I was wandering around XS Cargo today and came across this 12 Volt Portable Car Wash System priced at only $8.88!
What you get is a 25 litre bucket that has a small 12 volt pump in it, 25 feet of garden hose with quick connects, a hose nozzle, a waterproof on/off switch and the 12v cigarette lighter plug. The idea behind it is that you can wash your car with this set up. I was a little skeptical on the power it would spray the water out at for a car wash, but thought it might be good enough for a portable camp shower.
So I picked one up. After setting it up, my thoughts were correct, not really good for a car wash, but for a shower, it had lots of pressure!! More pressure than some of the campground showers I've used over the years. As soon as you turn the power switch on a few seconds later the water starts to shoot out. I set the spray nozzle at a medium rate and the shower lasted 8 minutes and 30 seconds.
I have a shower tent I picked up late last
fall for $25 and will incorporate this unit with it. I set it up and clamped the nozzle inside the shower, about 6.5 feet high and with the full length of 25 feet of hose. The pressure was still the same.
A few years back I installed a 12 volt plug on the frame of my
Boler, so I will set up the shower tent behind the
Boler and plug in for power. I was also thinking of using a 12v-14v cordless drill
battery for a power source, this will let me set up the shower tent anywhere on my site then.
It looks like the pump system can easily be separated from the bucket if you only wanted to use the pumping setup. I could see a few different ways someone might want to customize this into their camper.
I think I might do away with the 25 feet of garden hose and get some lighter gauge clear 1/2 inch tubing and a cheap hand held shower head to use with the setup.
Here is the link to the XS Cargo Website:
XSCargo
Here are a few pics and I will upload a Youtube video shortly:
Box
25 Litre Pail
Pump inside the pail
The rubberized on/off switch which leads to the 12v cigarette plug
The complete unit
Shower Tent. You can see the hose and on/off switch coming in through the back flap.
The back of the shower tent. I used my RV
battery for the test run, but will plug it into my
Boler or a cordless drill
battery when camping.
Here is the nozzle with the water spraying out. It ran for 8 and a half minutes before it ran out of water. With the on/off switch in the tent, you could turn it off when lathering up, thus making your shower longer.