R&M Specialty Products
Camp Shower
After a days hard work it's just natural to want a nice warm
shower to wash off the dirt before settling down for the night. Few
Jobs are as difficult and dirty as a day spent running hard core
rock trails....rolling rocks and fixing trucks.
Last year I had had an
opportunity to use a shower on the trail and though at the time how
nice it was to be able to take a nice hot shower on the trail. The
shower was mounted on Roger Brown's Toyota 4Runner and it took the
40 degree creek water and heated it up to the point where it was
very nice to wash with. What a luxury I thought.
This month I detail how the
shower works and what's involved in hooking it up as I install it
into project Rock Runner. The complete kit includes a 12 volt water
pump, heat exchanger, hoses, connectors, shower head and all the
hardware you need for the installation. This kit is designed to be
mounted in just about any vehicle so there are a lot of parts that
come with it. The kit allows quite a bit of flexibility in mounting
and installation.
The heat exchanger is the hart of the shower. It converts
engine heat into hot water. It has two paths for water to travel
through for a total of four connections. Two of the connections
pick up hot water from the engine. One connection is for the cold
water pickup and the last is for the hot water output. I
found I had room to mount it on top of my intake manifold. There is
also room to mount it under the front fenders
too.
The
water pump included in the kit is an RV model right from a class A
motor home. It's rated for 1.6 GPH and supplies up to 30 psi of
pressure. It's built-in switch shuts off water after it's maximum
pressure is reached. From that point on it only turns on when
needed to maintain pressure. This pump has more than enough volume
and pressure to run the shower. The water pump can be mounted to
the truck or just plugged in when needed with a set of clip leads
to connect it to the battery.
The kit comes in a basic form or with an
optional remote kit. The remote kit includes a set of quick
disconnects that allow for quick connection of the hoses. With the
optional remote kit you can connect the hoses without even lifting
the hood. In the basic kit you just attach the hoses directly to
the pump and heat exchanger.
The shower kit includes plenty of hose and a
nice adjustable shower head. This is very similar to the "water
saving" type of shower head you would find in a home. By adjusting
the flow of water you also change the temperature of the water. The
faster the water flows the colder the water is. For warmer water
you just reduce the water flow. Just like at home it takes just a
moment for the water temperature to stabilize. Then you have a
constant flow of hot water. The kit also includes a high idle
throttle kit to raise the engine RPM's and increase the amount heat
exchanged but I found the kit provided plenty of hot water and it
was not necessary to install this in my application.
During one test I started with 50
degree water from a bucket. The output water was 105 degrees with
good water volume and I could see the steem coming off the water. I
used a 5 gallon bucket of water and found it to be just enough for
a quick shower. With near freezing water it may be necessary to run
the water through the unit twice to heat it up a little more or to
use the high idle kit. The 5 gallon wash was good but if you
drop a hose into a creek or other unlimited water source you can
make as much hot water as you want. It seems to me that by digging
a hole in the ground and lining it with plastic, it should be
possible to make a small trail hot tub!
I was very impressed with the quality of this
kit and ease of installation. It took me about two hours to install
the unit. The unit provides plenty of warm/hot water for bathing
and washing dishes on the trail. Deckers Hot Camp Showers also
sells the complete Zode line of camp stove & propane hot water
heaters as well as shower enclosures. Retail price of hot water
shower at time of publishing $259
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