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Posted in the "what have you made" thread and didn't want to hijack it any further, so thought I'd start my own.

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...

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Got it all painted and installed on the trailer...

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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.

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Even with all of the leaks, I was able to wash the back of my 4Runner off and spray down the trailer. Used about a minute or so of constant spraying and it worked great. Played with it for a few minutes and never ran out of water.

The water pressure was impressive with about a 20' jet of water possible.

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Water saver shower head will help save water. ABS pipe is already black for solar heating.

Do you know anyone that has the equipment and talent to heat weld a PVC threaded coupling to your pipe for installing the hose bib? I have used PVC cement to attach things like that, but not in pressurized systems.
 
I was told not to use the ABS since it's not pressure rated. I liberally applied a bunch of silicone adhesive to the fitting last night and will see if it holds in a day or so.
 
Looks like your fittings are abs being they are black. Did you use proper size drill and pipe tap to create threads for fittings? A product like marine tex for sealant would guarantee no leaks but also no future removal without destruction. Looks like a good prototype.
 

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