Home built solar roof rack shower (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

1973Guppie

Supporting Vendor
Joined
Jan 31, 2003
Threads
952
Messages
10,225
Location
"the whale's vagina", CA
Website
www.noahsarkstlc.com
I thought I would post up how I built a solar shower for my roof rack. I saw the roadshower product but it was too expensive for me at $350 and not in stock. I looked around and found this aluminum box that is normally used to feed animals water I think:

Diamond Plated 5-Gallon Aluminum Mounted Water Storage Tank | www.kotulas.com | Free Shipping

It is aluminum. I found a shrader valve at mcmasster carr and taped the metal with threads carefully. This allows me to pressurize the tank with my onboard compressor. A bicycle pump or air cartridge would work as well. The cap that came with it would not hold pressure. I found that a stock 80 gas caps works and holds pressure. I had an old coil hose and purchased a low flow shower head for the end of it. I painted it with one can of duplicolor bed liner. Make sure to sand down the aluminum for adhesion purposes.

I used the shower 2x this past long weekend in the sierras. Some biodegradable camp soap and a few shots from my air line and the pressure is good. It also helps that it uses gravity as well. The water is luke warm. It was really nice to be able to shower after a long day hike in the parking lot before I headed on the long ride home. I have a zodi hot water shower that I have never liked much. I sourced a smaller submersible pump that will fit in the inlet and plan to recycle the water with it to get it warm when I need a hot shower. Most of the time though I am fine with a luke warm shower. Most likely the warm showers will be for the kids. I only get one long shower out of the box. I plan to keep a couple jerry cans full of water for when I need to refill it. I usually fill the jerry cans and the box with the radiator water at the gas station on my last fill up before arriving at my destination.
IMG_0485.JPG
IMG_0486.JPG
IMG_0487.JPG


let me know if anyone has any questions. All in all I spent around $125 for the unit with paint and everything. No leaks so far and hoping I will get several years usage out of it.
 
what do you mean by this? "I sourced a smaller submersible pump that will fit in the inlet and plan to recycle the water with it to get it warm when I need a hot shower. "

Really like the simplicity of it all! Thanks for posting.
 
what do you mean by this? "I sourced a smaller submersible pump that will fit in the inlet and plan to recycle the water with it to get it warm when I need a hot shower. "

Really like the simplicity of it all! Thanks for posting.

well if you google zodi how water shower you will see the unit I have. The pump that came on the zodi with the battery pack is a POS. I plan to splice in a smaller submersible dc pump that I can simply drop into the shower tank and recycle the water back into the tank using the shower to warm it up. I plan to wire the smaller dc pump with a dc cig lighter plug so I can simply run it off my car battery. Clear as mud?
 
what do you mean by this? "I sourced a smaller submersible pump that will fit in the inlet and plan to recycle the water with it to get it warm when I need a hot shower. "

Really like the simplicity of it all! Thanks for posting.

and to your point on the simplicity, I wanted something very simple quick and easy to use and think I hit the nail on the head. It sets up in only a few minutes. It was a nice thing to be able to clean up after a long hike. Made the ride home much more comfortable.
 
You guys lost me. What do you mean by recycle the water?
 
You guys lost me. What do you mean by recycle the water?

I am going to use a zodi camp shower with a different pump that drops into the tank and then use the camp shower to heat the water and pump / recycle it back into the tank. Get it? Not sure how to make it any clearer than that.
 
I thought I would post up how I built a solar shower for my roof rack. I saw the roadshower product but it was too expensive for me at $350 and not in stock. I looked around and found this aluminum box that is normally used to feed animals water I think:

Diamond Plated 5-Gallon Aluminum Mounted Water Storage Tank | www.kotulas.com | Free Shipping

It is aluminum. I found a shrader valve at mcmasster carr and taped the metal with threads carefully. This allows me to pressurize the tank with my onboard compressor. A bicycle pump or air cartridge would work as well. The cap that came with it would not hold pressure. I found that a stock 80 gas caps works and holds pressure. I had an old coil hose and purchased a low flow shower head for the end of it. I painted it with one can of duplicolor bed liner. Make sure to sand down the aluminum for adhesion purposes.

I used the shower 2x this past long weekend in the sierras. Some biodegradable camp soap and a few shots from my air line and the pressure is good. It also helps that it uses gravity as well. The water is luke warm. It was really nice to be able to shower after a long day hike in the parking lot before I headed on the long ride home. I have a zodi hot water shower that I have never liked much. I sourced a smaller submersible pump that will fit in the inlet and plan to recycle the water with it to get it warm when I need a hot shower. Most of the time though I am fine with a luke warm shower. Most likely the warm showers will be for the kids. I only get one long shower out of the box. I plan to keep a couple jerry cans full of water for when I need to refill it. I usually fill the jerry cans and the box with the radiator water at the gas station on my last fill up before arriving at my destination. View attachment 1532446 View attachment 1532447 View attachment 1532448

let me know if anyone has any questions. All in all I spent around $125 for the unit with paint and everything. No leaks so far and hoping I will get several years usage out of it.
If you remake it out ABS piping it will be very warm Ive done the same thing a year ago with my jeep.
 
If you remake it out ABS piping it will be very warm Ive done the same thing a year ago with my jeep.

plastic piping belongs on your jeep not on my landcruiser.
 
plastic piping belongs on your jeep not on my landcruiser.

Nothing wrong with plastic bro. Works great... quick, hot shower with no propane setup. And only $100 in materials including nozzle, hose, etc.

lookslikemine.jpg
 
Nothing wrong with plastic bro. Works great... quick, hot shower with no propane setup. And only $100 in materials including nozzle, hose, etc.

View attachment 1537846

well, opinions vary, but my opinion is that plastic piping looks like s***. But everyone to their own. If you like it that is all that matters.
 
plastic, metal,.. If it holds water, affords the means to dispense water and saves money it's a win win! I use a 7gal water jug and parts from home depot to make it a gravity shower. used for the 1st time in the Utah desert a few years ago while in-route to CruiserFest. it was very liberating showering naked in the desert :D
 
I am going to use a zodi camp shower with a different pump that drops into the tank and then use the camp shower to heat the water and pump / recycle it back into the tank. Get it? Not sure how to make it any clearer than that.


Ok I got it now. So you can both heat your own water or let the sun do it, or keep it hot....?

Ive normally only seen other folks have one or the other, not both.
 
I found a used Roadshower 2 and mounted it up a year and a half ago on the 100. It is a great addition to anyone spending multi-days out in the dirt, especially anyone with kids. I think using the box you did is awesome! I am wondering why yours is only getting luke war? what were your outside temps and when did you shower up?

I wonder if the rubberized coating you put on it is not allowing it to heat up as much as just a black paint would have. Mine gets impressively hot for a solar shower. I have had it up to nearly 100* which is too hot for me. You have the exact same concept up there on your roof, I bet there is some more heat to get out of it yet.

Great concept, what do you think you pulled this off for $$$ ? Seems like an awesome DIY.
 
I spent about $100 bucks on it, I am still considering a road shower when they come out with the new ones. It works but I don't like that I have to move my rtt forward to fit it on the rack. So I am back at trying to get it on the side of the truck.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom