Cummins Canoe (A Stepvan Story)

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Hmmm, the party lights do have strobe mode. But I get it, I know I'm a terrible dancer! But the hot tub makes up for it!

 

[Calypso]

Hmmm, the party lights do have strobe mode. But I get it, I know I'm a terrible dancer! But the hot tub makes up for it!

Terrible dancers are the BEST! Most fun, plus they help me look good … well, better.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

So I've been crashing in a suburban neighborhood recently, and I don't think the neighbors appreciate people showering out in the street late at night. I'm waiting for the police to show up. Boy do I miss staying on BLM land!

Been tossing this idea around for a long time. But I finally have good plan. Making these aluminum brackets to hold up a shower curtain rod thingy. I couldn't find aluminum u-bolts, so I heated and bent some aluminum round stock and welded them into these grooves.

This shower curtain rod that I had used on my last rig fits nicely. Just drilled some holes and bolted the brackets right up.

Perfect! No more free shows! We have future ideas that also incorporate these shower curtain rod mounts...

 

[bullfrog]

I would sew in some grommets or weights at the bottom of the curtain as ours used to have problems in the slightest breeze!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Oh yes, having wet curtain blown up against you is terrible! Thanks for the suggestion, will be incorporating weights into it!

 

[kklowell]

Getting a wind-whipped weight bouncing off a shin wouldn't be fun either though.

 

[bullfrog]

plastic hula hoop or loop of PVC pipe sewn in with some grommets above tied to large rocks might work. We just made ours long and used tent pegs to hold it to the ground through grommets with ball bungees.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

My last rig had a similar curtain setup. If the wind was too much, I just wasn't going to shower at that moment. 90% of the time there is nobody around, so I don't even use a shower curtain out there.

 

[Calypso]

Man … you all must take really long showers. Lol.
isn’t it just a jump in, one two three twirls around and jump out.
Like a chubby checkers song? No time for romantic wind swept outdoor garden showers with lily scented soap petals and nourishing hair mask?

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Don't make fun of my lily scented soap petals!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Finished up all the innappropriate barriers. Mounts that were made for the shower curtain double for the hot tub curtain. Yes, we have multiple curtains now.

Built a frame out of some metal pipe. Welded studs that go into holes with two corner supports so the whole thing doesn't topple over.

Another addition is some ground insulation. It's not much, but it does feel good under your butt.

And on top of the water I cut some bubble insulation made to keep the heat in pools. This will stop heat loss through evaporation. The white tarp we're using as a privacy wall is 6' high and 30' around. Just held up with some ball bungees.

And back on the road and the whole setup works great! Welded feet with holes for tent stakes to the bottom of the three vertical poles to keep them stable in the wind. What happens in the hot tub, stays in the hot tub...

 

[mudbunny]

So where do you get the water when you are camped off grid?

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

I can store 50 gallons onboard. And that lasts me a couple weeks normally. But the hot tub requires at least 200 gallons! So obviously there needs to be water onsite to do that. In the last photo if you look carefully you can see we parked down next to a creek. If we're within 50' of a body of water and no more than 8' above it, we can pump water out of that, into the hot tub at 7 gpm. While pumping, the water goes through heat exchanger powered by the boiler. So even during the intitial fill up, the water goes into the hot tub a little warmer. Again, the hot tub only comes out on special occasions and if there is water available.

 

[kklowell]

You may have said this somewhere earlier, and even though I've read every post I can't remember if you did...what do you get for MPG?

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

28 mpg before conversion, 16 mpg after conversion.

 

[kklowell]

I'm impressed, those are very high numbers for a box fighting a headwind!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Oh, we don't want to talk about headwinds...

 

[kklowell]

That front shape makes it own headwinds, doesn't it? I can imagine it gets worse when there really is a headwind

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

The best mileage post conversion was 19mpg, but that may have been because of a tailwind!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Well, things were going great. But dang it, why can't we keep coolant inside this engine?!?

Driving down the road, everything is going splendid. Then that smell. And then that white smoke. And then that coolant gauge! Pulled over immediately and found coolant leaking out between the block and the cylinder head. Not going to push this one. Found someone who was nice enough to lend a trailer and got the rig somewhere safe to work on.

Good thing is that there is no coolant in the oil and no oil in the coolant. But really, why would the head gasket fail like this? Either I put the wrong head gasket in or installed it incorrectly. But these are only assumptions. Other than coolant leaking out, it runs great with no power loss. Ugh, will tear this apart and get to the bottom of it. Open to suggestions. At least we still have electricity and the hot tub works great!