Plumbing

We have hot and cold running water to a sink and faucet inside the van, and a shower at the back doors. We use electricity to heat our water. All our water tanks are inside the van so they don’t freeze in the winter.

We built the sink cabinet using 80/20 aluminum extrusions. It holds our grey water tank.

Sliding door cabinet, sink cabinet, hot water tank (next to bench seat)
Sliding door cabinet, sink cabinet, hot water tank (next to bench seat)

The electric hot water tank squeezed in next to the passenger bench seat. Behind that on the same wall we put the cold water tank and the shower controls by the rear doors.

Shower control, quick disconnect, and Scandvik shower head
Shower control, quick disconnect, and Scandvik shower head

The shower head and mixer valve are made by Scandvik. If we were doing this over again, we might use the Ambassador Marine mixer instead. The Scandvik one works fine, but the Ambassador looks like it would be easier to control.

Shower hose and quick disconnect
Shower hose with push button on/off control, and quick disconnect

You can read a full description of the components we used, the layout we chose, and the plumbing schematic.

Water tanks in place against passenger side wall

We chose to keep all of our tanks inside to help prevent them from freezing during the winter. That meant we had to be creative with how we store and dispose of grey water.

We chose not to install a toilet. A bucket and some special poop bags work well for us. Pooping in the wild is made a little bit more civilized with a toilet tent we can put up and take down in less than a minute.

Update: We installed a composting toilet. We chose the Nature’s Head but there are several others to choose from.  It’s great! And no, it doesn’t smell.

Composting toilet in the van
Composting toilet in the van

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