Power Wagon Registry

So I finally got my onboard hot water system set up. It uses a Sureflo pump with a heat exchanger. Ties into the return line from the heater. Has about the same pressure as a typical garden hose has. I wrapped the heat exchanger with reflectix to help keep the heat away from other components around it. The pump itself is fantastic, cycles perfectly and will run constantly and dry if needed (to evacuate the system after use). I used the garden hose quick disconnects on the end of the hoses and attachments for ease of use, I also have some extension hoses that have the quick connects so I can pull or push water further. I have yet to fully test out how hot the water is after going through the system, just ran out of time yesterday. I picked up a three pack of varied garden hose sprayers for the output. It can be ran with the engine on for hot water, or if the engine is off it will just pump water from any source.

Here is the final set up:

The blue switch turns the pump on (middle one is for the solar charger, bottom is for under hood LED lights):

Here is the top of the exchanger ( mounted in the passenger front corner of the engine bay):

Here is the pump (mounted in my front bumper):


Here is the intake that you can't see in the bucket (I just got mine from Lowes, but it is the same thing, has media and a screen in it for filtration):


Here is the pump I purchased:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003EB ... UTF8&psc=1
And the heat exchanger:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QQ ... UTF8&psc=1

No real need for this, just something I wanted to do. Although I do have a cooling/misting system planned for summertime use.

Nice! That will do the trick. Now comes the art of the sea shower.

We have an external shower on the camper, and use a Trekker toilet/shower shelter, and it works well, is pretty compact when folded, and sets up in seconds.

That is really cool. I was looking at this on a trailer: at 1:40 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMfbE0FNMNQ

Those are a good route as well. I almost went that way. You still need a pump to push water through it. I didn't want to have to carry propane for the shower to work. Although I do now have to have a hot engine.

Sweet! I dig it. Very cool and I think I may copy this setup. Good job!


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I bought this for camping and working on the house over my weekends.

http://www.amazon.com/Eccotemp-L5-Porta ... amp+shower

That is the exact one that I was looking at, but went this route. I still want to build an off road trailer and it will most likely have that unit mounted on it somewhere.

So I finally got around to testing the hot water system, and when the engine is idling at temp the water comes out too hot to even put your hand in. So in order to take a shower I will need to mix the water coming out of the system back into a bucket with cold water until it reaches the temp I want. Very happy with how the system works.

In my opinion what you need is a bypass around the exchanger with a valve that you can throttle open and closed. That way the pump moves water through the exchanger and bypass at the same time and you can control the desired temp with the bypass valve by "premixing" instead of a whole extra step of mixing in the bucket.

Yeah, a typical mixing valve would work but I didn't want more hardware as of right now. Maybe in the future I will add one.

Years ago when I was still tent camping, this was on my wish list but I thought it was too expensive. One day I went to SEARS and I saw they had a sprayer on sale for 50% off. I looked it over real close and then went across the street to the sporting goods store and checked out the Extreme shower and they were almost identical ( edit; to the ones that they were selling back 18 years ago when I did this). Went back to SEARS and bought one for $25, put a nozzle on it and got a pool thermometer for $6 and was good to go. Works great.

http://www.zodi.com/hot-showers/extreme-shower

A pool thermometer is a great idea. I am going to have to pick one of those up.

http://www.amazon.com/Basecamp-Heater-A ... B007PAP4WM

These were at Overland Expo. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Best unit available.