This is our setup as you said a drum on a fire.


My mate goes right out in the sticks no camp grounds for him, he has a heat exchanger on his land cruzer, the hot water from his heater hose goes through a copper coil, which heats the water  thats pumped around from a 160 litre tank under the cruzer, he clips a shower pole & head onto the bullbar & connects the hose to a fitting coming out of the grill, the water temp is controlled by the the heater tap slide inside the cab, he has a small nylon shower tent if there are people around.
Trev
Aus

I also use a keg on the fire, with a twist.....
the keg has 16 meters of 3/4" copper coils in it.
& external fittings as follows:-
One 3/4" cold line in & two 1/2" lines out - one goes through the coils (hot) & one tees off & comes straight back out (cold)

Hook a DAVEY FIRE FIGHTER pump to it & you have hot & cold running water at house pressure!

Or at a caravan park you just hook a hose to it.

The keg gets filled with water & heated up, then when you pass water through the coils the heat transfers into the flow.
because the top of the keg is open to atmosphere, you can boil the t#ts off the thing & never generate enough pressure in the lines to blow one!
you simply adjust your temp, at the taps in the shower like you would at home.

If I dont have a good water supply I revert back to my old system.

Take a woolies tub (great for storing your camp ovens in!!) & part fill it with shower temp, water ( the keg also has a tap on the bottom)
put a 12V submersible sump pump in the water with a rose attached (or a bought camp shower or caravan pump) then stand in the tub & have your shower, the water will stream off you & back into the tub to be used again so you have plenty of time to get clean.

The pump in my old system is a bought camp shower, it could do with a bit more pressure (OK if your 4 foot tall), I would sugest sourcing a 12V shower pump from a caravan joint!!

hope this is usefull

Mick,

The KISS principle again (Keep it Simple Stupid), I've had all sorts of setups and am now back to the four litre bucket over the fire and a shower bucket on a rope and pulley, one of boiling water and two of cold is about the right ratio, works for me and my long haired mate and mother of my kids !
Not often we camp near other people but I do have a shower tent for the odd occasion and an old plastic bread crate (Thanks Tip Top) to stand on so I don't get red clay between my toes, all the mod cons !

pd

Mick
I think your hot water set up is great..... but to heavy for my out fit...and I have tried open buckets and drums but I found this suits my needs... stainless steel 22 litres? boiler just keep topping it up. Retains it heat overnight. Plenty of water for canvas bucket shower and washing up.
Muzz

I'm hear'n y'a guys.

But the pot of hot water near the fire rings warning bells for me!!!

Either way you need to heat water, With young kids & some loose "intoxitated" adults roaming around I think its better to have it away from the focal point of camp - almost hidden!.

Its OK on our ride weekends to put the keg on the fire but the family weekends are a different thing.....I need to take toilet & all !!!!!!! can you believe that???????? ..............the bush suites me just fine!

This system came about because I often take the pump to water a mini bike track near camp to keep the dust down & speed down for 1/2 drunk adults on mini bikes at night.

So the pump is already in tow & the keg was used for a water boiler anyway on the trips which go for more than 2 or 3 nights..........(1+1 =2)

All in All, it has worked out to be one hell of a set up, the next step to long term bush sustainability is a 12V ice machine & I might never come home!!!

Mick.  

Very easy to make TP, in the army we used a 44 gallon drum but it's exactly the same principle whatever the size. You pour cold water in a funnel connected to a pipe which goes straight to the bottom of the drum which in turn forces hot/boiling water out of a tap on the top of the drum. To get water out you must put water in !
pd

Thanks PD/Mick,
Yes, something of that sort of nature would work best for me I think. Traveling with the whole tribe, we never end up as 'light' as we'd like to be, that's for sure!
Looks like another project coming up, straight after the Bedourie lid lifters!
Hooroo for now

The_Pensioner wrote on Feb 28^th, 2008 at 6:20pm:


pensioner;
You got that right buddy.
We use a similar set up, made by the people who make the "camp oven mate" the only difference is that it's got a sort of funnel and it's all galvanised.
You just place it near the fire and fill, when you need hot water, just pour cold water into funnel and HOT water comes out into bucket placed underneath.
We have found this to be the cheapest most effective hot water system yet. We always camp near a water source to ensure plenty of refills if needed.
To shower, we have a 12 volt pump/hand peice as sold by camping stores, which has worked fine up until now.
We usually mix hot/cold water into 20 litre bucket which is enough water for two adults to shower under, of course if the Boss decides she wishes to wash her hair.........all bets are off 

You don't need a roaring fire, just a log slowly burning will provide you with all the hot water you'd ever need for an purpose.

