It's not a slow car, it's a fast house

While we were camped in New Orleans we did not have access to a shower. This gave us an opportunity to use the Aqua Cube unit again.

The Aqua Cube was purchased online from a “survivalist” store, but it is available through many online stores. It came with a storage bag and all the lines and cables needed to operate the system. We store this bag under the bed in the van.

The unit requires an electrical charge every now and then. But we have gone 4 months between electricity and had plenty of juice to get through a few showers. It is recharged off of standard house electricity and a standard outlet.  It can also plug in to a 12v or cigarette lighter fitting for power. The power is needed to pump and pressurize the water from source to spray handle.

The Aqua Cube also requires propane. It has an internal chamber that burns the propane to heat the water. With the proper configuration the Aqua Cube can also run off of green propane canisters, regular propane tanks or even the standard Westfalia propane tank. This makes it suitable for any RV or camping situation. We chose to run it off the “minion” auxiliary tank.  The minion is mounted on a bracket that we purchased from ATOVERLAND http://store.adventuretrailers.com/products/10-lb.-Propane-Cylinder-Bracket.html

Finally the Aqua Cube requires a water source. The water source can be in a water jug, such as our blue one or something similar. But a 5-gallon bucket works, too. It can draw water from any “clean” source and heat it for your shower. So you could drop the pump line into a lake, a stream, or a water tank. As long as it has more than 2 inches of water it will pick up the water and heat it up. We originally used our trash can filled with water, but now use a large mouth, Scepter water jug which rides in the Aluminess box in the back of the van.

In our set up, the water heater sits on top of the Aluminess box. The water uptake line drops into the Scepter jug and the propane line goes over to the minion. Everything is within easy reach of the shower stall for easy adjustments while showering. The spray handle extends into the shower stall; just add soap and a dirty camper is ready to clean up!

To offer privacy for a shower (and when camping with the back hatch open and screen in place) we installed a series of eye-screws around the edge of the rear hatch door. We hang two shower curtains off of those eye screws. When the rear hatch is up in the air, it creates a 4×6 shower room.  This space can also be a dressing room or store items out of site.

Recently we were able to have 5 people take showers using the blue jug of water and a small amount of propane. At our next campground stop we refilled the jug and recharged the battery on the Aqua Cube and it is ready to go off the grid again!

As with all by blog posts, advice and suggestions:

Do not try this at home.  Do not take this advice without consulting with an attorney.  Do not install this device without proper local, state and national permits.  Do not cross on a no crossing signal.  And always wash your hands after using the bathroom.