Do you just use the site facilities and make the trek to take a leak in the early hours? Do you use the Porta Potti in your campervan or motorhome , if you have one. Or do you use a toilet tent if your campervan does not have a Porta Potti available?
We camp all year round,in all weathers and in our latest campervan , currently there is insufficient floor space to use the Porta Potti when the bed is made up. I do however have a cunning plan to make the use of the toilet viable and practical at night. When we do not have our little caravan with us (which is fully equipped for night time "comfort breaks") it would be nice to not to have to trek off in the dark for a leak ! What do you think?
------------- cramming for my finals in the twilight zone
Regardless of whether I camp with the tent or use the drive away awning on the van I always have my portable loo ready for use. It's not often I need to get up in the night anyway but if I ever do there's no way I would be trekking to the site facilities!
------------- Tigermouse
I have a very temperamental personality - 50% temper and 50% mental
I'd rather park near the bogs. Although the crashing & banging of elderly VW camper sliding doors in the early hours does tend to annoy other campers the space is too small to share with stored body fluids.
We don't have a porta potti because I think they're grim to use and horrible for the environment. Instead we use a Kampa Khazi (previously just a bucket before we upgraded!) loaded with cat litter. It's clean, efficient, non-smelly and much easier to empty.
having kids I always have the portable toilet out for them in the middle of the night and if you buy a good quality one and use it correctly there is no smell...
When we had our small campervan mostly we parked it in a strategic position whenever we could and hid the portapotti or bucket behind/in front/ to the side of the van at night and used it if it was required. Very rarely have we ever pitched without some way of preserving decency - there is nearly always a hedge, wall, bush, tree we could pitch beside. Or we would put the windbreak up. At night, in the pitch black no-one could see and the van shielded us anyway.
A Portable loo with clothes wash bio tablets ( smell lovely ,better than loo chemical)We always carry a small amount of septic tank safe green stuff too 'incase'
We need to use our own loo as we only use a site every few days and wild inbetween
Im interested to know why you believe cat litter( the environmental impact of such has been a concern for some time) Is better for the environment than a camping loo ? Especially when used with the environmentally friendly green fluid?
We always use the portapotti at night in our Dandy folding camper - couldn't cope with going all the way to the loos like we did when we were tenting when we were much younger. In our Wellhouse Atrai there is in theory enough space behind the two single beds for the portapotti at night but there just isn't enough space for your feet and the portapotti in the well between the furniture (but it doesn't matter as we've never tried sleeping in it overnight). I think the ability to use the portapotti when the beds are up would be a very high priority for us if we ever designed our own conversion even if it meant compromising on something else.
Thanks for the comments folks ! Evenstephen , I think shows the way forward for us. By shortening our campervan bed by about 100mm or so will allow the use of the Porta Potti in night mode. I think it will be worth it for us.
I think I have a way of keeping the current overall (generous) bed length for if we ever sell but use a removable section for our personal use until then. Love the tip about bio wash liquid !
------------- cramming for my finals in the twilight zone
Quote: Originally posted by Skiddawe on 09/10/2013Im interested to know why you believe cat litter( the environmental impact of such has been a concern for some time) Is better for the environment than a camping loo ? Especially when used with the environmentally friendly green fluid?
To clarify, I'm talking about the wood-chip type cat litter. It's not my "belief" that it's more environmentally friendly than toxic chemicals, it's fact.
It's completely renewable and compostable.
By comparison, even so-called "green" chemical toilets waste a load of water (which also has to be carried back and forth) and the resulting waste has to be processed through the sewage system. Not very green at all...
Quote: Originally posted by Skiddawe on 09/10/2013
A Portable loo with clothes wash bio tablets ( smell lovely ,better than loo chemical)We always carry a small amount of septic tank safe green stuff too 'incase'
We need to use our own loo as we only use a site every few days and wild inbetween
Bio-tablets? Have never heard of this before can they be used in all the portable loos? Do they work as well as the other chemicals?
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Topic: Using a toilet at night
Love the tip about bio wash liquid !
