Water setups

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OutdoorsBen

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My valve for my rinse kit just developed a huge crack so I am looking to see if it still fits my needs.

Firstly the rinse kit is an awesome product but it does have some downsides. It needs to be filled from a hose and it is bulky. It’s not used for drinking water but for water needed for other things such as rinsing things or washing things.

So my question is what is your preferred method. I have been looking at rotopax stored inside off to the side but to be honest I don’t have much experience with them or quality and general health of them.

So what are your water setups?
 
5 gallon Scepter jugs and a sea to summit wash basin for washing and a a sea to summit shower bag for showers. I've been kicking around the idea of a RV type water tank for my harbor freight trailer. If found one I can mount between the frame rails then I'd just need to plumb up a 12v water pump and have running water.
 
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We have two systems to share:

Old:

We used a mil spec Scepter can (same as the scepter NATO gas cans but blue and with a pouring spout lid) to store and transport. It went next to a jerry Can in a holder on the rear bumper.

To fill it, we had an RV water pump wired to a switch with an automatic pressure shutoff, and we brought 30’ of hose. We could pull from any stream or creek into a waterproof bag. In our case we used the bag from the Katadyn base camp, but the filters are garbage so I’d suggest using an MSR Dromedary bag instead. The bag is filled with water and then hung from the roof rack. The cap has a tube that was about 5’ long, and we mounted a sawyer mini to the end. That way, we had a gravity filtration system that would ensure clean water only entered the jerry can.

We also have a water heater mounted in a pelican case, which also hooks up to our pump. This pump pressurized the system straight from a bucket so we had hot showers as needed. I’ve written in the importance of a shower elsewhere for safety reasons so I won’t repeat that here; some see it as a glam ping accessory but for us, for our trips it’s a must have safety item.

New system:

Our new system is designed, and many products are purchased, but we have not installed it yet as I’m not there with this build. Our goal was to make it truly ‘on board’ where as our old system was much more modular with various separate components that all took up valuable cargo space.

Onboard water tank (10 gallons) and pump system for water storage. Filtration system right before the tap, which is where we get all potable water from. Fill cap on the side with a lock, and a manifold that is plumbed so the pump can either pull water from an outside source, or pressurize the whole system for running water. Heat exchanger plumbed into the coolant system of the truck, which reduces the number of items we need to bring.

And (this is totally a luxury, not a necessity) an onboard soda stream for zesty drinks on demand. I know, this sounds ridiculous, but neither of us drink alcohol anymore for health reasons, nor do we really like sugary Drinks like soda and such. Our ‘treat’ drink is zesty water with a splash of lemon, so where some bring coolers full of beer, we just drink Zesty in camp.

I imagine a few will tease us about this, but that is okay; our skin is very thick. Because we are well hydrated thanks to our onboard zesty machine ;)
 
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I have a 2018 4Runner. Here is what I did/am doing...

Once I moved spare tire from underneath car to a rear bumper mount I bought a marine grade (thicker wall than an RV grade) 15 gal water tank online that fits into the 'cavity' left behind in the original spare tire space underneath. The tank is mounted up and under on a skid plate I had made to fit and protect. Inside vehicle, driver's side rear panels there is space between the panel and the sheet metal. Behind this panel I mounted a RV water pump and a filter system. Plumbed everything in such a way that water is filtered going into tank and also filtered coming out of tank for use. Have a rear drawer system that I plumbed in the water exit port/spicket.

I learned everything by reading and researching here and elsewhere. All parts bought online except for the fabrication work done to make a skid plate.
 
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OutdoorsBen said:
Not really what I am looking for but did anyone see the tank from FrontRunner that fits on the rear foot area and goes over the hump. Pretty cool design.
Click to expand...
I know of at least one guy in an XJ that had one for a while. He wound up removing it and selling it saying it wasnt very convenient when filling it up and he would rather have water containers that were easier to remove from the Jeep.
 
Downs said:
I know of at least one guy in an XJ that had one for a while. He wound up removing it and selling it saying it wasnt very convenient when filling it up and he would rather have water containers that were easier to remove from the Jeep.
Click to expand...
I can understand that. When totally full that’s 80+lbs.
 
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26 gallons of waterIMG_1066.JPGIMG_1066.JPGhooked up to 12 volt water pump.
Then ran into an on demand water heater.IMG_1066.JPGplenty of water for the weekend for cooking daily shower for my wife and I. Another bonus is water can come out near boiling and saves on cooking gas.
 
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I made this up for our camping needs 7 gallon reliance can and it pumps 2 gal a minute. It mounts on my tire rack in back if we have a lot of dusty trails (everything in Nevada) I just screw a pvc cap on the outlet.

20190918_132117.jpeg
 
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Charles M said:
I made this up for our camping needs 7 gallon reliance can and it pumps 2 gal a minute. It mounts on my tire rack in back if we have a lot of dusty trails (everything in Nevada) I just screw a pvc cap on the outlet.

View attachment 119307
Click to expand...
OutdoorsBen said:
My valve for my rinse kit just developed a huge crack so I am looking to see if it still fits my needs.

