Bronco with shower on BAT

[ssray]

Did a double take on this one but definitely a little ingenuity to this. Has a heat exchanger and Shurflow pump under the hood and a couple hose connectors on the front bumper. Looks homebrew the way the heat exchanger is packaged. 4 or 5 pics that show details. Would be nice for overlanding /remote camping!

Bronco shower

 

[DirtDonk]

Nice looking bronco for sure. I didn’t see a picture of the shower deployed, but that is a pretty cool option.
We were just talking about that the other day in a thread about what to do with the old spare tire mounts.

 

[okie4570]

I saw that the other day and wondered what it was lol.

 

[Got4wd]

That’s a R&M hot water shower. It’s a copper tube but wrapped with heat covering. I have one in my garage I have had since I was 18, 50 now. They work well. Going on my bronco next.

 

[ssray]

@DirtDonk I believe there were a couple pics of the bumper connectors, a couple of the pump and exchanger and one of some coiled hose. I did find a little more info, (thanks to Got4wd) but I think the company is likely gone. I didn’t see any mention of an enclosure so I suppose it’s swim trunks or find an ez-up shower. LOL

@okie4570 Yep…I was thinking RV shower and wondering how you get that into a Bronco??? LOL

@Got4wd Thanks! I was able to find some info about it at least. I see some portable camping showers for around a $100 less, but they do need propane. How much they use I didn’t research but they would be much easier outside of a tank and wouldn’t be tied to the vehicle. Maybe the simplicity hurt R&M‘s sales? One improvement I could think of would be if you could have a pump to circulate water through the block so you didn’t have to run the engine while using. Should be quite a bit of heat in an engine block if it’s been running. Might not be worth the the extra complexity though.

 

[Got4wd]

@DirtDonk I believe there were a couple pics of the bumper connectors, a couple of the pump and exchanger and one of some coiled hose. I did find a little more info, (thanks to Got4wd) but I think the company is likely gone. I didn’t see any mention of an enclosure so I suppose it’s swim trunks or find an ez-up shower. LOL

@okie4570 Yep…I was thinking RV shower and wondering how you get that into a Bronco??? LOL

@Got4wd Thanks! I was able to find some info about it at least. I see some portable camping showers for around a $100 less, but they do need propane. How much they use I didn’t research but they would be much easier outside of a tank and wouldn’t be tied to the vehicle. Maybe the simplicity hurt R&M‘s sales? One improvement I could think of would be if you could have a pump to circulate water through the block so you didn’t have to run the engine while using. Should be quite a bit of heat in an engine block if it’s been running. Might not be worth the the extra complexity though.

I think they closed their doors because of family problems. Used it many times on rubicon. We found a rock with a big dish in it. Filled it with stream water with the pump and when full, we recycled the water to make a hot tub. I was thinking of making the exchanger since I have one here In a box. It was pretty expensive in the day, in 92 it was over 400 bucks.

 

[Got4wd]

Here what was in the kit Minus the heater hoses. The worm clamps are missing also.

---

 

[MarsChariot]

Speaking of BAT: Did anyone else see the post from Haggerty today that Broncos defied the recent downward trend in collectable prices this year. They noted that prices were down a bit in the spring but they are back up now.

 

[DirtDonk]

Thanks for the pics especially Got4wd! Been a long time since I’ve seen one of those.
When they came out, we were selling them out of our four-wheel-drive store. But yes, they were expensive so only a few went out the door over the couple of years.
And the mechanics were able to make a couple for themselves. They found that coiling the copper tubing that tight to fit inside the outer tube was very difficult without splitting the copper.
I think they lost two or three good sets of tubes before they settled on the right methodology.

 

[Got4wd]

Thanks for the pics especially Got4wd! Been a long time since I’ve seen one of those.
When they came out, we were selling them out of our four-wheel-drive store. But yes, they were expensive so only a few went out the door over the couple of years.
And the mechanics were able to make a couple for themselves. They found that coiling the copper tubing that tight to fit inside the outer tube was very difficult without splitting the copper.
I think they lost two or three good sets of tubes before they settled on the right methodology.

I will experiment this winter on doing them. I’m wondering if the soft copper type tubing for brake lines would work. It’s very flexible but don’t know if it could be soldered or braised?

 

[DirtDonk]

It would probably bend no problem. But the tubing used inside the large tube/reservoir is more like half inch diameter.
It needs to flow a fair amount of coolant.
I thought I saw some that were even larger, but I don’t think that would make sense given the size of the reservoir.

 

[Got4wd]

It would probably bend no problem. But the tubing used inside the large tube/reservoir is more like half inch diameter.
It needs to flow a fair amount of coolant.
I thought I saw some that were even larger, but I don’t think that would make sense given the size of the reservoir.

It would probably bend no problem. But the tubing used inside the large tube/reservoir is more like half inch diameter.
It needs to flow a fair amount of coolant.
I thought I saw some that were even larger, but I don’t think that would make sense given the size of the reservoir.

No it’s 1/4. Here is the best pic I could get.

 

[DirtDonk]

Very interesting! That should bend up nicely, like you said.
Maybe the other guys were trying to make some strange modification, or maybe the grade of copper tubing used was all wrong.
Coiling copper tubing is a time honored tradition, so not sure why they had so much trouble.

 

[dsenatore]

DIY onboard shower from some time ago. Always intrigued me. Haven't checked current pricing on the materials...

https://www.pirate4x4.com/threads/onboard-shower-done-w-pix.80252/

 

[ssray]

No it’s 1/4. Here is the best pic I could get.

Interesting, more of a boiler type design and not coiled? Might be an interesting challenge to solder up.

Filling pipe or tube with sand can help it hold shape when it’s bent but it has to be dry to help with clumping. I wonder if it would be a problem with small tubing trying to get it out of a long coil. Lot of difference than making partial bends.

 

[bigmuddy]

Not usually a fan of rigs with black wheels but man that is a good looking ride. Good bit of old school tech too!