Has anyone installed an onboard hot water heater on their LR3? Like a Helton heat exchanger? I'm going on a road trip this year and thought this was a cool idea. I've seen other forums where they've done it, but was curious if anyone has installed one in a LR3.

Thanks

 

The Helton is overpriced. You could build a heat exchanger with stuff from the hardware store and plumb it for a fraction of what they're charging. But your vehicle's coolant has to be up to temperature for it to work, which means you have to run the engine for a long time in the morning before your hot water is ready. That's can be noisy and wasteful.

Compare it to a propane tankless water heater. There's a variety of tankless propane shower kits for $80-150. The Triton looks like one of the best, still at only $226. You'll probably want propane for cooking anyway.

I don't have space on my Land Rover for a hot shower kit. Maybe when the kids grow up and get their own, I'll put one in their space. But for now I'm considering the Helios. I would use that with my MSR Reactor.

There's a lot of pop-up shelters to consider if you need that. But something else to think about is where the grey water goes. In some places, it's fine to let it run on the ground. But in others, that's not cool. I'm thinking about using a 9.2 gallon shallow Tubtrug. I'm not sure if I could carry a couple gallons in that, or if I'd need to transfer it to a rigid 5 gallon bucket.

In the past, I just used a 5 gallon bucket of cold water. I'm soft now.

 

I’ve been toying with this as a mental exercise on and off for a couple years. I haven’t had much need for it so I’ve never gotten around to actually starting the project but here’s what I’ve got in mind.

I’d mount a tank in the spare tire well. My spare is already on the bumper and most people can’t use the stock location anyway once they go up in tire size. Plus who wants to crawl under a truck to get the tire out? You should be able to get 10 gallons in there I would think, depending on tank size.

Sourcing a correctly sized poly tank will be the hardest part. You would want something heavy duty as it will no doubt take a pounding. You’ll probably also need to relocate some of the fittings as you’re unlikely find an off the rack solution that will work.
TODD Heavy-Duty Polyethylene Holding Tanks | West Marine
TODD Water Tank Relocation Kit for Todd Poly Tanks | West Marine

Of course you’ll have to weld up a mounting/support bracket and a skid plate for this but that shouldn’t be too hard to build.

Since Land Rover was nice enough to go ahead and run coolant lines to the back of the truck, and since I never carry people back there anyway, I might as well go ahead and use them to feed my heat exchanger. That’s what they’re doing already, just a water to air unit and I’d switch to water to water.

For a pump, I’d look at the lowest volume unit you can find. You don’t want much power here since you’re on such a limited water supply. Jabsco, Surflow, Johnson, etc all have options
WEST MARINE Freshwater System Pump, 2GPM | West Marine

I already have a 6-gauge power line to a disty block in the back of my rig for future projects like this, so power is no problem for my set-up.

Since I have a custom steel rear bumper, for a fill I would probably try to cut a common marine deck fitting into my rear bumper top face. Get the s/s one, not a plated one.
PERKO Fuel, Water & Unmarked Fills for Pipe | West Marine

A simple shower wand with an on/off switch/mixer and quick-connect would go into the rear face of the bumper as high as I could get it to avoid damage.
Fast Disconnect External Shower - Adventure Trailers Store


Like I said, I’ve only played with this as a mental exercise and not actually tried to build it. I have a RoadShower on the tuck now and usually only take a couple trips a year long enough to want a shower in the rig anyway so it’s just not been a huge priority. Another concern is having to drain it when heading into the mountains during the winter to avoid freezing – I don’t have any issues with that at home since we never have that kind of cold here at sea-level, but I do a few trips a year into the snow at elevation and you wouldn’t want to leave the rig parked overnight in cold weather with water in the system.

 

Oh, and as pointed out this will only heat water once the engine is up to temp so you'd want to take a shower right after pulling into camp at the end of the day, not wait around until the next morning. You could try insulating the tank somewhat, but I'm not sure how much you can get out of that.

Another add-on worth considering if you're doing this is a 12v heater element. Depending on how much battery you have available these are common in 200-600w. You wouldn't want to run one for very long without the truck running since you'd be pulling 16-50 amps depending on size, but they are cheap and easy to add to a tank and would offer a way to heat water without running the truck all the way up to temp, particularly if you already have a good size house battery.



On the plus side, you'll no longer have to carry jerry cans of water around since you'll have a nice built-in tank with pressure pump, so that'll save a little space in the rig.

 

there is a long range fuel tank out there on the market (called "the long ranger") that fits right there in the empty space for the spare tire.

I wonder if you could install that and plumb it into your shower. If it is approved for holding gasoline, it should have no trouble holding water.

 

You'd have to rig a filler as well as an outlet but the biggest drawback is the cost; you have to import that from Aus and it's pretty big $$. I have a friend running one (they're only made for diesel but he made it work with gas) and it's nice but just to pricey for my blood.

 

I see. Perhaps a job for a more local fab shop then

 

There is a thread talking about different camp showers over on the Expo Portal board right now. IMO, the Mr. Heater BOSS looks like a pretty neat solution. Not cheap at around $350. Zodi Extreme was another choice that people are talking about... it's basically a glorified stainless steel garden sprayer that sits on it's own burner to heat up. The thing I was wondering is if you could find a dual purpose for the burner and use it for a skottle plate as well. When camping, dual purpose items are much prefer to single purpose ones.

But all of this is irrelevant if you're really looking to plumb one into the cooling system.

 

I use a stainless steel garden sprayer that I fill with water and put on my camp stove. They are hard to find but if you get one you are in luck. They can be pressurized by pumping the handle the tank top to spray water from a nozzle like the Zodiac tanks. Only a few gallons but it was less than $50.
Better tha a cold bucket of water.

 

Yes, there are certainly easier ways to get a shower in the field than building an on-board hot water system. I currently have a Roadshower, though I don't use it a lot.