Review: Tuff Stuff Overland Shower Tent On A 560

We just got back from a 3 and a half week trip from California to Maine to Florida and back. Lisa and I had plenty of opportunity to use the Tuff Stuff Overland Shower Tent that I installed. Figured I'd share our observations and experiences.

1.) Link: https://tuffstuffoverland.com/products/tuff-stuff®-shower-tent

2.) What's included: The kit technically came with everything you need to mount the shower tent, although I ended up adding a couple of things. But you'll find the shower tent (rugged 420D polyester Oxford rip-stop fabric), brackets, stakes, screws, and channel nuts. The whole thing weights 15 pounds.

3.) Installation: was fairly straightforward, though it might be a little tricky if you've never done something like this before. We have the Yakima HD bars on our 560, so you have to get the ends off, slide in the channel nuts, and screw in the brackets. You'll have to trim the rubber seal on the top of the Yakima HD Bars. We mounted it on the driver side of the trailer, since the passenger side has our ARB awning.

4.) Modifications: A couple of things caught my attention right away. First was the fact that the brackets sat on top of the plastic end pieces on the Yakima HD Bars. I didn't like that and was concerned that the plastic could eventually crack, so I found a couple of small strips of metal laying around the garage to elevate the brackets slightly and keep them off the plastic. The second thing I did differently was use security screws and nuts to prevent easy theft. Both of these mods you can see in the "showertent3" photo. I also use beefier stakes than what are provided, since I seem to find every indestructable rock whenever I try to stake something into the ground.

5.) Operation: Couldn't be any easier. You unzip the bag, undo the two Velcro straps, and let the tent unroll. You then pop out the two arms, which latch open. The height can be adjusted with straps, so you can decide how high off the ground you want it. To put it away, you roll it up, strap it with the Velcro, and zip the bag. Takes under a minute. There are pockets inside for soap or wash cloths.

6.) Comments: Lisa and I both love this thing. I particularly like how quickly it can get deployed or stowed. We use it primarily as a potty tent, though it can also be used as a shower tent (thus the name) or a changing tent. I had a little bit of concern about the brackets being too weak to support the load, but so far it has not been an issue whatsoever. The zippers are very robust (YKK brand).

Since Lisa and I are both fairly tall (I'm 6' and she's 5'10"), our heads stick up above the top of the tent a little bit. Not a big deal for her, being of the female persuasion and sitting down to pee. But for me, being a part of the stand or die club, I either need to duck my head a little bit or ruthlessly stare down any bystanders and lollygaggers . Both of us like having the top open to the sky...however, the torrential rain we had in Connecticut (1+ inches per hour!) was quite the experience!

We mounted the tent so that it hangs off the side sufficiently to avoid having the zipper hit the aluminum. Mounted on the driver side, the tent (42 inches wide) spans a little more than the width of the trailer door, and the zipper is by the hinge. We talked about having an upholsterer move the zipper to the handle side of the door, but decided that it wouldn't be as desirable (since the door would hit the zipper everytime you opened it). Also, the tent can't be rotated without extensive modification, so how it deploys is how it is. The bottom of the tent has four thin fiberglass rods sown in (one on each side), so it keeps a nice shape at the ground level while still allowing the corners can fold in when stowing. We found that with no wind, we didn't need to stake the bottom down at all. With a little bit of wind, staking the outer two corners was worthwhile, and sometimes even the corner by the zipper (near the trailer driver side door hinge); this of course required making sure those corners were over dirt in order to get the stake into the ground. Alternatively, one could use weights if on a paved campsite. We generally didn't stake or weight down the corner by the (driver side) trailer door handle, since we needed that corner to move when the door was opened. In heavy wind, it's better to not deploy it, as we found out with 60+ mph gusts in Arizona.

7.) Summary: This thing is great. Worth the price, and it should last many, many years. This is a really nice accessory for any vehicle or trailer with roof bars, and is a great addition to our Camp-Inn.

 

Nice review, Mike. Thanks!

 

Nice.

For the screws in the T tracks --- the mounting for the ARB sideroom are the same way. What I did was simply got the screws in and slid them back to their final location, never removing the rubber strip. It isn't cut, only compressed. It took a pair of pliars and a little profanity --- but the screws eventually lost.

Cuttign the rubber might have been easier --- but I like the option of removing the ARB side room and just leaving the screws in place...make removal and installation a breeze. There's no way the screws are going to accidentally come out, that I can all but provide a written guarantee of.

It looks huge! Possibly a side room if you could figure out how to get a roof on it....

 

I thought about finding a small piece of tarp and putting some grommets on the corners, then using bungees to attach it to the tent arms. You would stay drier in the wet, but then you miss the sky view...

There's no perfect way, just trade-offs and compromises!

 

Keeping dry in a shower house...hmm...something seems wrong about that Finally a use for my grommet press

 

Very nice! Installing mine now. Changing out for the security screws. Thanks for the tip!!

 

Thanks for the "like"!