Top 10 Off-Road Trailers With a Bathroom

You have that dream trip planned, you can picture it in your head clearly. Maybe it’s the red rock cliffs with no neighbors, and a sky full of stars. What you don’t want to picture is the long, cold walk in the dark to take a trip to the vault toilets, that have a stench beyond belief. 

You may have thought of this, and that’s why you’re looking for an “off road trailer with bathroom” on Google. You want to go places you can only reach with an off-road trailer without giving up the one thing that makes a trip relaxing instead of tolerable. 

Good news: there are lots of amazing options now. There are now real off-road trailers with a toilet and a hot shower starting at just over 4,000 pounds, and the choice comes down to which floor plan fits you best, not whether it is possible.

Here are ten trailers we stock and camp in, lightest to heaviest, with little notes and features on each. 

 

Know This Before You Compare Anything

Bathroom specs get thrown around loosely. These things decide what life with the trailer is actually like.

Wet bath vs dry bath

A wet bath puts the toilet and the shower in one waterproof room. You shower, the whole room gets wet, you squeegee and move on. It saves space, allowing you to have a smaller trailer but still have the comforts you want. 

A dry bath keeps the shower in its own stall, so the toilet, towels and your clothes stay dry. It costs length and weight. If two of you will be using the bathroom every morning for a month, that trade-off is usually worth it.

Cassette toilet vs black tank

A cassette toilet has a removable cartridge, usually five gallons or so, that you pull out through an exterior door and empty at any vault toilet or dump station. No hose, no sewer hookup needed. Every MDC in this list uses one. It is a great option that allows you to dump waste, without hitching the trailer up and taking it to a dump station.

A black tank is the conventional RV approach: a 30-gallon tank under the floor that you dump with a hose at a dump station. Every Pause model here runs a black tank. You go longer between dumps, and you plan your exit route around a dump station. Our post on which off-grid toilet is right for you goes deeper on both, as well as other options that ROA OFF-ROAD can modify into certain trailers.

The 10 Best Off-Road Trailers With a Bathroom

Weights below are dry weights from the manufacturer. Add water (8.3 pounds a gallon), propane and gear before you compare to your tow rating. Our tow vehicle guide walks through that math.

1. Pause Restart R12RB

Dry weight 4,160 lbs. GVWR 5,600 lbs. Dry bath. 30 gallon black tank.

Twelve feet of box, seventeen feet overall, and a full dry bath, which is extremely hard to find in a trailer this light and small. The Restart is Pause’s entry level line. All Restarts have an e-coated steel chassis, Curt independent suspension, laminated composite walls, 34 gallons of fresh water, and heating pads on all three tanks. 

Who it is for: a couple with a mid-size truck who wants a trailer with a bathroom, great living space, and indoor fridge. Read the full spec list on the Pause Restart R12RB page.

2. MDC XT12HR OGE

Dry weight about 4,340 lbs. GVWR 6,147 lbs. Wet bath with a Thetford cassette toilet.

This is the trailer that made “small, lightweight off-road camper with a bathroom” a real category. The rear-corner wet bath is tall enough to shower in comfortably, and the rest of the build is for adventure. The X-TRACK independent coil suspension that keeps your gear where you left it on washboard, 42 gallons of fresh water in two tanks, 400Ah of lithium and 350 watts of solar standard. That is enough power to run the trailer for days.

Who it is for: the Tacoma, 4Runner and half-ton owner who wants to get past the end of the graded road. Our XT12HR deep dive has the walkthrough, and the XT12HR OGE page has the current build.

3. Pause Reboot 14.3

Dry weight 4,583 lbs. GVWR 5,868 lbs. Separate toilet and shower.

Most trailers this size make you accept a wet bath. The Reboot 14.3 does not. It fits a separate toilet and shower into a 17-foot-11 trailer, along with a true queen bed, a booth dinette, and an interior kitchen with a convection microwave. Under it is a MORryde huck-riveted aluminum frame with shear spring suspension, and the power system starts at 270Ah of Battle Born lithium and scales to 1,080Ah if you want to run air conditioning off-grid.

Who it is for: the couple coming out of a conventional travel trailer that is looking to go more places comfortably. See the Pause Reboot 14.3 page. If you want the same separate shower with a vanity and 65 gallons of water, the Pause Reboot 17.4 is the bigger brother at 6,200 lbs dry.

4. MDC XT15-4E OGE

Dry weight about 5,450 lbs. GVWR 6,147 lbs. Wet bath with a cassette toilet and plumbed hot and cold shower.

Same four-sleeper floor plan as the XL15-4E, same 62 gallons of fresh water, but with the Off-Grid Extreme package: 400Ah of Renogy lithium, 745 watts of solar on the roof, and the heavy-duty TOUGH TRAX shocks. The difference shows up on day four of a trip when the lighter unit is rationing power and this one is not.

Who it is for: the family that camps longer and farther from a plug. See the MDC XT15-4E OGE page.

5. Pause Restart R17TH

Dry weight 5,473 lbs. GVWR 7,000 lbs. Dry bath with 30 gallon black tank.

A toy hauler with a real dry bath is rare at this weight and size. The R17TH gives you a rear gate that works as a ramp or a deck, a marine-board garage floor you can hose out, a Murphy bed that lifts into a desk area, and a dry bath with a skylight overhead so you can stand up straight in the shower. Hitch weight is a stout 1,010 lbs, so this one wants a properly equipped half-ton or bigger.

