RSSInstallation of a McPauls Auto Shower Kit into a 2003 Toyota Prado
An onboard Auto Shower is one of those creature comforts you can add to your vehicle to make that trip a little more ‘liveable’.Costing anywhere from $200-500, there are many difference Shower units available. We decided on the McPauls Auto Shower for a number of reasons.
Firstly, we sell them in OffroadShop.com.au. Which is a good a reason as any, we didn’t have to go far to buy one. We also like to use and test what ever we sell, as if we won’t use it, we won’t sell it.Secondly the price. The McPauls Auto Shower is priced slightly lower than the competition and when comparing it side by side with our Glind Shower Unit fitted to another one of our vehicles the 2 kits are almost identical.
The last reason, reliability. The Makers of the McPauls Auto Shower are prepared to back the heat exchanger with a lifetime warranty. Pure and simple business logic says they are built to last; otherwise they couldn’t afford to offer such a warranty.
Once we opened the kit and laid out all the pieces, we started what is possibly the most difficult part. Where to mount the 2 key items, the Heat Exchanger and the water pump.
The Heat Exchanger needs to be mounted in an accessible place. The Shower Rose needs to be fitted to it each time we use the unit, so it has to be handy. It also needs to be mounted as close to the heat hoses as possible. The unit has the heat hose fittings at either end, thus requiring the in and outlets to be coming from each direction. The 2003 Prado Diesel has the Heater hoses leaving the engine on one side, travelling along the Firewall in Steel pipes and then entering the Firewall to the heater. We tried placing the Heat Exchanger on the firewall, which is possible the best place for it, although the firewall was already heavily congested with other items.
The radiator Shroud has 2 bolt holes, a quick check established there was enough room above it for the Heat Exchanger, plus it felt sturdy enough to take the weight, and our up and coming Cape York trip would soon see if this was the case with the millions of corrugations that we were about to travel upon. We fabricated a mounting bracket from some anodised T aluminium which was bolted to the heat Exchanger and the Radiator shroud with some bolts with Nyloc nuts. This mounting point worked quite well allowing us to run the Heater hose from each side of the motor along the length of the engine bay.The Instructions suggest to mount the Heat Exchanger ‘inline’ with the heat of your vehicle. This allows you to adjust the temperature of the water using your vehicles heater control. Whilst being an effective system, we chose to use another method, allowing the Heat Exchanger to be shut off when not in use and allow for the water temperature to be adjusted from the unit itself. We purchased 2 Heater Hose T pieces and 12 Heater hose clamps, and a heat hose Tap from an automotive Supplier. This allows us to ‘cut the heater hose on either side of the engine (in and outlet) and place the T piece in to the system. This allows the water to Bypass the Heater of the vehicle and only flow through the heat Exchanger is the Heater was in the Cold position.We placed the heater tap just before the Heat Exchanger, using it to set the temperature, and turn off the flow of water to the heat exchanger when not in use. The next part of the installation was the hi flowing Shurflo Water Pump, rated at 10.2 Litres of water per minute. This was placed on the inner guard at the back fo the engine bay in a large spacious area. The pump is mounted through a rubber plate mounting system, which is handy when mounting on a uneven surface, as the mount moulds to the shape of your holes. We used a paper template of the 4 mounting holes to carefully pilot the 4 holes with a drill and then bolted the pump into place. Next we connected the hose from the Pump to the Heat Exchanger using the fittings supplied with the kit. The Last task was to supply power to the Pump. We had previously installed a Dual Battery system in our vehicle, and had a 10 accessory fuse box near the Aux Battery. We ran a length of 4mm figure of 8 cable (4mm cable, both black (earth) and Red (positive)) from the fuse box to the pump. In line we added a small good quality switch, which we mounted in the Fuel Filter mounting. Considering the mud and water being sloshed around the engine bay, it pays to mount the switch in a well-protected area and using a good quality switch. In the future we will be looking at replacing this with a Warn Winch Controller, allowing you to turn the pump on and off from within the shower. Once installed the Shower Unit only takes a few seconds to set-up. Attaching the Inlet water hose to the pump and the shower rose to the heat exchanger, start the engine and once warm, you have endless hot water (water supply pending of course. We like to carry a 15 metre hose, and use all Brass Hose fittings. They are a little stronger and last a little longer. We also carry a threaded tap fitting, Hose to Hose Joiner allowing use to use the shower unit from a tap, and have sufficient hose to reach a near by stream / river / lake (just be careful the ‘waste’ water is sufficiently far enough from any water source.We also purchased a self-standing, shower tent, which simple erects itself whilst unfolding. This tent is ideal for showering / changing in and packs into a small flat bag which can easily be tucked away to one side in your vehicle. The installation of the Mcpauls Shower unit took approximately 2-3 hours and used the following tools: Cordless Drill (with a variety of drill bits) Screw Driver1 0mm socket, Ratchet and spanners Hacksaw Sharp knife Side cutters Ratchet Crimper Scissors and pen
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