Firstly the rinse kit is an awesome product but it does have some downsides. It needs to be filled from a hose and it is bulky. It’s not used for drinking water but for water needed for other things such as rinsing things or washing things.

So my question is what is your preferred method. I have been looking at rotopax stored inside off to the side but to be honest I don’t have much experience with them or quality and general health of them.

So what are your water setups?
Click to expand...

I have three setups - RinseKit for warm water and showers that I store inside the truck and I can plug in to power ( I have 12V in the bed too but that is powering the fridge), a Waterport for spraying off stuff which I have mounted in the truck bed and then I carry extra water in WaterBricks in the bed of my truck to refill the first two as well as a spout on the one I am using to get drinking water out of.

I made a carrier for the WaterBricks after seeing a setup someone had mounted in their 4Runner, I took some cheap roller skate wheels, some nuts and bolts, a couple of pieces of plywood some cheap straps and made a thing I can sandwich three WaterBricks together and slide along the right side of the truck bed. It works pretty well for my set up and gives me a lot of water that is fairly easy to get to. When I want to refill something I just slide it out a little, loosen the straps ad swap out bricks.

Here are some pictures of how I put it together.

IMG_0153.jpegIMG_0154.jpeg
 
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I second the water bricks. I looked at a lot of on-board ideas and decided to keep it simple. I find about 1/2 time time I need water away from the rig anyway and these are so easy to stack and move around. I also have the black shower bags you leave in the sun or put on your hood when you stop but rarely use those. Turns out the flexibility and simplicity worked best for us. You can buy these at wallymart.
WB.jpg
 
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Here's the food brick.

WaterBrick 1833-0007 FoodBrick Stackable Food Storage Container, 3.5 gal, 27 lb Dry Food, Green
Color me impressed. Ill be buying a few of the water and food bricks. Right now my food storage is a milk crate.
 
I use a 16 gallon tank from Class A Customs (amazon). It works like a charm and provides plenty of water for several days. It is currently configured as a gravity flow system, however I have a 5 gpm pump, which I may add. I am considering saving the pump, for pumping from a source such as a creek or lake, to a filter, them into the tank. I am happy to send pics to anyone who is interested.
 
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We're low-tech/old school after trying different methods. Carry two Aqua-Tainers (14 gallons total) and Simple Shower for dish/clothes cleaning/personal showers.

Transport Aqua-Tainers between vehicles/trailer. Transport empty/fill when needed from hose/water purifier. Easy to clean AND keep clean (biggest issue we've had with other solutions).

The Simple Shower seemed like a gimmic.......until we used it. A two liter plastic water bottle nets us all the shower I want/she needs. The full two liter bottle is a smidge on the heavy side for my wife to hold above her head. Two one liter bottles do the trick for her, plus she can lather up after the first bottle and rinse off with the second. Heat a pan full of water, fill a bottle (or two), viola.

This has been our go-to set-up the last two years and has never failed. No battery draw. No fuel draw unless we don't have a fire. Admittedly, low on the "cool" scale.

www.sportsmansguide.com

Reliance Aqua-Tainer Water Container, 4-gallon or 7-gallon

Sportsman's Guide carries top-quality discount Outdoor and Hunting Gear, Guns, Ammo, Fishing Supplies and more - all at great low prices!
www.sportsmansguide.com

Simple Shower - Guaranteed to Get You Wet!
 
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I still haven't designed/built-out the interior of my WJ yet. So far I just toss things in totes and put 'em in the back, then pull the totes out at camp. It's simple and has worked for now, but the more I do this the more I want to actually setup the whole rear as a dedicated Overlander. Water is one of those things I have thought a lot about.

I've looked at the Footwell tank FrontRunner sells, and it had me intrigued:

front-runner-footwell-water-tank-WTAN022-1.jpg


At the end of the day, however, I think I'm just over-complicating things. That would require plumbing a pump system (my thought was to setup the intake/outlet of the pump reversible so you could pump water out or IN to the tank, since that tank would be super annoying to take out and put back in to fill, especially with a platform system built over it) and generally just create more complexity when I'm trying to simplify.

Instead, I've just been using two of these (the 5.3 gallon units): and they've been great. I just plop one on my camping table and it's the dish/hand washing station. So far I haven't tried to figure out a shower solution, I've either done single-night trips or camped at a River. Now that it's heading into the colder months, using a Lake/River to clean up isn't going to be an option. So I'm once again thinking about shower options, so I got one of these: Ozark Trail 2-Room Instant Shower/Utility Shelter - Walmart.com It kills 2 birds with 1 stone: shower solution and "bathroom" solution (I added this: for the actual commode). I figure I can fill the little shower bag from the 5.3 gallon jugs, or even pre-fill the shower bag before the trip so I have over 15 gallons of water with me (not including drinking water). Warming the shower bag will be another issue. I thought about just setting in the Jeep with the heater running for a while, but that'd probably take fo-ev-ah to actually get hot. I imagine I'll just end up putting a gallon or two of water in, then boiling some water and adding that to get a warm shower.


-TJ
 
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