The Shower Playbook

The pod: take two 275-gal IBC totes, cut the tops out, and stack them open-top to open-top — a standing-height pod with a doorway cut into the side (leave a threshold at the bottom). The steel cages stay on: they're the structure.

The catch basin: the stall sits on top of two galvanized cattle troughs, side by side — every drop lands in steel. At least one trough runs ~2 ft longer than the stall: that open end is the service bay (pump access, dish-tray dumping, greywater pours). A submersible waste pump in the trough sends everything to the greywater tote.

Water in: gravity solar shower bags (1–2 gal per shower) or a pumped line from the potable system. Water out: collected, pumped, hauled off playa. Zero greywater touches the ground. That's Leave No Trace, engineered.

• The troughs: two galvanized stock troughs side by side, each ≥10" bigger than the stall footprint, at least one ~2 ft longer — the open end is the service bay. (🛒 Not bought yet — size them with David, Tractor Supply run.)
• The float unit: a separate, self-weighted float switch on a 2×2 angle-iron weight — never screwed to the pump. Power passes through the float; the pump plugs into its back.
• The pump: submersible utility pump at the trough's low point; hose exits up and over the rim, spring-clipped to the cage so it can't whip.
• Float switches are magic (David's words) — they run the pump automatically and pump to dryness. Get them in hand and practice before the playa.

1. Buy the fit-test first: a 2" female pipe-thread PVC coupler from any hardware store (~$3). Bring it to the tote seller.
2. Thread it onto every tote's outlet before paying. If it doesn't thread, walk away — adapters downstream all assume that 2" connection.
3. Food-grade + cleaned only for anything touching potable water. Ask what was in them. Trust your nose.
4. Inspect the cage: intact, no cracked welds or bent corners — for shower pods, the cage is your building.
5. Prefer opaque over transparent for water storage — sunlight + clear tote = algae farm.
6. Count right: storage totes + 2 more per shower pod. We're building TWO pods (Shaka, 7/20) — that's 4 pod totes + storage totes on top.

Supply side (whole camp):

• Potable IBC (filled on-playa by the water delivery service) → hose → pressure pump → adapter to garden-hose male fitting.
• From there it's all garden-hose tech: a splitter (1→2 or 1→4) with a ball valve per branch → kitchen · fill station · showers · handwash.

Waste side (per shower):

• Trough sump → float switch → submersible waste pump → twin 50-ft hoses marked WASTE → greywater IBC by the road (easy service access).
• Greywater capacity planning: ~70–80% of water in comes back out. Haul it out — never, ever onto the playa.

1. Acquire totes (fit-tested, cleaned, food-grade) + float switches + waste pumps. ✅
2. Cut tops from two totes (hot knife / jigsaw), cut doorway with threshold, de-burr + cap every edge; stack and join the cage rims. ✅ section 1 built
3. Buy the two cattle troughs (with David's sign-off) and set the stall on top on level ground.
4. Assemble the 3 self-weighted float units (2×2 angle-iron weights, #10 screws — Jeremy).
5. Wet test: run water, verify the float trips early and the pump pumps to dryness.
6. Add privacy wrap, hooks, solar shower bag rail — then write down everything learned so the playbook improves. 🐢

The parts list will grow (~20 items) as the design locks — tracked live in the Inventory Command Center.

Everything above is a gift 🎁 — the design conversation, the mistakes, the fit-test trick. Scale it: one pod serves ~10–15 campers with a shower-every-other-day culture. Keep the containment discipline no matter what you change: greywater never touches playa.

More open playbooks: 🍳 Kitchen · 🤖 Camp Assistant Kit · the whole Turtle Ops hub.