and clothes. The Privacy Hut Enclosure has a long storage bag. All three units are very light and will easily blow away in the wind. To prevent that, the Outback Porta Privy comes with sandbag pockets on the base and also has four adjustable tie-downs. It even has a glow in the dark door zipper. The Dive Inn also has stakes and tie downs.

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Kmart (www.kmart.com) Kmart (www.kmart.com) manufactures a line of inexpensive Northwest Territory Tents and has a Northwest Territory Shower/Potty Tent. It is supported by fiberglass poles and has a vented ceiling with a rain fly, pouches and three shelves inside for toiletries, mesh covered zippered privacy window, built in entry mat, and a large central "S" hook inside for a solar shower. It is unique in having two floors, one with mesh to drain water to the ground and one with 4 inch side walls to capture gray water.

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Cabela's (www.cabelas.com) has two models, the Cabela's Shower Shelter and the Trekker Privy Shelter. Both have light steel exterior frames, zippered doors and set up relatively quickly. The Shower Shelter is made of rip-stop nylon and has a hanging organizer and a solar heater bag, clear vinyl skylights, mesh drain vents, no-see-um mesh on the windows, hanging bars for towels and is well made. The Trekker Privy Shelter is well made, bottomless, made of durable quick drying polyethylene and has a center hook for a shower.

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Safety Central (www.safetycentral.com) has three shower enclosures.