The space tax of a campervan toilet and shower
· 7 min read
The bathroom debate is usually argued in principles — dignity, resale value, winter campgrounds. Argue it in centimetres instead and it gets much shorter: a fixed bathroom cubicle occupies 0.7–0.9 m of van length. In an L2 with ~3.1 m of cargo, that is a quarter to a third of everything you have. The toilet itself was never the problem — the walls around it are.
Whether that price is worth paying is covered in the worth-it guide. This one is the hardware bill: what each option actually measures, and what each footprint kills.
Toilet options by footprint
| Option | Footprint (W × D × H) | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Folding bucket / bag toilet | ~25 × 25 × 25 cm folded | Any locker |
| Portable cassette (Porta Potti type) | ~35 × 40 × 45 cm | Slide-out drawer under bed or bench |
| Separating / dry toilet | ~40 × 45 × 50 cm | Bench-height box, often DIY-built-in |
| Composting unit (Nature's Head type) | ~48 × 48 × 52 cm + crank clearance | Dedicated corner, needs a vent hose |
| Fixed cassette toilet (built in) | ~40 × 55 × 50 cm + exterior hatch | Inside a cubicle, against an outer wall |
The first three need zero dedicated floor area — they borrow space from storage and give it back by day. The step change is not between toilet types; it is the moment a toilet gets its own room.
What a shower actually needs
- Tray: 60 × 60 cm is the physical minimum and feels like a locker; 70 × 70 cm is livable; 80 × 80 cm is domestic. Add ~10 cm of height for the tray and drain plumbing under it.
- Height: you shower standing. In a van whose finished headroom is 1.90 m, the tray's 10 cm puts a 1.80 m person's head at the ceiling — cubicle showers realistically want H3 bodies.
- Water: a real shower is 20–35 L warm water per person-day of showering — sized against your tank in the water tank guide, and it fills the grey tank just as fast.
The four price points, in floor area
| Setup | Van length spent | What it kills |
|---|---|---|
| Cassette on a slide-out + outdoor shower | ~0 m | Nothing — the reference point |
| Toilet cubicle, no shower | ~0.5 m | A wardrobe or half the kitchen run |
| Wet room (toilet + shower in one cubicle) | 0.7–0.9 m | The dinette in an L2; the garage depth in an L3 |
| Separate shower + toilet | 1.2 m+ | Only sensible from L4 up |
One honest middle path deserves a mention: the convertible shower — a tray flush with the floor, a curtain rail or fold-flat walls, the space used as aisle or wardrobe when dry. It spends ~0.2 m of permanent length and a lot of discipline about wet towels.
Try the cubicle before you build it
A bathroom cubicle is the single largest box you will ever place in the van — and whether the aisle, the bed and the kitchen survive it depends on your exact body length and wheel arches. Drop a 0.8 × 0.9 m box into your van in the planner and watch what the design checks flag before you commit a third of the van to it.
