What, if anything are you all using? I don't mind being w/o a shower for awhile but I'll be able to get my Wife and son up to the mountains more often if I can set some sort of shower up.

I've never tried the solar bags before but assuming you need some constant sunlight, that's not a very good option for our location.

The little coleman type propane ones look ok but their pumps run on batteries only.

By this fall we're going to have power to a pole on the property, just a stand alone meter with outlets, 220/110v and we have a good running spring pipe'd with PVC about 50 yards from the power.

Considering what most of the propane Coleman style units go for I'm half thinking something like a mini-tank electric heater like this (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100051412&N=10000003+90094+502972)

I've seen propane tankless heaters used with just a stand alone 5 gal tank and running water but they're spendy.

I also came across shower head heaters but I'm not comfortable with that idea. The just replace your shower head, plug into 110v and head the water right there. Decent quality metal ones are around $100 put take a pretty good draw of 30 amps, would take a heavy RV type ext cord to run.

Jordan

http://www.hotcampshowers.com/

I used to work for this guy. Paul is an honest guy and he will help you figure out what you need. He's into wheelin but I dont think he's on here much.

i use a garden sprayer ( for weeds) , it holds a few gallons and actually has pressure. it works great

Those little coleman units seem to work well and have a temperature adjustment so you don't need to add another cold water feed to the mix. With the electric one you will need two pumps, one for hot and one for cold.

I was in a remote camp that had 55gal drum of water, two 12V pumps, one feeding a propane 25gal hot water heater, the other pump fed cold water. Both pump fed a regular shower valve and a cheap fiberglass shower. One car battery lasts a long time just feeding two little 12V pumps.



side note: I heard about someone who rigged one of those coleman units to a 5gal propane tank, and a 12V submersible pump. They put a piece of plastic in the bed of a truck, filled it with water from the creek, cranked on the water heater, instant elk camp jacuzzi :laughing:.

I've used the little "D" cell powered showers before and they worked just fine. The batteries held up just fine for several showers. Long term repeated use may be different. There are actually quite a few threads on Pirate regarding home brew showers.

I've used solar showers on backpacking trips and they were "ok"

I've used vehicle showers (heat exchanger) and they are hard to beat.

No experience with the other showers you mentioned.

We've used the solar showers when we've gone wheeling in places with primitive camping only. Laid them on the black metal deck of the car hauler and had to wait for them to cool off enough to use. They got scalding hot, and this in October in PA.

We've used the solar showers when we've gone wheeling in places with primitive camping only. Laid them on the black metal deck of the car hauler and had to wait for them to cool off enough to use. They got scalding hot, and this in October in PA.

But how can they work when it's overcast? We can go all through hunting season and not see the sun.

I helped some homeless folks here in Nashville build a pretty simple system. Two 55 gallon barrels, elevated on a block foundation, one for hot, one for cold. Build a fire underneath the hot one, drink a quart while waiting for it to heat up, walk downhill to the spigot, adjust for correct temp and start scrubbing.

Since you have power and water on the site you could set up a small water heater. Just make the connection removable and bring it with you and take it home at the end of the trip. A small 5 gallon tank water heater or even a small tankless system should not be too hard to set up.

Since you have power and water on the site you could set up a small water heater. Just make the connection removable and bring it with you and take it home at the end of the trip. A small 5 gallon tank water heater or even a small tankless system should not be too hard to set up.

Yeah I'm really leaning towards this. The 2.5 gal units aren't too expensive and would be plenty for what we're doing.

I usually just make my bitch lick me clean....