This is one of those projects that started out chin in hand, looking at a particular detail on the Jeep’s body, and wondering “what could I use that for”?  In my case, it led to building a small fresh water supply with a 12v water pump that uses a hose connection nested into the Jeep’s original fuel fill location.

With the gas tank relocated to the rear of SSDutch, I was left not only with the space under the driver’s seat, but the hole/recess in the side of the body.  On my prior CJ5 I had just pop-riveted some sheet metal in that spot but this time I wanted to make it look like the recess was still there for a reason.  After a bunch of brainstorming and noodling around, I found a little 3 gallon RV water tank that would fit under the rollcage in that spot, and the project was off and running.

First step was welding the gas fill shut:

The water tank arrived and lowered into place nicely:

I was pricing out water pumps on eBay and at the local RV store when a Jeeper friend from EarlyCJ5.com offered to donate a spare, unused pump. Gotta love that - saved me ~$80!  Here’s test fitting the donated water pump:

Here’s my first attempt at an outlet - an RV water tank fill fitting with the check valve removed:

For a mount I just went with some 1” angle iron.  Here’s the mount:

I also puzzled over an enclosure for the pump.  I wasn’t worried so much about heat as just wanting the pump out of sight.  I also wanted a place to mount a switch and light.  As it turned out an ammo can was just the right size, and flipping it and using the bottom worked perfectly:

I did have to do some fusswork to allow the water fill for the tank clearance with the ammo can.  It’s not great sheetmetal work but by the time it’s painted and installed you aren’t really able to see it:

Here’s the whole setup painted and mounted.  The unit secures into the Jeep with four sections of threaded rod that pass through the Jeep floor, through the bottom frame section, then up past the tank and through the top frame section. I bolted in the bottom frame and tightened it to the floor, then tightened the top frame down.  The idea here was to avoid cracking the water tank by just clamping the whole deal down from the top.

I had to go back and remove some of the paint, tape, and re-paint in order to leave myself a sight-line for the water level:

The hot setup for the water outlet is from the marine world - a nice surface mount “washdown” hose connection - not cheap at $20 (especially when the water tank was only $30) but it’s just the ticket and looks to be a nice quality peice (even if it doubles the amount of chrome on the Jeep):

On the backside I used a 90 degree fitting, and the hose is nicely tucked against the side of the Jeep:

So - how does it work?  See for yourself:

The “bugs” I mention at the end of the video are just in the elbow I put on up by the output.  It leaks a bit as it’s just a standard elbow with no seat to let the connection seal.  A little rigging there and we should be good for a quick trailside shower setup by just ball-bungeeing the hose to the Jeep rollcage. 

I know some guys have figured out how to add a heat exchanger setup for hot water but that looks pretty involved, and I’m not sure yet how much and for what exactly this setup will be used.  MsBoyink isn’t big on camping where there are no bathrooms close by, so it’s likely that this will be used on “just us guys” trips with my son.  We can get by with quick “room-temperature” showers.

The other thing we’ll have to be careful of is conserving water, as running full-bore the pump will drain the tank in just over a minute.  The sprayer handle I bought does allow for adjusting the flow, so that should work well.

Overall I’m pretty happy with this setup - should be both handy on the trail and a fun conversation piece.