GNAT 5X8 cargo trailer conversion

[RAYISOUTTAHERE]

If anyone is interested, I will make a short video of the setup of the filter, and show the water trickling through the top bucket, then the water flow out the filter, that would give you a good indication of how slow it is, and that water is not going to accumulate (remember, most sites drain pretty quick in my experience, with good reason - who wants to be sitting in water every time it rains! So that would never be an issue with the filter)

[lrrowe]

Yes, I'm interested. I always like "how to" videos. I do remember your earlier posts and attachment with the stills.
I will not have a gray or black tank, and this option provides another alternate for gray water "(probably shower water only).

The other methods are to just dump this water to a say a 5 gal container to dispose of later or hook directly to the camp site sewer connector, if there is one. For the time being, I am not considering dumping water at the camp site as an alternative.

And interestingly enough, I started researching using charcoal for fish tank filters (for my bait fish as they are dying off on me, lately more so then before). I wonder if this is the same kind. I will have to check on that.

[RAYISOUTTAHERE]

Still owe you a video on the sand/charcoal/gravel filter, but wanted to post a few pics of our 1-night trip to Wateree Recreation Area yesterday. It was the first time we used our new two-room shower tent.



Our new two-room popup shower tent. The room closest to me is the shower area, and the farthest with the screen window is the changing room. It's a popup so it sets up in <1 minute.


I bought a 500 GPH bilge pump, built a small frame for it, and placed it in the floor. While showering, we turn on the switch and water is pumped out to the sewer or our 14 gallon bucket to be filtered out as clean water. There are two pockets on the bottom for toiletries and a larger netting above for shower stuff...


The Shower Tent comes with a rain fly that hooks on very quickly. It was beautiful so I left it off for this trip.


A view of the shower stand I built for the shower tent. It has a place for hanging wash cloth, and a small shelf for placing shampoo, soap, etc. the water lines run around the floor and out the zip door to the GNAT. You can just see the foldable floor I use in the changing room to keep your feet nice and dry when you step out of the shower. The floor of the shower room is separated from the changing room by an additional zipper door.


A foldable floor I made for the changing room so you don't get your feet wet and muddy after getting out of the shower side. The shower room has a zip up door separating it from the changing room side.


The shower head mounts on a simple pressure-treated 1/2" X 1 X 36" board I made. It has hooks that allow it to hang from two loops, and I put fold-out "wings" to stabilize it against the tent wall. Worked excellent! You can see the view out the top screen and windows of the changing room from this photo.


We treated our DIY awning with an old oil-skin technique where you melt bees wax, then add turpentine and boiled lindseed oil. It takes 2 days to cure, and a couple of weeks for the smell to leave, but we wont have ANY issus with seepage through the cotton canvas now.






View looking in the back of the GNAT, with television on (It is using an amplified over the air antenna (the rectangular black thing on the right side of the roof), and picked up over 24 channels, so we were able to watch NFL football AND the world series. Since it rotates 360 degrees, when we went to bed we just rotated it inside and put the timer on to shut it off.


Better view of the Over-The-Air antenna on the roof. It plugs in to a 12VDC lighter socket I put in on the lower right rear corner, just in front of the hot water heater. BTW notice those two soda cans on the heater. Ours kept blowing out, and when I looked online a guy said if you filled two soda cans and put them on either side of the exhaust hood it prevents it from blowing out from the wind - genius!

[lrrowe]

It sure is big. At first I thought it was a see through unit, but you must have another layer over it. Nice campground,

[RAYISOUTTAHERE]

lrrowe - It's an Ozark Trail Instant 2-Room Shower/Changing Shelter , and I got it from walmart http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-2-Room-7-x-3.5-Instant-Shower-Utility-Shelter/34136720, actually cheaper than Amazon...it is very big, but it has two very good features (for me):
a. It is a "pop-up" shelter. You literally take it out of the bag, the legs fold down, then up, and it's done.
b. It all fits in a bag about 3.5 feet long and maybe 6" across. Very easy to get into the bag and it comes with a rain fly.

If you scroll down here, it has a video showing it in more detail http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-2-Room-7-x-3.5-Instant-Shower-Utility-Shelter/34136720#about

Even though it shows two people setting it up, I set it up and take it down by myself pretty easily, again in less than a minute...

[OverTheTopCargoTrailer]

Great post

Thanks for sharing

[lrrowe]

As Jerry says..thanks for sharing.
I do like it. It is going on my "Look at getting it later" list.

Now for the base. You say you pump the water to the sewer or to your filtering bucket. What type of pan are you using to catch and hold the water? I did see the folding plywood base, but not the pan.


P.S. You sure come up with interesting ideas.

[RAYISOUTTAHERE]

The way I capture the water is as follows:
the original changing room is what we are using for the shower room, as the intended shower room has netting to allow the water to escape to the ground (not what I want).