Who it is for: the side-by-side or dirt-bike family that is tired of two trailers. See the Pause Restart R17TH page.

6. MDC XT16HR Island

Dry weight about 5,470 lbs. GVWR 6,147 lbs. Full ensuite with a separate shower and a Thetford C224 cassette toilet.

This is the first MDC trailer on the list with a real separate shower in an Australian-style hard-side body. The island bed means nobody climbs over anybody, and the off-grid system is the biggest in its class: 800Ah of lithium and 700 watts of solar, which is a week of real living without rationing. The East-West version has the same bathroom with a different bed orientation if you prefer a wider walkway.

Who it is for: a couple who camps for weeks, not weekends. See the MDC XT16HR Island page.

7. MDC XT17HRT Family

Dry weight is about 6,200 lbs. GVWR 7,714 lbs. Full wet bath with a C400 cassette.

Tandem-axle X-TRACK suspension, an Olympic queen, two bunks and a convertible dinette, and an internal ensuite with hot and cold plumbing. The power system is the headline: 800Ah of self-heating lithium and 875 watts of rooftop solar means the bathroom’s water pump, lights and heater are never the thing you are worrying about with three kids in the trailer.

Who it is for: the family that wants an expedition trailer. See the MDC XT17HRT Family page.

8. MDC XT19HRT OGE

Dry weight about 6,470 lbs. GVWR 7,716 lbs. Full bathroom with a Thetford C224-CW cassette toilet and a separate hot and cold plumbed shower.

This is the flagship of the MDC line, and it shows in the bathroom. A full ensuite with a real separate shower, a queen bed, a convertible L-shaped lounge, a slide-out kitchen and beautiful cabinetry that does not feel like a camper. The power system is the largest MDC builds: 800Ah of lithium and 1,225 watts of solar across seven panels, enough to run air conditioning and heat off-grid. Tandem-axle X-TRACK suspension with heavy-duty shocks carries it all over terrain most trailers this size cannot look at.

Who it is for: a couple who wants the full off-grid expedition experience and go for long periods at a time. See the MDC XT19HRT OGE page.

9. Pause Reboot 19.4

Dry weight 6,033 lbs. GVWR 8,533 lbs. Full rear bathroom with a separate fiberglass shower and a residential-style foot-flush toilet. 30 gallon black tank.

The Reboot 19.4 is the one people walk into and are blown away. The whole back of the trailer is the bathroom: a fiberglass shower, a porcelain foot-flush toilet, a countertop with real storage, and a skylight overhead so you are not showering in the dark. Up front is a true queen bed, a convertible dinette that sleeps two more, and an interior kitchen with a three-burner cooktop and convection microwave. Sixty-five gallons of fresh water means daily showers are the plan, not the exception.

Who it is for: the couple that wants a bathroom that feels like the one at home and plans to use it every day. See the Pause Reboot 19.4 page.

10. ROAMER X

GVWR 11,000 lbs. Mid-ship bathroom with doors on each side, enlarged shower with a sliding door.

The ROAMER X puts the bathroom in the middle of the trailer with a door on each side, so it works as a pass-through between the living area and a private bedroom with its own doors. The shower is enlarged with a sliding door instead of a curtain. Sixty-five gallons of fresh water, more than 2,000Ah of lithium in the floor, 3,160 watts of solar between the roof, the awning and a portable array, and MORryde air suspension with 12 inches of travel. Built in America by Pause, backed by ROA, and limited in number.

The most unique thing about the Roamer X Founders Edition, it comes included with an Infinity Shower upgrade. The Infinity Shower allows you to shower for long, long periods of time (think 30 minutes) and only use 1 gallon of water. This allows you to take long, hot showers without draining your fresh water down to 0. 

Who it is for: the person who wants extreme comfort, takes long trips, and wants the amenities usually found at home. See the ROAMER X page.

What Most People Get Wrong About Trailers With Bathrooms

1. They buy the bathroom and forget the water. A shower uses two to three gallons a minute. A 34-gallon fresh tank is four or five short showers, or two long ones. If showers every day matter, the tank size matters more than the bathroom layout. That is why the 62-gallon MDC family units are on this list, and why the 65-gallon ROAMER X and the Pause Reboot and XC models matter if daily showers are the plan.
2. They only think about the dry weight. Dry weight is the trailer with nothing in it. Fill the fresh tank on a Reboot 14.3 and you have added 280 pounds before any gear has been added. Compare your truck’s rating to the GVWR, not the dry weight, and keep a margin.
3. They don’t think about cold weather. A bathroom that freezes is a bathroom you cannot use. Heated tanks, insulated underbellies and an enclosed plumbing bay separate a four-season bathroom from a three-season one. 

How ROA Handles This Differently

When a Future Roamer asks us which trailers have bathrooms, and they say it’s a priority for them, we typically ask: dry bath or wet bath, how many people, how many days, and where. The answer usually points to two or three models, and all of them are sitting on the same lot at the Experience Center, so you can stand in each bathroom and decide in an afternoon instead of six months of forum reading.

Text a Sales Coach at 801-860-0035 with two things: what you tow with, and whether you want a wet bath or a dry bath. You will get a short list that fits both before the end of the day.