Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 21:15:02 -0800
Reply-To: Mike Conlon <zippledippledoo@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mike Conlon <zippledippledoo@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Hot shower on a Westy Syncro
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Background: Prior to my wife and I spending the
summer of 1999 traveling around Alaska in our 1986
Westy Syncro ("Fritz"), I decided I was going to fit a
shower to Fritz one way or another. After becoming
bleary eyed on the computer searching for suitable
units, I finally decided on "The Original Glind Aussie
Car & Boat Shower", which is sold only in Australia
(to the best of my knowledge). You can check it out
at www.glind.com.au
Cost? The unit sells for $420AUS today (1$US =
1.58$AUS as of 1-28-00) and the Economy Air shipping
from Australia cost me $61AUS for the 5.9 kg package.
I spent another 50 to 80 bucks or so on various
fittings, a stiff garden hose, and some wire.
How well does it work? I am very happy with the
performance of the shower and through careful water
conservation efforts (save water, shower with a
friend!) my wife and I could squeeze about 4 or 5
separate shower sessions out of the stock Westy water
tank before needing a refill, although I have
configured the shower to also be able to use an
external water source, such as a lake or a river.
How does it work? A heat exchanger is installed in
the coolant line that runs from the engine compartment
to the heater in the front of the van. An electric
pump is used to force the water from the Westy's water
tank (or a stream outside the van, more on this later)
through the heat exchanger and out a shower wand
(head), which is installed temporarily on the outside
of the van between the sliding door and the passenger
door. The engine must be warm to get hot water and
the heater lever must be on enough to allow water to
be circulating through the heater. In most cases I
had the heater on the "high" setting to have the
shower comfortably warm. By adjusting the heater
lever setting you adust the temperature of the water
coming out of the shower wand.
What comes with the unit? You get a self priming
Flojet water pump (made in USA), a switch, hoses,
shower wand, shower wand mount, a cute bumper sticker
that says "this vehicle is equipped with a GLIND HOT
SHOWER", a water filter, various electrical connectors
(and a relay I believe), fittings, adequate
instructions, and most importantly, an Australian made
water-to-water heat exchanger. That last item is
really what got me to buy this system, because I
couldn't easily make one up on my own.
How did I install it? Heat exchanger: The
cylindrically shaped heat exchanger is mounted on a
flat aluminum plate that I made, which is then mounted
with pop rivets to the right side of the right hand
beam that protects the Syncro driveshaft. It is about
in the middle of the vehicle. It is up out of harms
way, but I do plan to ultimately add a bit more
coverage to the bottom of that beam so that it covers
the unit completely. I tie wrapped the hose that goes
to the shower wand (oh yes, I had to buy a hose
extension for this at a local hardware store) to the
undercarriage and stored it in a small compartment I
made with thin aluminum sheet and some pop rivets.
Right under the van and beside the forward part of the
closed sliding door are two frame members about 12
inches apart, which I enclosed on the bottom with that
piece of aluminum sheet. I tuck the hose in there and
then secure it with some duct tape; not the most
elegant solution, but a most expedient one! Alaska
was beckoning! Water pump: The floor to the forward
storage bin located under the stored rear table has a
false bottom. If you look in there you see there is a
"dead space" area that contains some electrical stuff
and not much more. The rear "wall" is easily removed,
which I did. I mounted the pump there, along with all
the required fittings (from a local hardware store)
and a brass two way valve. I used "U" shaped clamps
to install it all. For the Westy water tank I removed
the large fill cap and drilled a hole in it. I placed
a bulkhead fitting in the hole and then made a "dip
tube" by glueing a common plastic PVC water pipe (cut
to length) to a pipe/slip tube fitting I mounted to
the the inside of the water tank bulkhead fitting.
Common hose goes from there to one of the inlet ports
of the two way valve. I drilled a hole through the
floor of the van in this area and put a hose through
the hole, with the other end going to the other inlet
of the two way valve. On the end of this hose is a QD,
which allows me to quickly connect up my garden
hose/filter/QD arrangement when needed. The outlet
end of the two way vale goes to the water pump, which
in turn goes to the heat exchanger (another hole in
the van!). Power comes from my Optima 750U second
battery. I spent a lot of time prior to mounting it
in this fashion and I'm very pleased with the results
as you don't see anything during use of the van and
there is no loss of interior room.
How exactly is it used? The van is warmed up (best
done by driving it) with the heater lever in the full
hot position. The two position valve, mounted under
the false bottom in the storage compartment nearest
the stove under the stored rear table, is positioned
to either "inside" (on board tank) or "outside"
(external water source such as a river). If I'm at a
river or lake (rare), I uncoil the hose/QD/filter
arrangment and hook up the QD to the van on the
underside, (just forward of the rear tire), and then I
drop the other end of the hose into the water source
such that the end doesn't get plugged up with silt.
If I am using the on board tank I need do nothing more
than put the lever in the "inside" position. Next I
uncoil the hose/shower wand from under the van and
attach it to the mount on the side of the van. The
van is sitting there, peacefully idling. We get a
small pot, soap, fresh clothes and so on and step
outside the van, flipping the switch mounted by the
door to "on" before we leave and close the sliding
door behind us. We strip down and hold the pot under
the mounted shower head, and position the small
shut-off valve on the wand to the "on" position, while
holding the pot so as to catch the water. For the
first second the water is cold, as the water between
the heat exchanger and the shower wand is expelled.
Then the water gets really hot, hot enough to burn you
as the stagnet water sitting all this time in the heat
exchanger is expelled. Then the water reaches an
equilibrium state and we put down the pot and shower
up. For most efficient water usage we repeat this
performance in two stages, the soap stage and the
rinse stage. Water in the pot, being a mixture of hot
and cold, is good for washing hair, rinsing feet, or
what-have-you. At this point you shut off the valve
on the shower wand, shut off the van and flick off the
pump switch. I then coil up the hose and store it
under the van and put the two position valve back to
the "outside" position so that the on board water tank
can't leak out the closed valve on the shower wand (it
is lower than the tank, so that could happen).
Safety notes? The water that comes out right after
the initial shot of cold water is hot enough to burn
you, so you really must excersize caution. It is gone
in a second or so, but during that time you really
don't want it on you! I also worried a bit about the
possibility of contaminating the on board water supply
with the residual water left in the line between the
"outside/inside" selector valve and the shower wand.
I even considered putting in a check valve so that
wouldn't be possible, but I finally discarded that
idea when I couldn't find a suitably sized valve, plus
I realized I could simply flush the line out with a
bit of on board water afterwards. In any event, this
was never a problem for us health-wise. I never like
the idea that others have used where they put a coil
in the Westy water tank that contains hot engine
coolant. If this was to ever leak, well, coolant is a
poison and I never wanted to take that risk.
Further thoughts? As yet I haven't built a simple and
quickly removable shower curtin on the side of the van
to add privacy and to trap a bit more heat in cold
conditions. So many projects, so little time...
Sorry this was so long, but I wanted to give all the
information I could in one shot. If any further
details are needed, let me know.
Mike Conlon
1986 Syncro Westy "Fritz"
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