However, during the summer months, with fire bans being implemented, such a system becomes dangerous, there's two ways you can now deal with it, buy yourself a gas ring, place the drum over the gas ring heat up to hot and then allow on ring on gas ring to maintain heat or simply turn off after hot enough and reheat when needed.
We used this for a couple of years until Primus brought out their instantaneous gas hot water system, where you hook up to 12 volt supply, lpg source and water, turn on appliance and hot water comes out. Temp can be adjusted to suit needs.
This system fulfills our needs during the fire ban periods.

Bloody hell T_P nealy choked on my Milo the Chees & Kisses made me. The keyboard won't be the same.
I reckon your a bit of a card and should be dealt with TP
Top notch

Regards Skip

Have a go at this lttle beauty. Dunno if anyone has seen it before ?


                Bush Cooker & Hot Water System All In One
     Written and invented by Paul Clacher  Copyright 2003.

Ever gone camping and wished you could have a compact stove and oven that could give you continuous hot water. Well so did I. So I invented and built one. I thought about this one for a while until I came up with what I thought to be the perfect solution. First of all the main fire holder is an old car wheel rim. It doesn't really matter what diameter you use, but the deeper the rim the better. I then had a 1/8 inch steel sheath cut and rolled to the exact same circumference and width as the rim. I then had the air hole welded up on the rim and the sheath welded very carefully to the rim. Perfection here is very important as any leaks will cause the hot water system to be a failure. I then had an inlet funnel welded to the outer sheath. This I made so that it can be screwed off when packed. I then had an overflow and steam vent welded to the side. You can see both of these in photo 2. If you look carefully in photo 2, you can see steam coming from the steel funnel. I then had a screw tap braised to the bottom side of the sheath on the opposite side. I then had two handles welded to the side of the cooker on opposite sides at the top. You can see the handles in photo 1.
 
For the cooking plates I had two round plough blade cut to the same diameter as the rim, so that they fitted neatly into the rim lip. Usually I only use one. When I use the second one I place it on upside down so that I can then use it as an oven. It bakes very nice flat bread or even a pizza. Just throw a few coals on top. The centre hole allows some flame out, but at the same time it causes the cooker to burn in a slow combustion mode. Oh yes, the cooker only needs sticks to cook with and they burn for ages. Saves on chopping up loads of fire wood too. The holes in the rim allow the fire to draw air. You may also see in photo 1 that I use a grill plate for cooking with a flat surface. I would suggest you make and use what ever grills work for you.
The endless hot water. Before you use the new cooker, run anti rust paint through the cavity of the rim and allow a week for it to dry in the sun. Then run another amount of pot-belly black paint (special heat resistant) through the cavity and allow for another week for it to dry in the sun. Don't forget to paint the outside too. You can also see I added three legs which screw onto the under side of the rim. I also made these legs so that I can break them in half. Well now your cooker is ready to use. I would recommend though that you only use the hot water for washing up dishes or for shower etc. Not for drinking. ALSO A WORD OF WARNING. BE CAREFUL WHEN FILLING THE RIM. IT CAN OCCASIONALLY SPURT BACK. This only usually happens if the system has been allowed to be emptied and you are pouring water into an empty cavity. JUST USE SENSIBLE CARE. After all it is boiling water. I would recommend filling the cavity prior to lighting the fire and making sure that you keep some water in it. It comes out so hot that you will have to mix it with cold water anyway.
The water takes only about 5 minutes to boil and the rim holds about 1 gallon or 4 litres of really hot/boiling water. I have found it to be just brilliant in the bush. The best thing is that is folds down to the size of a wheel rim. If you want to make one for personal use go ahead. But, I would be a little upset if it was mass produced without my permission.
 


I guuna have a go at making one of these for myself.

Cheers tonner  

Good people
I must come out in favour of the Coleman Hotwater system.
We have used many of the above mentioned methods in years of camping. All served a purpose and we were happy with each of them.
Now that the bride is 50  (keep it to this forum) we have a Coleman.
Had been lusting for it quite some time.
I wasn't happy to pay the $395.
Annaconda had a sale recently where I got the Heater unit, a carry bag, shower rose, and a spare 6v rechargeable battery for $32o driveaway no more to pay.
Used it 2 weekends ago for kitchen and shower water.
IT WAS SENSATIONAL
I am very much in the goodbooks with the bride and we are now planning more camping excursions than I had ever dreamed off.


TBF

skiproosel wrote on May 10^th, 2008 at 5:28pm:


That's a great idea Skip

Particularly if you are unable to carry many litres of water with you or you are in arid parts of this country. Recycle as you camp.
The bride and I get away with about 12 litres between us at present.

TBF