But, the changing room side (where you enter the door) has a solid floor of tent material just like any other tent floor. I reinforced this from below with additional material (I used contractor-grade 42 gallon trash bags that are left doubled-up,


and spray adhesive them to the bottom of the floor, then used Gorilla Duct Tape to tape the seams of the bag to the floor seam). The contractor trash bags are very thick, and I think they would outlast the floor. I didn't want to use the same rip-stop material as the floor cause it doesn't seem very strong. I will also put something under the floor like a mat to prevent rocks and stuff from penetrating.

The bilge pump is set inside a frame made from treated wood that keeps it's bottom in contact with the floor. It is wired to our 12VDC connection, and has it's own separate switch.

Once you start taking the shower, you simply turn on the switch, and even when it's gotten all the water out (which it does, since it's rated to move 500 gallons per hour, or just under 10 gallons per minute), it is designed to run dry.

Once we finish in the shower, we let it continue to run for about 2 extra minutes so all the soapy water is pumped out and it's clean water being pumped out at the end (just so the floor isn't sticky from soap / shampoo).

Optionally, I may make one of those slotted board type stands that people use for outdoor showers, just so you are not standing in water, but really not an issue at this point.

The nice thing, really nice thing about this shower tent is it sets up in literally a minute, and with the fly off it is so airy feeling. With the fly on, I suppose you could really take a steamy shower (haven't tried that yet). BTW, the fly attaches in seconds.

Hope that answers your question!

[lrrowe]

Yes...thanks.
It has possibilities.

[RAYISOUTTAHERE]

Jordan Lake Recreational Area, North Carolina. We camped 3 nights in mid November, when temperatures went to 20 degrees at night and only 45 in the day...we were quite comfortable in the GNAT at night (toasty), and I put a HD tarp over the popup tent which kept it warm. The popup shower worked perfectly, providing us nice warm showers. I would not recommend this park in the winter time, it's on a big lake and the wind on the lakeside (luckily not where we were) was freezing...positives? You are only 25 minutes from downtown Raleigh, NC. I have included a link showing the four loops of campgrounds that are open in the summer (Loop 1, where we stayed, is the only one open in the winter, and beware, after Nov17th they turn off water at all the sites - you can still get water at the bathrooms, though).

Parkers Creek Campground map showing "best" sites - https://goodnuffandtuff.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/parkerscrk.pdf

[Prem]

Awesome paint job (vinyl wrap?) on your trailer . . . by Calder?

Is this interior yours at home?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KjFXAee2iyo/Th27DwqERQI/AAAAAAAAABs/6-2O55cobyI/s1600/Calder4.jpg

[RAYISOUTTAHERE]

The paint job is just that, my wife taped out the design based on the abstract painting that the Patridge Family bus was based on, and painted the colors first, then retaped and painted the black lines...took her a couple of weeks... you can read about the painting here https://goodnuffandtuff.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/partridge-theme-part-1/, and no, that's not our house interior...

[RAYISOUTTAHERE]

Here is something I came up with if we ever go somewhere and there is not good, clean water. It combines a Life Straw and a hand pump sold by Harbor Freight. By combining the two, you can have an endless supply of clean water from a river or creek or lake, and not worry about boiling it. These life straws are used over in Africa and they are highly touted. Here is a short video I made of how to set it up. I purchased my life straw at Amazon, and the pump also. But, the pump is also sold at Harbor Freight.






Here is a short video I made of how the system works. The Life Straw is good for 1000 gallons, and costs $19. The hand pump is <$10.


The only thing I noticed was the plastic tubing had left a plastic taste in the water...I took some warm water with baking soda, pumped it through, then pumped a gallon of water through it, and no taste any more...this kit will be in my long-range backpack which I always keep in my truck so it will also be available for camping in the GNAT.

[professorkx]

^This

I spend A LOT of time in the mountains and desert far away from everything, and I rode just under 12,000 dirt/street miles in 2014 between March and the end of November. As a result, I have to pull water from streams, creeks and puddles all over the west. I've been on body recovery teams in the desert where death resulted from dehydration in less than one day, so water should never be taken for granted. I've used one of these for years and never caught Montezuma's revenge. Very compact, but best use is with some type of bottle.

http://thesummitregister.com/msr-hyperf ... hind-gear/

My wife started dual sport riding with me this year on the back of the Triumph, so not only had to be OK with sleeping in the middle of the woods, but had to get used to stopping several times a day to pull water from whatever source was available. She was a little apprehensive at first, but when you don't hit a town for days, you have to be able to take care of yourself, and clean water is the first thing on the list. My wife has watched me disappear into the desert and woods all our life, so trusts my survival skills. Once she understood the process, we made a pretty efficient team filling our bottles. She never realized how much fun getting away from civilization can be, so the Triumph no longer leaves the garage unless she is on the back.

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

This is what I use;

http://sawyer.com/products/sawyer-squee ... tem-sp131/

For when I backpack into the Gila Nat'l Forest or the Gila Wilderness
for a fishin trip.

hank