July of 2023, my wife and I took ownership of our brand new Patriot Campers X3 camper trailer. While the trailer was nothing short of amazing and feature packed, it lacked a bathroom. I’d spent months researching trailers, showing them to my wife and having her build her, “Must Have” feature list. A bathroom was on that list, so it took a lot of persuading and convincing on my part that I could find us a solution for it that gave her the shower and bathroom areas she wanted.
Now, my wife isn’t some delicate flower who abhors getting dirty and camping. She’s been backpacking with me, tent camping, has shoveled manure into our vegetable garden, and as a law enforcement officer herself has had her fair share of, ah, “fluids”, interaction during the lovely course of working patrol. Fun times.
What I’m getting at is, she figures if we are dragging a three thousand pound trailer with a 35 gallon water tank and hot water heater into the woods to go camping, why the hell shouldn’t she have somewhere to use the bathroom and shower in privacy? Fellas, I’m here to tell you if your wife is willing to go camping and off-roading with you on condition she can have a bathroom tent so she doesn’t have to stumble around in the middle of the night to pee…you get her a bathroom tent.
Enter the Joolca Double Ensuite Shower Tent.
I’d seen this tent mentioned dozens of times on the various Facebook off-road trailer groups when researching trailers. A quick peruse of their YouTube videos and website was conducted, after which I bought one and hoped it would be the answer. Shipping turned out to be quick and I had the tent on my doorstep within a few days.
I gave it an initial test setup on the front lawn to get a feel for deploying it. Having primarily dealt with shock cord and pole tents throughout my life, I was surprised when the Joolca came out of the storage bag in one giant, wrapped bundle. After removing the ties keeping the whole thing secure, I found the tent simply opened up like some strange, spider legged origami art, with four extending legs and a tent that was already attached. I wish I had timed it, but I swear the thing popped up in two minutes flat, and a minute of that was probably me trying to decide if I wanted it facing the house or away.
Once deployed, I gave it a once over to take in it’s features and construction. The tent material itself seemed to be a good mix of lightweight but sturdy nylon fabric, featuring three windows with “no see-um” mesh screens and zip-down window coverings. Two “skylight” style windows were also located in the tent roof, just in case you need fresh air after too much camp chili.
Don’t shake your head in disgust. You know exactly what I’m talking about, liar.
Did I mention it has TWO rooms? You have the first, accessible via the exterior door, and a second ensuite (hence the name) cordoned off by a zippered door. While I suppose you could use either room as the shower or toilet, the ensuite is best served as the shower since it has a small, zippered access port you can pass a showerhead through. Along the interior corners from the floor to the ceiling are well spaced “C” clips that are the perfect size to clip your shower hose into. While we don’t have Joolca’s Hot Tap shower system, our Patriot Camper’s Webasto hot water heater has a standard sized shower hose and head, similar to what you’d find in your home, and it worked just fine with the clips.
Also included are several accessory bags/nets. You have a multi pocket mesh panel that clips onto the wall of the shower side, allowing you to keep your various toiletries within reach. A gear loft style mesh shelf clips to the roof in either room, but we opted to use it in the shower room to keep our body scrubbers up where they could dry. A separate, hanging solid bag marked “Laundry” clips to the lower part of the wall on the toilet side, providing you a handy spot to put clothing rather than leaving it on the floor. Mesh pockets at calf level are spread throughout both rooms, giving you spots to stick toilet paper rolls, Wag bags, wipes, etc. A simple, horizontal webbed strap spans the wall of the toilet side where you can hang a towel up.
Speaking of the shower floor, this is the unsung hero of the design. The floor itself is solid, but features a mesh side that extends from the floor to a couple inches up the wall, allowing for water to easily drain out and airflow to help dry. To facilitate easier draining, the floors have a pull tab in the center you can use to lift the floor up, draining off any puddled water due to uneven ground surfaces.
Exterior features are sparse but practical. Another webbed strap spans one side for drying a towel off outside, and each corner has hook and loop pouches with guy lines stuff inside. We opted to add a cheap Harbor Freight tarp as a ground cloth to protect the tent floor. I highly recommend this addition, as well as “screw” type ground pegs as an upgrade. I’ll throw some links below, and will likely add some pegs to the store later.
This shower tent is amazing. One thing I forgot to mention earlier, was a great point someone made in one of the Facebook Groups regarding freestanding vs vehicle mounted shower tents. The major advantage the freestanding tents have is the flexibility for placement. You aren’t relegated to it hanging wherever the trailer happens to be facing, and can put it further away from your campsite which keeps mud from the shower runoff from being too close to your day use areas. Plus, camp chili. You’ll thank me later.
Features, features, features. This thing was extremely well thought out, though I do wish they would add an additional zippered shower port on the side where the exterior door is, but keep it on the shower room side. The reason for this is, depending on the length of your shower hose, you are generally stuck with the tent facing one way. Being able to turn it around 180* if need be would be great, though it hasn’t been much of an issue. That’s my only criticism, which is hard to believe.