Onboard shower setups, how do you do it?

[Sluggy]

I have a heat exchanger that I'm going to plumb into the heater core lines and have some questions on what people are doing.

- are you running the heat exchanger before or after the heater core and reason for your way?

- do you run a 3 way valve so you can isolate the heat exchanger when not being used?

- what accessories would you recommend with doing this?

My plan was to use a 12volt rv pump and let it recirculate in a 5gallon bucket till desired temp is reached.

Open to all ideas, just trying to keep it simple.

 

[Clb]

Last one I saw was plumbed were it fit.
The heat was regulated by flow, at first cracking the valve open, look out then once it purges the heatsoak its at idle temps.
You could do a 3 valve bypass to disconnect it .
You could try to do a tempering valve sort of deal, picking up cold from the creeck side of the pump.
but it not necessarily useful.

Whatcha thinking about with the 5 gal bucket?

 

[Sluggy]

Whatcha thinking about with the 5 gal bucket?

Use the 5 gallon bucket full of creek water and let the pump/exchanger circulate till water temp is right. Then just pump hot 5gal bucket water to shower nozzle.

That's my idea

Anything I should avoid?

 

[Clb]

Ok that works.
Option 2
12v pump inlet goes to creek, ( via long hose or do bucket) outlet into exchanger, thru exchanger to showerhead.
There's probably a cheat sheet online for shit I forgot

 

[Chief Rocka]

Put one of these in around 2014 and run it off a 5 gal bucket or 30 gal drum. Showers last approx 1 min/gal with cheapo HD hose sprayer.

$35 Thermostatic Mixing Valve from AMZN
Duda B3-12A 10 Plate
SHURFLO12V 3.0 GPM RV Pump 4008-101-A65
SHURFLO 255-213 STRAINER FILTER

 

[Dirtyjed]

Water source to pump to heat x to hose to shower head with valve to control temp.
Edit: I'd put it after heater core to make it easier to remove and put to stock with a stock hose.

Don't need to valve off heat x

That's how I've seen them done.

 

[Sluggy]

That's pretty much was my plan to do.

Water source to pump to heat x to hose to shower head with valve to control temp.
Edit: I'd put it after heater core to make it easier to remove and put to stock with a stock hose.

Don't need to valve off heat x

That's how I've seen them done.

 

[welndmn]

I had a store bought kit, maybe 15 years ago, it used the heater control valve to regulate the heat.
I used it twice, it was fine, I just never ended up showering when wheeling, I would rather jump in the lake.

 

[AgitatedPancake]

I haven't done it yet, but I've been itching to make use of the unused heat exchanger in my radiator (usually a trans cooler). Then the extra plumbing would be pretty minimal

 

[Jeffh555]

I had a store bought kit, maybe 15 years ago, it used the heater control valve to regulate the heat.
I used it twice, it was fine, I just never ended up showering when wheeling, I would rather jump in the lake.

A wheeling buddy has one. He's always excited to set it up, I'm in and out of the creek/lake by the time he gets it working.

There's few things that I can get away with doing to toughen up my kids. Making them bathe in Fordyce Creek is one of them.

 

[Sluggy]

April in Fordyce is rough but fun, just stoke the fire before ya jump in.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

2 of my kids love swimming so much, water temp rarely slows them down. Have sled down a snow berm into water before

I'd still think a warm shower could be cool, it's not always hot enough to sw when camping. Also, the wife would love me for it. Only one I've seen in person just wrapped 3/8 or 1/2" copper tube around the down pipe on his 22re. said it got plenty hot.



For the guys saying that a valve would control heat, how do you control heat without limiting flow? Wouldn't you need a bypass hose to mix in cold water for that?

 

[Dirtyjed]

The more flow you have the cooler the water as the water spends less time in the heat exchanger.

For the guys saying that a valve would control heat, how do you control heat without limiting flow? Wouldn't you need a bypass hose to mix in cold water for that?

 

[YotaAtieToo]

The more flow you have the cooler the water as the water spends less time in the heat exchanger.

Right, but if you want it hot wouldn't the flow just get weak? Or is it a a pretty small amount of adjustment?

 

[Jeffh555]

Right, but if you want it hot wouldn't the flow just get weak? Or is it a a pretty small amount of adjustment?

You’re adjusting the flow of engine coolant, not the flow of shower water.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

You’re adjusting the flow of engine coolant, not the flow of shower water.

Ahhhh

 

[AKnate]

When my boiler wasn't working, I just used a camp shower in a old hydraulic oil pail. Water poured in from heating on the hot plate

 

[92 s dime]

CAMPLUX ENJOY OUTDOOR LIFE 1.32 GPM Outdoor Portable Propane Tankless Water Heater with 1.2 GPM Water Pump Kits, Gray Amazon.com

Way faster not having to wait for your truck to warm up and easier to control temp

 

[Gumbybronco]

CAMPLUX ENJOY OUTDOOR LIFE 1.32 GPM Outdoor Portable Propane Tankless Water Heater with 1.2 GPM Water Pump Kits, Gray Amazon.com

Way faster not having to wait for your truck to warm up and easier to control temp

I have one like this at my house by the pool. Runs off a garden hose and the propane is behind the fence. It is a bit large to be considered portable on a wheeler. Bus or rv maybe.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

You guys running something about this size? Or bigger?

(1 1/4" x 3" x 7 1/2")

Amazon.com

 

[buzzbombxj]

I got a joolca hottap in 2021. It was a lemon, tried everything they said, it always sucked. 1st shower (wife,) it occasionally worked the whole time. 2nd shower (me) were river temp and shitty. Toddler got cold baths, fun for nobody. After lots of emails, eventually they sent us a new one, other then the 1lb propane adapter freezing occasionally the new one seems to be good. The pump takes 12v to run. Got an adapter for dewalt 20v battery, made a male/male cord, turns out the 12v adapter for the yellow battery doesn't have the balls to run the pump, so it has to run off the car.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

So what's more of a pain, packing a propane bottle, hooking up gas and water hoses, then leads to battery for pump, or mounting a heat exchanger and pump then hooking up hoses and warming up the rig?

I feel like I'd rather use the heat I already have with the rig, but that does limit it to that rig, where the lpg version can go with any rig.

 

[buzzbombxj]

I made a 20' and a 50' 12v extension cord, so for now the vehicle has to be within 65' of the water. That's kind of the limiting factor until I get the 20v battery figured out. I'm bringing the batteries and propane anyway. When I replace the 350k 3rd gen 4runner I'll set this bin in the new truck and be good to go

 

[Rockwood]

CAMPLUX ENJOY OUTDOOR LIFE 1.32 GPM Outdoor Portable Propane Tankless Water Heater with 1.2 GPM Water Pump Kits, Gray Amazon.com

Way faster not having to wait for your truck to warm up and easier to control temp

We have one of these and use it daily for the entire camp whenever we tow our shitboxes to a single base camp. Set up a ghetto-ass shower stall made of PVC and HF tarps (on sale) on top of a trailer, or just shower in the open if that's your thing. Water flows from a 55g barrell (or 2) in the back of a pickup via an old RV pump plugged into the 7-way to the water heater via garden hose. "Shower head" is another short garden hose with one of those 7-mode nozzles from the hardware store on it for easy on/off control to limit usage.

Works great and 110 gallons will shower 10-12 people daily for 4-5 days if everyone knows the rules on water usage. Makes long trips much more tolerable.

Also: last guy to shower always gets fucked with the most. Be warned.


For point to point to point shit, I've just strapped a couple shower bags to the hood and roof. Usually piping hot by the end of the day. That, or jumped in the lake/creek and screamed like a manly girl.