Roof rack slide out shower, rest room, changing room ideas wanted

Flip_4_It

Jeff Brown
I have been thinking of installing a slide out frame on the bottom of my roof rack that I can hang a shower curtain style privacy surround on to use as a quick, rest stop privacy room for changing, showers, or rest room facilities. I think it would be much quicker to depoly than the typical free standing shower room. I'm sure that someone, or many have you have done this before but I can't find anything specific while searching the threads.

I am invisioning just installing two pipes under my roof rack (one towards front, the other near the rear of rack) with a smaller diameter U shaped pipe that would slide into them and provide a suspended frame that extends out over the side of the truck cab in which I can attach a curtain to.

I would love to know what others opinions on this are and if anyone has examples or pictures of what they did would be great! Thanks
 

southpier

Expedition Leader
anything cantilevered typically needs 33-50% support on the attached end. you may consider something swing out. and deep enough (height of support member) to not only hold the weight of the curtain, but the person off balance grabbing it for stability.
 

4RunAmok

Explorer
anything cantilevered typically needs 33-50% support on the attached end.

Exactly why I abandoned my initial thoughts of inserting pipes just small enough to fit inside my Yakima crossbars to use as an awning or changing room. I wanted the pipes to stow inside the Yakima crossbars when not in use, and slide out when needed, but anything stable wouldn't be far enough from the truck, and I didn't want to carry pipes inside the truck.
 

tomesd

Observer
Yakima makes kayak loading bars that do slide into their bars that might work. We have them on our 4 runner and they're pretty stout. They'll hold the weight of a big 2 man kayak and hang out at least 3 ft or so- just a thought.
 

grimbo

Explorer
Just use two flip down struts that brace against the side of the vehicle, maybe with suction cup ends to attach to the window
 

Flip_4_It

Jeff Brown
I was expiermenting around with some pvc pipe and electrical conduit. I was suprised how sturdy the emt electrical conduit was when slid into some schedule 80 pvc pipe. Since my scrap junk trial seemed sucessful, I will be ordering some steel and see if I can recreate sucessful results on a final product. If not, it should be a fun project regardless. :smiley_drive:
 

RHINO

Expedition Leader
i made one out of 3/4 emt, cheap shower curtain rings and a blue tarp. it fit into cleats i found at home improvement store for a surface mount deal, i think garage storage? the idea of sliding into the roof rack does work great.
 

off-roader

Expedition Leader
Grasscat on here made one just like that using conduit pipe bent in a U shape. Works fine although the available shower curtains were all too short IMHO.

Also the person taking a shower or changing should learn to lean on the RIG versus pulling down on the shower.:ylsmoke:
 

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