11-17-2009, 02:29 PM
No lie that it gets below 32F here in the winter. Also, anyone who has had a bottle of water left in their trunk knows what happens to water left in a car in the winter. So, how can we prevent this, and keep water readily available on the vehicle? Ideally, it will be drinkable, and I'd like to have at least 3 gallons on board.
Some ideas I had;
-Wire in a small, low draw heating element of some sort, just enough to keep the water above freezing, but not run the battery dead overnight. Maybe PWM through a flasher unit, or one that runs hot, and just wire it to run during key-on.
-Insulate the container well enough to keep it above 32F during the night, in hopes of days being warmer.
-Add bulkhead fittings to the container, and run silicone lines into the vehicle's cooling system to circulate hot coolant through closed coils inside the container.
Of course, for those of you with larger vehicles, these could be enlarged for 5 or 10 gallon containers, which would let us have emergency drinking or sanitary water.
Anyone have solutions?
Some ideas I had;
-Wire in a small, low draw heating element of some sort, just enough to keep the water above freezing, but not run the battery dead overnight. Maybe PWM through a flasher unit, or one that runs hot, and just wire it to run during key-on.
-Insulate the container well enough to keep it above 32F during the night, in hopes of days being warmer.
-Add bulkhead fittings to the container, and run silicone lines into the vehicle's cooling system to circulate hot coolant through closed coils inside the container.
Of course, for those of you with larger vehicles, these could be enlarged for 5 or 10 gallon containers, which would let us have emergency drinking or sanitary water.
Anyone have solutions?
Sector 7 Equipment Specialist
"Give a man fire, and he will be warm for the night.
Light a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life."
"Give a man fire, and he will be warm for the night.
Light a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life."