camp shower installation

[whitetrash96]

Heres what I did.

Heres my suction line

Sucks from the left and pumps to my tranny cooler and is then fed into my heat exchanger.

Heres where I tied into my heater hoses

Finished product.

Okay originally I went with just my tranny cooler but it was only hot for a minute or so because there was too much flow. Then I got the smallest heat exchanger I could find for mounting purposes but it would only get warm not hot. So I decided to run it thru the tranny cooler and then thru the heat exchanger, it gets seriously hot now. With the engine at idle the water is warm not hot so with my hand throttle I run it at about 2000rpm and the water is almost too hot even when sourced from a mountain stream. I also put a valve at the shower head to slow the flow if the water was not hot enough but I find it unneccessary. I can also infinitely adjust water temp with the heater controls. This thing works better than I could have hoped and was a big hit with everyone who used it, I think this is one of my best mods yet.

 

[ajr2000]

That's awesome! Now you just gotta mount that pump permanantly.

 

[whitetrash96]

That's awesome! Now you just gotta mount that pump permanantly.

I have no intention of mounting the pump permanently, theres no need, and I have to store the hoses anyway.

 

[taxx]

I like it. But I would run a bypass around the heat exchanger with a valve for adjusting the temp.

 

[Positive Vibes]

Sweet!

 

[SensRanger]

shower finally ready

Well it has only been 28 months since I started this thread so I figured I would finally post what I came up with. Got a chance to use it several times at our Victoria Day camping long weekend (aka May 2-4) on public lands just 80km from the city! Me and a buddy got all the parts and a test design ready, to make sure everything worked as it should, last summer. We got a Shurflo pump and accumulator tank from an RV parts place (I think it came to $150 or so), and the Doucette 1/2 ton coaxial coil heat exchanger from a local refrigeration supply place, it was around $60. Then recently I got the bin you see in the photos and installed the hot/cold taps and fixed a few problems from the tests last summer. The biggie was reduced water flow and pressure due to using a too-flimsy vinyl hose as the inlet line. The suction power of the pump sucked the line flat in places and restricted water flow. The new tougher rubber hose has worked great so far. Originally I wanted to mount the unit in my truck permanently. But there was no way that was going to happen because space under the hood of my Ranger is pretty much nonexistent. Having the shower kit external made sense though since this way my buddy could modify his cooling system also to connect to the shower. We used quick-connect couplings on the line coming from the heater core on the Ranger.

quick connect coupling on my heater line

beginning to assemble the things in the bin

bin coming along. just need to connect to the heat exchanger.

packed up for easy transport

inlet filter. high tech system made of whiffle ball wrapped in screen door repair mesh and sealed with hockey tape

ready to go at the campsite

buddy scrubbing up. didn't want to creep out the chicks by taking their photo, unfortunately

my ranger and buddy's explorer parked at the site

catching the pens-flyers game on site

partying late night,..perfect weather

the view from the site.

man down, beer safe

my truck with buddy's 84 chevy beauville camper in the back.

 

[Positive Vibes]

Cool write up!!!

 

[DeRocha]

Very sweet Thanks for taking the time and effort in putting together a great thread..

 

[ld50]

I love this idea and have been pondering doing it for a while. Me and a friend have each built campfire heaters for showering and hot-tubbing in the bush (no it`s not just for us two)



I have researched some options, I have also pondered the ability of an a/c compressor operating as a pump, anyone heard of that?

Here are some heat exchangers I have been looking at from Ebay


10 plate model

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230566344419&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT


Here is a 30 plate model:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/30-Plate-Heat-Exchanger-SS304-Cu-Brazed-3-4-MPT-B3-12-/230566344505?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35aed33739

spec sheet:

 

[BobWiersema]

Nice write up. But I cant help wondering why you didnt just use one of these?
Do these little self contained units not cut it?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Zodi-Inst...ode=00-33078055-2&adid=1500000000000029469730

Bob