Overlanding and Rockcrawling are awesome! Spending all day in the outdoors, in the dirt, or on the rocks is one of my favorite ways to spend a day. However, at the end of the day it's really nice to be able to wash away all the dirt, sunscreen, and grime (from trail repairs). While baby wipes do a great job, after a few days on the trail, a proper shower is a really nice treat.
Since I don't have a travel trailer or a fancy Lance camper, I tend to use my Ford Excursion as my base camp for overlanding and rockcrawling trips alike. As such, I carry a portable shower shelter for showers and potty needs. For years a simple pot, stove and rechargeable shower head worked well. But heating up the water on a small camp stove once at camp in the dark was a time consuming process especially when also using that same stove to cook dinner. And getting the water to the correct temp wasn't an exact science.
I researched solar showers (camp shower hanging bag, road shower, home brew setups with PVC pipe). While some of them were appealing, and currently all the rage on YouTube, the main issue I had with them was the lack of guaranteed hot water. Most of the time I'm getting back to camp as the sun is setting, and dinner is the first priority. By the time a shower is in the cards, it is usually late, windy, and cold. A solar shower, while awesome during the day and afternoon, just didn't sound like a good solution for my situation, if I wanted hot water at night. I was convinced I wanted a propane powered on demand system. There are some home units that I could retrofit for the excursion and permanently install and there are some great portable systems designed for just this situation. Besides being an expensive solution, two things concerned me about their use. First, if you stop the flow of water they can super heat the water or turn off and then have to relight. This leads to fluctuations in the water temp and could even be dangerous. Second, some require two passes through the heater to get hot. Depending on your source water temp, you may find yourself recirculating the water. They also require power, propane, a source water tank, and possibly a holding/delivery tank. Most of these solutions and the solar solutions required being near the vehicle as well. Depriving me of the flexibility of setting up my shower shelter away from camp or from the Excursion.
I decided to stick with a workflow that I was used to. Having a bucket or tank of water that was the temperature I wanted and then sticking my powered shower head/pump in the hot water source to shower. Giving me the ability to stop the water flow when I wanted and providing me the flexibility of taking the shower anywhere I needed (at least as far as I could carry the water).
My Ford Excursion is equipped with an auxiliary battery system fed by an onboard DC to DC charger and a 250watt solar system. This system runs a Whynter 65qt fridge and an ARB twin air compressor as well as an inverter and usb ports. I have no lack of 12 volt power. Because of this I decided to use a 300watt 12volt hot water tank heating element (RV heater) screw in probe. The idea being that as I drove the solar and alternator with the help of the auxiliary battery would heat water in a portable tank. This way even on a cold or cloudy day I'd have hot water when I arrive at camp. If I decided to shower later in the evening, I could use the battery to help reheat the water as needed.
I ended up creating a 12 volt DC temperature controlled water heater. I use a temperature sensor controlled relay to provide power to the water heater element until 110F. Once at 110F the relay turns off. This way my water never gets too hot. The 300watt heater draws ~25amps and requires about 1-2 hours to heat up 4 gallons of water. This means that a LOT of power is needed. I have a 100Ah LiFePO4 battery with a 20amp DC charger and a 5-10amp solar charger. So the system can keep up with the power draw while driving and has plenty of capacity once at camp to maintain temperature if needed for a few hours.
Basic Parts list:
-Reliance water jug (I use a 4 gallon, but you could use the 7gallon)
-heavy duty relay (controlled by the temperature probe)
-wireless switch (so I can turn it on while driving)
Basic Build:
I drilled and tapped the reliance water jug lid to accept the water heater element. This allows me to install the water heater on any of the reliance water jugs (2.5, 4, 7 gallon) depending on my need for hot water.
I do not have a wiring diagram drawn up, but the wiring is pretty simple over all if you've done any automotive 12 volt wiring with relays before. The only tricky part is making sure you use heavy enough gauge wire and properly fuse your power. It was a MESS when I was working on it!!!
Beta "bench" testing the initial setup.
A picture from "behind the scenes" of the beta version.
*Note: A & B are wireless receivers with relays that trigger the DC to DC charger and InkBird temperature sensor. They were a PAIN to wire correctly and pair with the remote. Don't give up. It is very nice to be able to control the system from the driver seat while driving.
The beta version lacked a circuit breaker from the battery, a heavy duty relay (the 40amp pictured got too hot for my comfort being constantly on) and a few other small things (higher amp anderson powerpole plugs, heavier gauge wire, etc). I immediately went back to Amazon to upgrade the parts I needed to for safety.
Control panel all buttoned up.
*Note: The Inkbird is awesome! However it doesn't come with a manual, so I had to take a few guesses to get it configured for Fahrenheit and set the upper heat limit to trigger the relay off. It wasn't too hard to figure out and is an awesome product for $15
Final product (version 1).
The results: When completely stationary, the water does NOT heat evenly. This results in the probe placement severely impacting the average temperature of the water. However, when driving the water sloshes around just enough that the system works great. I have the perfect water temperature when I get to camp. I'm extremely happy with the results and had a lot of fun working on this DIY solution.
Comments