Camp shower interest.

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benc

benc

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10 Year
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I ordered a portable on demand hot water heater for an upcoming trip and it got me thinking. What if I built a shower box that could mount to a trailer or a rear swing out? I have always wanted a camp shower but have never liked the one that work off the vehicles cooling system.
Right now it's just in my head but I do plan on building one before HIH this year.
The goal would be to have a sealed metal box with the water heater, pump inside and a small drawer for soap, toothbrush ect.
The water heater and shower head would be mounted on the swing open door. I would also like to come up with some kind of shower curtain that would all fit inside the box. The dimensions would roughly be about 8x18x24. All you would need to do is, grab a bucket of water (or plumb to a water tank), plug into a 12v power supply, Hook up to propane and enjoy a hot shower! I know I would have probably bought one if there was something similar on the market.
Like I said I will be building one for my self but if there is interest I could do small batch of them.

And if you are waiting on a bumper, don't worry! I will not be doing this until the bumpers are done:)
 
Check out the trailer guys as this is a pretty popular mod in that crowd
 
This is what I have been using for awhile, runs on 110V, 12V DC cord to your rig, or its built in battery.
You could almost mount it to a swing out, plus it double to do the dishes.

 
I actually looked into those and they seam pretty nice. But they look like they take up a lot of space! Sure, I could build a box to fit if and mount outside but now your looking at about $400 for the heater and $250 for the box and I believe it's a pretty week unit compared to the heater and pump I would like to use. I'm thinking more of a bathroom in a box not just hot water. I plan to have the shower, a mirror, 12v plugs or inverter for blow dryer, drawer for bathing amenities and possibly some kind of enclosure. Anyone that camps with the wife and kids knows how valuable this would be. I plan to make a mount on the side of my trailer and on my rear swing out.
 
I have thought about taking copper pipe and coiling it up, and tossing it in the fire with a water pump on one end and a hose on the other. The pump in the lake or stream then through the copper coil which sits in the fire to warm up the water, the pushed out the other side to a shower attachment or sink. My goal would be just to get the water warm, not boiling but it would be better than jumping into a cold lake or stream.
 
benc said:
I actually looked into those and they seam pretty nice. But they look like they take up a lot of space! Sure, I could build a box to fit if and mount outside but now your looking at about $400 for the heater and $250 for the box and I believe it's a pretty week unit compared to the heater and pump I would like to use. I'm thinking more of a bathroom in a box not just hot water. I plan to have the shower, a mirror, 12v plugs or inverter for blow dryer, drawer for bathing amenities and possibly some kind of enclosure. Anyone that camps with the wife and kids knows how valuable this would be. I plan to make a mount on the side of my trailer and on my rear swing out.
Click to expand...

Yet another genius idea that you can sign me up for!
 
Hey Ben! Good idea. I built one recently and learned a few things. First, if you go Ecotemp L5 take the wand off and throw it in the garbage. It's difficult to turn on and off and even at the lowest flow it sucks water pretty fast (Shurflow 2.9). Also, use quick connect fittings all around because you will want to use different water sources, bypass the heater for filling tanks from a stream, etc. I attached a quality garden hose nozzle that is adjustable down to almost no flow. Here are a few terrible pics of my setup. You can see the cover to the box on the rock near the truck. I plan to rebuild the box in stainless or aluminum once I work out the bugs. Works well overall. I was able to hook up a longer hose and fill the roof top tank from local streams, etc. The pump is removable so you can get it closer to the water source when filling the tank since it will only self prime from so many feet below. The whole unit hangs on aluminum tubing off of the roof rack.

IMG_7043.webp


IMG_7058.webp


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IMG_7064.webp
 
I don't have a pic of it, but I built a wooden box that holds our on-demand water heater. It has an angle mounted to its top that lets it hang on the lip of our M101 CDN. You can partly see the countertop I built that also hangs on the tub lip. Makes it easy to do dishes, etc there.

Our shower set-up is a little different. Most of the on-demand water heaters provide a substantial flow that others have remarked on. We use this out-of-production Reliance water pump and wand. Its flow is slower and conserves water much more effectively.

ReilanceOnTap.webp


Not shown is the bucket that we run water into from the on-demand unit. This allows you to ration water -- everybody gets the same size bucket of hot water. This also allows addition of some cold water if you do run it thru too hot, so the Reliance drawing from the bucket is much safer for kids, for instance.

I have a separate shower enclosure in which you can get clean. There I built a folding box out of cedar slats. An astroturf mat or two goes inside it along with other camp stuff. Once it's unfolded, it's a nice big platform to shower on up out of the dirt.
 
I was going to make a hot shower of sorts for an upcoming 3000+ mile cross country trip that fizzled. I was going to replace the rear heater with a small flat plate heat exchanger (pictured below) that would heat half the water stream after a splitter, and be blended back again via a flow valve to control temperature. All this seemed pretty simple and basic especially with a rack mounted swing out shower head on the passengers side above the rear side door. Then the shower curtain would have been a beach towel clipped to the top of the door and across to the rack. When you're done just step back into the towel and pull it out of the clips and around you. Ta-Da!

The "curtain" would probably need a frame or hoop of some kind to give you more room, and other tweaks to the design would be needed I'm sure but, this seems like a fairly easy way to get the job done.

However if the OP had an up and running unit for sale that I could use first, then...
















decemner142007snowboardingGrease-2.jpg








An exchanger of this type and this small would actually be too big for such an application. The water would be scalding. Ten plates would be plenty.













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Last edited:
benc said:
I actually looked into those and they seam pretty nice. But they look like they take up a lot of space! Sure, I could build a box to fit if and mount outside but now your looking at about $400 for the heater and $250 for the box and I believe it's a pretty week unit compared to the heater and pump I would like to use. I'm thinking more of a bathroom in a box not just hot water. I plan to have the shower, a mirror, 12v plugs or inverter for blow dryer, drawer for bathing amenities and possibly some kind of enclosure. Anyone that camps with the wife and kids knows how valuable this would be. I plan to make a mount on the side of my trailer and on my rear swing out.
Click to expand...
Let me know what you come up with also
 
scrapdaddy said:
Damn, you haul that pallet with you camping?
Click to expand...


Nah, just lucky to have one from an off-grid job site I'm working on. I usually just use as many flat rocks as I can find.
 
Repost, but this is my setup of it's a bit windy. Just heat water in the pot on the fire and use that to get water temp warmer if the sun isn't doing the trick with the solar shower. Park on the side of a rock outcrop etc for mud free.

oz2k9_19.jpg


When camping it's not like one doesn't have time to heat water up on the fire or a stove.

Mate has a 12V shower pump (the type you can use for washing pets/dogs etc). That works quite well and reasonably water frugal with the judicious use of the pump. Similar to:

https://www.amazon.com/Weksi-Camping-Hiking-Travel-Shower/dp/B00MECEOH2?tag=ihco-20

For that we just take a large bucket (which we have anyway to collect water etc) and just put water in the bucket and then dump in a pot or two of boiling water. Instant warm shower.

Shower time 2 years ago. In the edge of the desert and stopped at a rain water tank. Lots of water, warm weather and time to de-stink:

thelma.jpg


cheers,
george.
 
@benc

Is this still an idea you're toying with?

This is one I would have liked before I took a big trip this summer...

Road Shower - The Rack Mounted Solar Shower - Road Shower 2

...and probably would have bought had the price not seemed so outrageous to me. Enough people have roof racks that it would be cool to have a bar that was attached to the rack and easily connected to some sort of privacy tent...
 
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