roofrack mounted solar shower (5 Viewers)

[surfari-LC80]

i stumbled upon this solar shower online. does any one here have any info on this? it looks like it would be a much easier shower solution then having to mess around with a heat exchanger and what not. Road Shower - The Pressurized Rack Mounted Solar Shower

 

[NLXTACY]

Thats interesting. I guess its not THAT bad of a price for something you could make yourself with a few hours.

 

[TobyJug]

mmmm I like the look of that...

Looks ace.....

 

[SOCALFJ]

Interesting, c02 carts can get spendy.. but i guess if you only take a shower once a trip then it's not that bad. I wonder how well it heats up and how long it takes to do so. I bet it takes a long time to get warm.

Here's another version overseas..

 

[NLXTACY]

Interesting, c02 carts can get spendy.. but i guess if you only take a shower once a trip then it's not that bad. I wonder how well it heats up and how long it takes to do so. I bet it takes a long time to get warm.

I wouldn't use cartridges, I would just have an air fitting that I can just connect to my OBA to fill it. Just need to make sure to have like a 10PSI check valve.

 

[Atoyot1031]

Thats interesting. I guess its not THAT bad of a price for something you could make yourself with a few hours.

That's at most $40 worth of PVC. Years ago I built a high volume, high pressure water cannon on this same principle. We could shoot 5 gallons in under 30 seconds. We pressurized to about 80 lbs. For driving around with the thing on the roof and for shower pressure 10 would be fine, but I wouldn't worry about going over a little.

 

[sirenmoses]

I like that you can pressurize it w/a bike pump,




but $150 clams?? I'll stick w/the $30 mil-surplus bags....

 

[RHINO]

i made one out of ABS, it takes quite a while to warm up from cold but i much prefer an evening shower to rinse of the days dust. i found that even in winter as long as you had a sunny day it would be lukewarm in the eve, that was fine for me. in the summer months it gets warmer than i want so i keep it shaded or fill it just before i want a rinse.


edit: i wrote ABS when i meant PVC

 

[alia176]

Thats interesting. I guess its not THAT bad of a price for something you could make yourself with a few hours.

LOL, the difference is that he made it and is now marketing it and you're still on the recliner, thinking about it

I like to see home brew stuff like this make a little profit for the inventor. Simple and effective. Very cool.

 

[tltaylor22]

I'd love to see a real life review of one of these units. We made one years ago out of 6" black abs pipe and even in Moab in the summer after a day on the trail it wasn't near as warm as what they are claiming in the link. Sounds like Rhino had pretty good luck with his though. Maybe we run trails too fast and the air blowing by cools it off too much,

 

[NLXTACY]

LOL, the difference is that he made it and is now marketing it and you're still on the recliner, thinking about it

Actually....fawker

I spent waaaaay too much time between Lowes and OSH trying to come up with a solution. I think this is a little more difficult when you are not a plumber. I got a 10' length of black 4" ABS sewer pipe. Got a bunch of fittings and some 3/8" water hose for the shower head. The issue I see is that all the end caps I've been able to find locally are all domed instead of flat which maked mounting conectors an issue. I got a 3/8" and 1/2" tap so that I can screw in bulkhead connectors or pipe threads.

I also found this on a Rover that I thought was a really neat idea.

 

[Bogo]

Actually....fawker

I spent waaaaay too much time between Lowes and OSH trying to come up with a solution. I think this is a little more difficult when you are not a plumber. I got a 10' length of black 4" ABS sewer pipe. Got a bunch of fittings and some 3/8" water hose for the shower head. The issue I see is that all the end caps I've been able to find locally are all domed instead of flat which maked mounting conectors an issue. I got a 3/8" and 1/2" tap so that I can screw in bulkhead connectors or pipe threads.

I also found this on a Rover that I thought was a really neat idea.

I've seen a bunch of them on RAGBRAI buses. They take a 6" to 8" pipe and run it the length of the bus roof on each side. Paint them black and fill em with water. The tubes are usually PVC though some have used steel. Insulating the bottom side helps speed the heating some. Most important thing is to fully fill them so the water is contacting the top of the pipe. They heat faster then. Due to the tanks sometimes getting very hot many groups would mix cold water with the hot in a bucket or shower bag and then use that for showering.

