It’s easy to take a shower with hot and cold running water for granted. It’s so routine that the miracle of it is rarely thought about, at least until you find yourself having to make due without it. I have found myself in such a position many times. The longest of which was when I spent half a year hiking the Appalachian Trail.
A nice shower is rejuvenating. It can change your whole outlook on the life. But the limited space available in smaller vans make setting up a shower very challenging. In the past I have used an inflatable kiddie pool as a catch basin and a solar shower hung from the ceiling in a pop top Volkswagen camper van. The quick way to get hot water from a solar shower is to put it in your backpack and walk into the bathroom at Burger King and fill it up in there ????
(If you are living in the same area for awhile and don’t have room for a shower in your van, a gym membership is a good solution for regular showers…and exercise!)
The massive size of this step van however gives me plenty of room to set up a shower. I prepared the back corner of the van and cut a hole through the aluminum floor for the drain using a jigsaw with a metal blade.
I selected a one piece 32” fiberglass shower stall from Home Depot and framed a wall in to accommodate the plumbing. I chose a 7 gallon Bosch “point of use” electric water heater (like the small ones you sometimes see under sinks in restaurant bathrooms). The sticker price for compact appliances specific to boats and RVs is a bit high. They are more complicated then household appliances of similar size because they can be powered several different ways. There are RV water heaters that can run off propane, 110v, 12v, or even engine heat. It is around $600-$700 for one of those. I got this Bosch electric water heater for under $200. I actually decided to go all electric with the water heater, A/C, and refrigerator to start off with because it will save me over $2,000. That will help toward the total construction cost and I can upgrade later..
Anyway, here is the initial set up. I cut through the side of the van to install power and water hook ups.
I roughed in the plumbing using PEX tubing. I installed the same dual control delta shower valve and monitor that I installed in one of my apartments and really liked. You can adjust your temperature setting and control the flow of the water independently. This will be a handy feature when doing navy showers and trying to conserve water. I also purchased an extremely low flow Bricor shower head that only uses .6 gallons of water per minute.
Taking the time to set up a hot shower may seem like a hassle. In a way it adds complexity to a simple task…(heating up water, pouring it over your head, and then catching the waste water). But considering the effort of doing that everyday, the investment in setting this up is well worth it. In the next post I will be talking about the electrical system, which gives life to this wonderful little water heater.
“Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.”
~Edwin Way Teale 1899