Washing Machines 'On the Road'

DellieMay · Senior Member

RE: Washing Machines 'On the Road'

Ma · Guru

You know how it is at this time of life Dell...........

jimricho · Guru

Try a good slug of whisky before going to bed, it might help your insomnia yawn

lyn-n-ken · Senior Member

hi one and all
we also use the bucket with type lid bit of nappy san and it washes as we drive just rinse by hand when we get there. we also use park machines if we have a bit to much or for sheets etc but i always check them well before i use them, and i put some disinfetant in with them.
i try to get the machines just after the park has cleaned them.
never found any dirty ones yet. if they look a bit dodgy the big wash can wait till the next town.

justcruisin01 · Guru

jandas fun wrote:

Thought i saw them advertised recently for $300. 2.2kg wash and spin.
Still need 240v power i think. Don't know if a gennie would run one??

Johnw

just looked up the specs on the back of ours;
rated input power for wash & spin cycles is only 280watt. very little.

jonathan · Guru

Mine runs fine off the inverter .. or my 1kva honda gennie ..

Jon

bill12 · Guru

I,m a fisherman. Old fishermen never die -they only smell that way

villatranquilla · Guru

Hi Pejay
I bought a little twin tub off ebay for .99c - postage was $99 from Qld to Perth. Does one set of clothes at a time, or 2 towels or 1 sheet. Spins and we tip the soapy water back in then fresh water for rinsing when all the wash is done.
It does a great job though time consuming but hey we have plenty of that when on the road. Travels in the shower on non-slop mat - very light and easy to move as needed.
Sometimes I can get a bit phobic about using public machines in parks and the cost can soon add up too

Pejay · Guru

'Morning all, well looks like I might have to re-assess my need for a small washing machine as against more vino! I have taken on board all your comments and experiences and will head out this week and check out some prices - if I have been very, very good this year, do you think Santa might bring me one???? But on a serious (?) note, I thank everyone for your imput, it has been greatly appreciated.

Delta18 · Guru

We too bought a twin-tub via ebay, $60 odd + $40 shipping.

As said we get a few loads of washing from one load of wash water and it runs happily from our 300w inverter.

Never wash in the filthy and expensive park or laundromat machines again.

Cheers Neil

Wombat 280 · Guru

Firefly wrote:

Ma seen a couple using one at Lee Point and it seemed to take them hours to do a few loads. Don't know what they would be like. The ones I have seen only wash, don't spin, so it seemed pointless to me for the money. They must have them somewhere.

Talking money , the cost of doing your washing in a van park you could use a laundry service to pick it up and half the time the bloody things are faulty anyway and chew up dollars worse than a pokie .

The cost a small twin tub, if you can fit it in, will soon be recovered .

In my case shorts singlets and t-shirts, I'm on hol's not going for job interviews and Big W have heaps of replacements in my size cheaper than washing machines

Happywanderer · The Master

And don't forget op shops wombat 280. Throw out the dirty clothes and buy news one for between 2-4 dollars. Except for undies, buy them new.

hattonhall · Member

Hi All !

and welcome to myself as a new member!

As yet I am only getting ready to make the change from "stuck in a hole next door to a nutter with a forever barking dog and a penchant for playing the radio outside my side window all day", to travelling in a camper through the wonderful world of Nomadia.........which has beckoned me for years and which many of you so obviously thoroughly enjoy.
You lucky sons and daughters--- of a guns!

In answer to the issue of washing one's clothes on the road, I guess.......and this comes from my many years of camping and caravanning.........the first thing is to make sure you only wear or carry to wear what you essentially HAVE to, to fit in with your lifestyle. That and to carry a retractable clothes line and pegs. Generally on the road it was daily a shorts and sandals or thongs and T-shirt affair. For those more "sophisticated moments" such as attending a social or going out to a club for a meal(and Show if poss!), I only ever took one pair of shoes and socks and pair of long lightweight material trousers, one long sleeve shirt, one tie, and a cardigan. This enabled me to travel light, keep the laundering to a minimum, and meet even the most demanding of Club entry dress codes without any problem.
I would suggest that one only needs a Washing Machine on the road if one has the amount of clothing needing washing, so to do. Otherwise to keep laundering down to a simple routine, one can't beat the old tub and posser(Plastic Dustbin and Posser - which is a sort of inverted colander on a 60cm length of broomstick. One can get by using the Posser in the caravan park laundry tub in soapy water then rinsing the clothes. If you have one of those little retractable 4-line clothes lines, one can quickly string that up next to your van and a tree so as to let your little niceties dry out.
Actually by telling you all this........I have just put myself out of a job!
I could otherewise have seen myself making a tidy little sum travelling around and doing something I have done for over forty years............repairing washing machines and dryers.

Oh yeah!.......those little 2Kg machines mentioned are available at $160 currently an would certainly help out if one wants or has to have a mechanical aid to wash their clothes for any reason.

Yes, they would appear to be able to run from a suitable 12volts DC to 240 Volts AC Inverter as the motors run at around the same wattage (150watts)as the highest rated but now defunct incandescent light globes we all used to have.

Thanks to youse all........ for the warm welcome.......and I hope to contribute more from my box of "knowitall" experiences in the forthcoming 20yrs I hope to spend on the road before carking it.