Another option some groups used are colapsible water bladers. They have heavy duty gromets in the corners for tying them down. Otherwise they were black rubber.

 

[RHINO]

We made one it wasn't near as warm as what they are claiming in the link. Sounds like Rhino had pretty good luck with his though.

i think part of it is size of pipe,,, they use 3"? and they have a clear window on top that will let solar light in really helping with heat build. i also think they use PVC, if it was built from PVC it would get warmer as ABS has tiny air bubble trapped within the walls.


nlxtacy,, mine is too simple. i'll post a pic after i go dig it out of the shed.

 

[FJ40_owner]

If there is enough water available for a shower why not just jump in it?

A guy at Rubithon had a fancy heat exhanger under his hood. He ran his 350 for fifteen minutes polluting our air and making noise. He got at best a 5 degree rise from the creek. WoooWhoooo.

Spent 10 dollars worth of gas, irrate your neighbors, fab a HX all for 5 degrees.

I do not understand.

 

[NLXTACY]

i think part of it is size of pipe,,, they use 3"? and they have a clear window on top that will let solar light in really helping with heat build. i also think they use PVC, if it was built from PVC it would get warmer as ABS has tiny air bubble trapped within the walls.


nlxtacy,, mine is too simple. i'll post a pic after i go dig it out of the shed.

The 4" IS a problem and should not be used because of the cellular spacing in between the inner and outer areas of ABS. PVC is the better way to go.

 

[alia176]

The one in the D110 pictures above is a good idea but I see one issue with it: what if you want privacy and need to shower inside an enclosure about 6' away?

I have to admit, after using my current setup with an underhood heat exchanger and a simple shower/pump setup, I'm sold! In trying to be fuel economy minded, if I heat up a five gallon jerry can of water as soon as we stop for the day, there's enough heat soaking in the engine bay plus a hot engine coolant equals to, I'd say less than ten minutes of water heating for a comfortable shower.

One the last major outing, nine guys used ten gallons of heated water every other day which I thought was pretty impressive!

 

[alia176]

Spent 10 dollars worth of gas, irrate your neighbors, fab a HX all for 5 degrees.

I do not understand.

Ok, so let me be argumentative here

So, the many buggies and truggies (trailer queens) running knarly exhausts with no cat converters and then some of them flopping or rolling over spewing gallons of gas and quarts of oil is actually better for the environment and your neighbors?

Just bustin your chops

 

[NLXTACY]

I have a Helton set up that is still sitting in its box. I have not planned out any of it and I figured it would cost me more to get the Helton doing what I want then it would be to get a PCV solution going. Not sure now.

 

[alia176]

I have a Helton set up that is still sitting in its box. I have not planned out any of it and I figured it would cost me more to get the Helton doing what I want then it would be to get a PCV solution going. Not sure now.

you're thinking needs to be re-directed and turn on the creative part of the brain and watch how little you end up spending.

Hit me off line and I'll make you see the light my son.

 

[KayakPanic]

allright...these all look and sound like pansy showers.

want to hear about a real shower?

i met a guy from Utah on the Lockhart Canyon trail (go there, do it; all 80 miles of it) right outside of Moab and he had an '85 Hilux. I had an '84 at the time, so I stopped to chat...

He had fabbed a dual alternator set up, and running off of his second battery were all of his accessories. He had topper interior lights, a second fuel pump to pump fuel from his aux. tank into his factory tank...here is the kicker...he also had a medium sized water pump.

He had taken a bunch of copper wire (like 30 feet or so) and wrapped it around the entirety of his exhaust system. Somehow (can't quite remember as this was about 2002) he had a water hose (could also have been copper tubing now that i think of it, wrapped around the exhaust) which was attached to the water pump, and when he turned it on, the exhaust system instantly heated up the water (probably super hot I would imagine)!

How is that for a raging shower system?

The bags dont have good enough pressure and aren't super hot, and the 12v under-hood heaters also were too wimpy for my liking, though plenty hot. I may have to try this, once I get my dual alternator set up together...

-andy

p.s. If you had an actual hot water tank, you could heat your water while wheeling, thus lowering the environmental guilt factor!