By Cheri Sicard
In the video below, Ken and Pam (aka TheRoadSMITHS) remove the shower doors in their fifth wheel. The motivation for this project started with the need to lose some of the weight they are carrying on the road, but it turned out to have other benefits as well.
The Smiths’ RV had a stylish bathroom, for sure. But besides weight, the heavy glass shower doors presented a constant cleaning battle with water spots to keep them looking shiny and clear. The couple was so tired of cleaning glass, they finally put up a shower curtain rod and shower curtain in order to hide the glass doors.
Since they did not like the functionality of the shower doors and they did not need extra weight, they decided to remove them.
Maybe you feel the same way about the shower doors in your RV?
Ken began the project by freeing up the silicone around the door. He then removed the screws holding the frame in place and removed the top cap. After removing a few more screws inside the shower, the couple was able to lift out the entire frame. As the shower doors were attached, they came along for the ride out.
The glass shower doors were even heavier than anticipated, so removing them could shave about 70 pounds off the couple’s rig weight.
The trickiest part was maneuvering to get the shower door out of the bathroom.
Removing the RV shower doors instantly opened up the room and made the small RV bathroom feel much larger.
Before the job was finished, Ken had to remove the side and bottom shower door guard rails and clean up the leftover mess from inside the shower pan. It took a little elbow grease but it looked great when he was finished. He also reapplied silicone to all of the screw holes they had been working with.
For the final touch, he applied some small water splashguard shields that he bought on Amazon to insure that all the water stays INSIDE when using the shower without the doors. The shower curtain takes care of the rest.
Check out the before, during, and after of how to remove RV shower doors in the video.
##RVDT2107
From day one I got in the habit of wiping down the inside of the shower and the 3 glass doors with a microfiber towel immediately after showering. It’s become part of the process and the shower and doors still look great after 2.5 years. I also use car polish on the gelcoat shower walls about once a month when we are in the rig for the winter.
Weight-wise, we had a similar experience when we decided to replace the TV that came in our 2012 TT, We wanted to convert to a 12v TV from the 120v unit. That TV weighed a ton, and we had to get a new wall mount to fit the new 12v TV. The old wall mount was way
H E A V Y too! The new 12v TV is less than half the old TV’s weight, and the new aluminum wall mount is way lighter than the old cast iron (or so it seemed!) unit the trailer came with. As an aside, we LIKE our glass shower enclosure . . .
We removed our shower doors this past winter when in Florida. The 3 panel glass sliding doors plus frame weighed an astounding 70 lbs. We now have a forest pattern shower curtain and never have to climb through those narrow doors, bump our elbows, or have to clean those glass doors. When we slide the shower curtain back it opens up the whole bathroom.