Built a solar shower for camping.

[Idaho45guy]

I built a DIY solar shower for camping and UTV riding after watching some videos on YouTube. Seemed pretty simple and fairly cheap and would work perfect for my needs. I have a 4Runner that pulls a 6' x 10' utility trailer and hauls my Honda Pioneer 500. I also bought a pickup bed tent that fits in the back of the trailer. Now, my girlfriend expressed concerns about camping for more than a day without a shower and a toilet, so I looked hard at 18' and under camper trailers. But, the ones I could afford were poorly built and used ones in the size/weight range are very hard to find. So I decided to just figure out a way to have a toilet and a shower for the princess. Toilet was easy enough with a port-a-potty and a pop-up shelter.

The shower was also fairly easy to construct using a 5' section of 4" PVC pipe, an end cap, a 90 degree elbow, plug, hose bib, schrader valve, short garden hose, and spray nozzle. I used 4 large hose clamps to secure it to the rack on my trailer. Total cost was $110, which was a bit more than I thought it would be.

Assembly took an hour and I let it sit overnight for everything to set up.
I filled it with water and it took 3.5 gallons due to making it the width of the rack and not wanting it to stick out and snag on branches.

I hooked up my portable air compressor and pressured it to 25 psi and immediately had a couple of pinhole leaks around the hose bib. I basically drilled a 1" hole in the end cap, found some old copper RTV gasket sealer and gooped up the bibs and screwed it in. Need to get some fresh and more heavy duty stuff and re-do it, but it worked well enough to test it. The other issue was the fill spout cap was leaking air a bit, so not sure how I'm going to make that air proof. Maybe some wide plumber's tape?

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with it. The water pressure is impressive and it holds enough water for a couple of quick showers or to hose mud off my boots and ATV. May build a second one for the 4Runner roof rack.

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[Mal Paso]

Cool! Should be air tight as that is how they test drains but 10 psi I think. Pipe dope or tape on the threads. We used to build potato guns from ABS and that was a lot more than 25 PSI.

[MrWolf]

Pretty interesting. Nice idea.

[abunaitoo]

Friend used to have a side job washing pay phone booths.
Plastic 55gal drum in the back of the truck.
12v water pump, with a pressure switch, attached to a hose, and spray gun.
Forget how much psi pump he had, but it shot far.
With the right nozzle, probably work just as well for a shower.

[pcolapaddler]

For a primitive shower, I don't think a lot of pressure is needed. I have seen these pressurized pvc pipe showers on YouTube and other places.

We have family property in a rural area of the state. Each family member has built or bought some form of shelter, but there is no utility power (solar, generator, etc only) and no water apart from what you bring in. My experience has been that males could/would - if necessary -
use a gallon or less of water and a cup or bottle to pour water over themselves. Females used a good deal more water.

I'm not trying to start a gender war, that is just an observation. Longer hair requires more water to wash and rinse.

A small pump has been used and provided sufficient pressure. Even a garden sprayer with a hand spray attachment would probably have enough pressure. Heck...gravity is probably enough pressure, but then you have to deal with elevating the water tank. Then figure on a couple of gallons per person, per shower for volume - again sometimes less. Having extra water is nice for washing hands to eat, prep food, after using the restroom, etc.

Rinsing mud from equipment and vehicles may require more pressure.

A porta potty, or a semi permanent pit toilet with provision for privacy (walls of some sort) is usually sufficient for a restroom facility.

Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk

[Three44s]

Those 12v pumps are pretty effective. I have one that goes to 100 psi if needed. I use it to inject fertilizer and/or biological into sprinkler lines when I need to go “line at a time”.

Three44s

[gwpercle]

I built a solar powered water heater by accident .... sat my hose reel in the sun , after a couple hours the water was so hot I had to let it run a while to get the hot water out .
Black hoses heat up fast .
Gary

[abunaitoo]

I would guess a black plastic drum, in the sun, would get hot in no time.
I've see those black bag solar showers.
Bag seems way to small to me.

[MT Gianni]

I have had a solar brand backpacking shower for over 10 years. Fill it up with 2.5 gallons and hang it in the sun as it is a black poly bag. After a couple of hours you can get under it and shower with a close pin type clip on the hose for an on off valve. If you are old enough not to be modest and camp where no one else is anyway it works great. IIRC price was well under $20. With the standard head on it 2.5 gallons was plenty.