Yet another camper variation...

[winelover]

Hi all,

I thought I would take some time to post some details of my delica campervan. This post was prompted by Pawel's writeup on his cool van.
Mine is a 91 L300 with a poptop. It came to me from vancouver via molecular transporter, or, at least, that's my story...
I love the thing, and have fiddled with many of its parts and systems.

A partial list:

-interior removed, and all passenger seats.
-EGR delete
-blowoff valve override
-manual hubs
-intercooler
-manual glow plugs
-2 coleman stirling cycle DC coolers
-IKEA re-purposed interior cabinets for storage
-120 watt solar panel mounted to poptop, controller, deep cycle battery
-cookstove top water heater and shower

and a 100 other tiny mods and details that we have probably all done. I choose to share these, not too just show off my van, but to help anyone else who is looking for creative inspiration as they stare at the inside of a delica with an adult beverage in hand, wondering what to do next. I got many great ideas and much technical info from here, so why not pay it forward?

I will start with the shower project. Pawel touched on this as well: its the best to out deep in the woods(or desert) but if you can do that and also have a hot shower, it can border on nirvana

IMG_1844 (Custom).JPG (554.17 KiB) Viewed 5581 times

I started with an industrial 24V DC pump for reasons of power use, and water flow, one of the main reasons I did not use a shurflo for my shower. It came from a junked floor cleaner that would be used to clean the floor in a grocery store. Run on 12V, rather than 24V it moves 6 liters in 5 min. which I found to be about right. With lower flow, it eases both water use and propane use enormously. I used 1/4" line which plugged right into the pump without any fittings, nice! The trick to making low flower showers work is the showerhead, IMHO. I searched all home supply stores with reason, and bought 4 to test. The best one was the cheapest: $3.99 at HD. Nice rainshower effect, my wife was thrilled. The pump was wired through a fuse, of course, and pulls from the load side of my solar controller. I have a morningstar, which has a built-in ammeter, and I run all my coolers, chargers, and the pump off of it, so I have an idea of how much power everything uses. It used virtually no power: .2 amps at 13V, and could not be heard. It is not a firehose however...but compared to every solar shower I have camped with over the years, it was completely joyous. I put the switch for the pump on a wired tether with another magnet, so you could pull it off the underside of the steel cooler bracket and attached it to the rear bumper so it would be within easy reach. Since there is no pressure, all hoses push-on and pull off with no clamps needed. I roll them up and stuff them into a small camping stuffsack on the passenger side. The pump fit nicely in the back passenger side corner, padded with some cut old camping pads, and is invisible.

IMG_1849 (Custom).JPG (676.9 KiB) Viewed 5581 times

I used a magnet on the back hatch to fasten the showerhead, which works perfectly. Easy to set up, and adjust, sometimes you just want to sit in a stream of hot water with a beer in your hand...
My hatch was fiddled as well, with, with the gas shocks mounts turned over to get the hatch a bit higher.

The water heater aspect was somewhat simpler, I already have a 2 burner propane camp stove, so why not use it? I had some small, soft copper tubing from a previous failed experiment, so bought a spring tubing bender and went to work. I used a cake pan that was about the same size as the top of my cookstove as a heat exchanger/windscreen. At some point I will drill a few small holes and safety wire them together. It worked well. On its first outing, we woke up at 11,000 feet in the San Jauns of CO, and our water container had chunks of ice floating in it. Nonetheless, by cranking both burner, my sweety got a warm shower, which was pretty impressive. The rear hatch makes for a wonderful shower stall. I bought a cool shower curtain from wally world, and magnets to attach it to the deck. In the SW, its nice enough you can pretty much shower without a curtain most of the year, better views as well! I bought a thick rubber mat, sort of like a uber yoga mat I roll out so you are not standing(or sitting) in mud. It is then easy to climb back and the van and get dressed. Or not...

IMG_1850 (Small).JPG (181.49 KiB) Viewed 5581 times

The coils and pan sit upside down on the cookstove

IMG_1851 (Small).JPG (157.93 KiB) Viewed 5581 times

For all who dream of campervandom, if you have a place to sleep, food(and wine), and a way to keep clean, it covers a LOT of the bases. My wife and I are backpackers, so any time you aren't sleeping in the dirt, it seems luxurious.

[Pawel]

Winelover!!! I love your shower and a cookstove use. Great stuff! We should compare our notes somewhere in a desert of Arizona :)

[winelover]

We should, and will!

[pluckmyeyeout]

Just came across this post and I'm peering through to see seat covers that appear to be pretty well-fitting... Any suggestions for seat covers/where to buy?

[winelover]

I got mine at target, on a closeout, my wife had a hand in the decision... Nothing special about them though.