DIY Shower For Motorhome

DIY Shower
Saturday, 9 January 2016
11:34 PM
HOW TO BUILD A
SENSIBLE
SHOWER IN YOUR
CAMPER
Posted onApril 28, 2012byadmin underBlog
This article is about howto build a shower in a camper-van or convertedtruck or bus. I

believe my plan is the cheapest, most environmental, simplest optionfor anyone who has
some serious space limitationson board their home on wheels, for anyone whodoesnt
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some serious space limitationson board their home on wheels, for anyone whodoesnt
spendmuch time at RV parks or hotel parkinglots, for anyone who wantsthe ability to look
and feel fresh at a time of their choosing, after a long, hot dusty drive parkedup by the
roadside.
Basically the key to this is to use a typical metal, flat-bottomedsink as the base and a cheap,
submersible water pumpto provide the shower power. The total floor space of the shower
itself will take up little more than the sink (i.e. the sink with most of its corrugated drainer
cut off) at itsminimum the advantage of the submersible pump is its flexibility in use,
in a variety of situations, locations, temperatures, etc. it can feed from a container
that you have filled with solar-heated water, wood fire heated water, propane stove
heated water filtered river water or just plain cold water.
1. Cut the draining board part off the metal sink. Not too much leave around 20cm to
act as a step into the shower.
2. Make a hole in the floor of the van to take the plug hole of the sink. Dependingon the
thicknessof your floor you might have to attach a drain hose as you install the sink.
Remember to check under the van to see where the water is comingout. You have to
decide whether you want the water to drain into a grey-water tank or just out into the
nature. As we only use environmentally sound cleaningproducts, we just let the water
out onto the ground. The outlet is just behind the rear wheel which means we can
back up onto a piece of grass or evenover a city rain-water sewer. Ultimately we could
just put a container under the outlet to catch the water we dont have space in or
under our truck for grey-water tanks and, in any case, they wouldnt make much
sense in most of the countries we travel.
3. Build a boxunder the lip of the sink so that the whole thing sitslevel on floor and
wont distort or bendif youstand in it.
4. Build the rest of the shower, with the size of the sink as your minimumlimitingsize
and the size of you and your truck as the maximum. My average physical build finds
the 45cmx 60cm sink sufficient. The cheapest shower build would be plywoodwith a
good coat of waterproof varnish andpaint. I noticedthat in North America, showers in
houses were always a one-piece plastic surroundwhich must be pretty easy to find,
recycle andadapt. Youcan eventile the shower if you dont have any issues with
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recycle andadapt. Youcan eventile the shower if you dont have any issues with
weighingyour truck down. Surprisingly, well done tiling will survive thousands of miles
of bumpy roads although you can use vibration-proof glues, groutingandpolymersto
be super safe.
5. Seal the entire structure, payingextra attention, of course, to where the walls meet
the metal sink. Also the draining board segment that you have left is corrugated so
seal that up well too.
6. Make sure the doors are as snug and tightly fittingas you can get them and put a
shower curtain in thats long enough to hang inside the sink itself.
For the shower itself, use a 12V submersible pump that can be dropped into any tank
or container (with an openingbig enough). These pumps are notoriousfor not lasting
all that long remember never to use it out of the water and always let it dry off
after use. We had problems finding such a pump in USA, where they prefer
these massive RV in-line pumps that cost $100 and are too powerful. Too much
power means youre going to be using a lot of water theyre designed for a
mammoth American RV where the tank might be 7m away from the actual
shower and the owner is after, essentially, a real-house-experience. With a
submersible pump, you can put the water container right outside the shower. A
good quality pump (which will still only cost $30 in Europe) will lift water 3m and
still give a good pressure at the business end. This means you can lead the
shower hose out of a window to a container thats been heated by the sun or by
wood and is too heavy to bring inside. The point is that if you dont fix the pump
to anything, and leave it free to move, you have endless options in terms of
your water source. Remember, however, to take a spare along with you
7. 12V submersible pumps have a waterproof cable attached to them. Youneed to add
an extension to this, as lengthy as your hose will ever be. At some point close to the
shower, take the positive wire to bringinto the shower to feedinto a switch andthen
back out towards your batteries. It doesnt have to be a fancy waterproof switch. As
longas you dont direct the shower directly at it, putting the switch higher up the
shower wall then youwont be havingany problems here. Remember, itsonly 12V.
8. You can also put a light with its own switch onto this positive feed unless youve
got a skylight in the roof and you only take showers during the day.
Thats it basically. Itsnot a fancy shower but its very practical. Yourdedicated water
container can be kept inside the shower itself whenyoure not using it. Aan advantage of
using a metal sink is that its a single piece of strongmetal that will with stand youor a 30l
barrel bouncingaroundon a rough road.
Its surprising how small a space you need to have an adequate shower even the
smallest of vans will have room for this as long as you can you just about stand up in
it. If you dont have the headroom, leave more of the draining board attached and
you can have a sit-down shower using the same design.
Just a few words, then, about, why you should have a shower installedat all. The mission
were on is through many different countries: Some developed, some not so developed;
some tropically hot, some sub-zero; some which tolerate public outdoor nudity, some which
will quickly have 50 people gatheredaround watchinghowa foreigner washes themselves.
You can use this shower after a hot, sticky ride into a crowdedcity where youdont want to
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You can use this shower after a hot, sticky ride into a crowdedcity where youdont want to
pay $5 for the privilege of refreshingyourself in a smelly, cockroachedconcrete room. Or in
a cold, cloudy landscape where your out-door, black-bag, solar shower isnt goingto cut it.
Coming froma nation of, ahem, notorious soap-dodgers, this is the first truck I have ever
had with a dedicatedbody-cleaningspace. In the past, Ive managed to get away with
jumping(screaming) into cold rivers Ive flooded the van a few times in the process of
a bucket-and-sponge-bath Ive talked endless crap with people for hours in the
hope they might invite me in to use their bathroomDo yourself a favor; unless you
have a real posh, factory-built RV, do it the way Ive described. And if you dont ever
end up using it, you got yourself a nice big cupboard.
From <http://www.earthcircuit.org/blog/how-build-shower-camper/>
Tips Page 4

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DIY Shower

Saturday, 9 January 2016

This article is about howto build a shower in a camper-van or convertedtruck or bus. I

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