Onboard shower installation

[Southbound]

So I'm trying to hook up an onboard shower system that came with my truck when I bought it. It has a heat transfer cylinder through which both water and hot engine coolant flow through different circuits. I'm trying to figure out how to tap into the truck's heater hoses to feed the engine coolant circuit of the heat exchanger but I don't know where to find them. Is the truck heater fed from the radiator or directly from the engine? Where do I look?

Thanks!

 

[Mace]

Go for a drive.

Park the truck and pop the hood.

Start touching hoses that are about 5/8" in diameter that go through the firewall.

Select the easiest hose to get to that is hot, take a pic of it and ask

Not too tough. You can also use the oil cooler lines but then you won't be able to vary the temp of the shower by running the heater in the cab of the truck..

 

[Southbound]

Hmm, interesting idea about varying the temp using the heater. So do I need to make sure I am tapping into a return line in order for that to work? Am I understanding correctly that the idea is to run the heater to dissipate heat and keeping the heater off for full heat?

Thanks!

 

[Southbound]

Well, I've made some progress. I found the valve that controls the heater coolant flow. It lives on the firewall just behind the engine on the left. If I can tap into that line I can directly control the shower temp by adjusting the heater temp control lever and thus controlling the amount of hot coolant that goes through the heat exchanger. I successfully took the hose off the valve but I can't seem to disconnect the hose that goes into the firewall. It looks like it actually goes through the firewall. I really hope I haven't come this far just to find out I need to take off the dash to access the junction.

Does anybody know where the heater stuff lives in the FSM? I don't see any mention of it in any my manuals.

Thanks!

 

[Southbound]

Holy frickin' success! I finally got frustrated and just sliced open that hose that looked like it went into the cab. The rest was easy. The shower is awesome! With the heater lever cranked it is literally scalding. What a luxury that's going to be!

 

[Rockrawler]

Yeah, no luxury like skin melting off because of scalding hot water... mmmmm, makes me want to rip off my clothes and head for the woods.