FJ Cruisers of Northern California
On Board Hot Shower
Well after many years of wanting to build my own OBHS heat exchanger i finally did.As i found out it was alot harder then i anticipated.After many designs in my head and on paper and after building 6 prototypes and testing.I setteled on one that i was really happy with.As i found out real soon copper is really expensive :( But the results are well worth it for me.The heat exchanger is made out of 2" copper tubbing and is 12" long and has 20' of tubbing inside the 2" tube.The water has to pass 3 times inside the 2" copper tube before it goes out to the shower head.That is only running the water thru the heat exchanger only once.I spliced the OBHS exchanger using the bottom hose coming out of the FJ heater.The OBHS exchanger heats supply water 59F up to 120F with the FJ at only 1500rpm.Still working on a flip up shower arm from my ARB bumper.Let me know what you guy's think
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Permalink Reply by manoweb on
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That is set inside with the heater adjustment knob, you can make the water freezing cold or way too hot to touch your skin. I normally set it slightly more than the middle, Monica likes it a little more, but 3/4 is already too much. No need to have higher RPMs in my setup.
The real problem is when you stop temporarily the pump; the water that stays longer in the heat exchanger can get very hot for few seconds.
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Permalink Reply by paraextreme on
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I have used the heater controls in the cab and can adjust temp of water. But found that it worked alot better just using the RPM.I will make a video just using heater controls. Sorry for the videos being so long but trying to show and answer some questions buy filming the whole thing.I have also been working on trying to make a all electric heater that would work like this one.I have run into a couple of problems that i am working on.I dont think it will be for awhile no money for the materials right now.But have alot of the work done with what i had left in my garage.
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Manoweb i have Thursday and friday off lets try to hook up my number is 408-466-4712
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Sure but unfortunately I am quite busy on Thursday... Friday could be good... after work! But where can we meet? Let's continue "PM"
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And yes sonof40 you are right it speeds it up.when i was making the video my fj was sitting for awhile .
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Permalink Reply by The Josh on
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very nice setup
im in the middle of doing a on board shower/ water system too. but im having my water storage onboard since ill be doing some desert traveling.
i have a helton hot water kit from cruiser outfitters for mine.
for the cold water input on the heat exchanger, which hose did you use from the firewall? from looking at the diagrams in the service manual it seems like i should use the lower hose?
here my thread on my setup
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/72802-On-Board-Hot-Wa...
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Can you explain the "water storage onboard" part? I use the hot shower almost only for the desert, if I go to an area rich in river/lakes I normally swim in there...
Do you mean you plan to have a fixed mount tank? That would not be a bad idea after all.
Today I received my Swiss Army water bags, I'll see if it makes sense to make an adapter for the shower.
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i will have a water tank mounted in the rear where the spare tire is located. its a 12 gallon valterra water tank supported by 2 cross members running from driver to passenger side. the cross members will be removable by bolting into the welded on brackets on the inside of the frame.
the reason for having a water tank is keeping the weight low and out of the cabin and a easy way (once installed) to recirculate the water thru the heat exchanger in thru the tank and so on so the consistant temp in the tank will be hot, once at camp and all set up i can monitor the temp of the tank until its a desirable temperature for showers or other hot water use. therefore i dont need to run the engine in order to take a shower or heat up the water prior.
id rather have it on board then setting up a shower outside with jerrys cans and so forth, been doing that way for years and i wanted to do a simpler solution (at camp anyways but the designing and researching has been exhausting!)
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Sounds very interesting, I tried to find a suitable spot for a fixed water tank but I wasn't able to find it so far. Do you have some kind of picture about this setup, or some sort of design? I've seen the "valterra" water tank on the Internet, 12 gallons means being able to take about 5 to 7 showers, it would be ideal for the water to be heated up while driving so that it's ready when you stop.
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Oh but you do not have a FJ Cruiser! That is why I could not understand anything of where you wanted to mount the tank.
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Permalink Reply by opg4759 on
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The only concern I would have is that at 12 gallons of onboard water that it's an additional 100 pounds toward the gvwr, granted as you use it it will lighten up, -8.35 pounds per gallon as you burn through it. but also depending on placement of the tank as the water is used there will be interesting issues as the water sloshes forward in the tank that will affect braking characteristics of the rig.
Just a couple things that come to mind as I think of this as a possible project on my 60.
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