Jimny water solutions

Here’s some thoughts on Jimny-appropriate water solutions (though it’s cast around generic advice).

How much do you need

Daily use water

Longer term water storage

Water heating

Filtration and purification

How much do you need

This is one of those things where the general advice is: probably more than you might think, but maybe less than some of the rough rules of thumb. My view is you need to carry enough that you’re not worrying about it, but not so much you’re worrying about how much you have. Remember, each litre is also a kilo of weight on its own, and with a payload of not very much, that can matter in the Jimny.

Advice on an exact amount varies:

I work on a couple of litres a day per person for drinking water, and a litre or two for cooking and cleaning if I’m fairly remote. I also stash a few litres as a reserve ration in case of breakdown, but only really enough for drinking and a minor bit for food. If everything’s gone wrong and I’m waiting for rescue I’m probably not hugely active and I’ll be working to stay out of the sun and in shelter and thus minimise water usage.

The amount does depend on water availability on the way. While you might not always be able to get the freshest drinking water, quite often there are options to get some kind of water along the way which is less to carry from the outset of the journey. This is covered at the bottom a bit around water filtration and purification.

Water uses do vary though: If you cook very water centric meals like pasta and things then you might need more water. Sticking to things that use less water in their cooking like cous cous or rice can be a great thing to minimise water; on the other hand, if you rely entirely on dehydrated hiking style meals then you need sufficient water to account for them.

Daily use water

The Jimny’s lack of decent sized cupholders does slightly limit you for daily water storage but here’s a few options there to add storage.

Water bottles and canteens

Storage is a problem so you do need to do a bit of thinking about where you might tactically stash some water in your daily setup.

A really good option are a few 1 – 2 L water bottles tucked around the car. I, for instance, have a 2L South African army plastic canteen bottle in the storage on the back door of my car and it’s always there. I can also fit another 1.5 L water bottle in a holder there. This means already base human levels for a single day of not super hot days are covered at a minimum in these two pouches (grey one holes 1.5L bottles of water or keeps champagne/white wine cold; khaki has the 2L canteen in it).

Another good option I’d like to try when it is back in stock is the MOD equipment centre console caddy plus their water bottle pouch. This would give a more flexible storage arrangement in the centre console area, and has provision to hang another holder for a water bottle off the back. Now we’re getting close to the base levels for two people for a day easily accessible.

Camelbak style bladders

A really good option on long trips would be something like a camelbak or other kind of water bladder in a backpack. Obviously not something to wear while you’re in the car seat driving along but you can hang them off the headrest of the seat and have a water pipe over your shoulder and drink whenever you want, without even stopping!

The bladders can also go inside other backpacks or bags or even just left bare and put them in something like a roof shelf and again you can have water on the go. I use a 3L bladder within a high vis backpack for work purposes, and that covers a reasonable level of drinking water for two people when vehicle travelling for a day. (Obviously you need to be really good friends to share the drinking hose, but you can always just use it to dispense into bottles or cups….)

Longer term water storage

Bladders

Building off the idea of using a camelbak bladder, one of the best option are water bladders that you can stash in different parts of the car.

My favourite ones I have found are the Sea to Summit ‘Pack Tap’ bladders. These have a mylar inner (like a wine cask) and so you get no plastic taste to the water. They’re available in a few sizes, but the 10L is probably the best option for a lot of uses for bulk water storage. A couple of those stash nicely under a seat, or, if you build a false floor they can go under the false floor if you made an access panel. They hang nicely off the car to make water access a breeze at camp via the tap.

I have also tried their Watercells, and the MSR equivalent (the Dromedary bag). They are most robust so better for being thrown around, but they do leave a plastic taste in the water. The Sea to Summit watercell does have a great little shower attachment: leaving it in the sun is a good way to heat up water and then hang it from a tree for an evening shower at camp! I often take one of these without water in it for picking up water from a river for shower purposes, but it’s not something I use for storing primary drinking water in.

You can get 20L versions of some bladders but I would caution against it. 20 kg of weight that’s really loose and floppy is super hard to handle. Sometimes going for a few 4L and 6L bladders is a better idea (also good just in case one gets a puncture in them – you don’t lose all your water!) just from a handling perspective.

More permanent water bladders/cells

I’m looking at getting one of these, but, one of the members of one of the Australian Facebook groups for Jimnys got a custom water bladder made up. This uses the rear footwell and gives you ~30L of usable water capacity (depending on how far you have the front seats back). I think for a multi-day trip it could be a good base level of water, with a couple of bladders stashed under the passengers seat for redundancy/backup water.

I’m hopeful my interest and others might make it a routine product like the company’s usual run of 4wd bladders are.

Jerrycan style

One of the cheaper ways to do it is to get some of the jerrycan style water carriers from somewhere like Bunnings, or even the water containers from kmart. A couple of those can cover you and can be packed relatively efficiently. If you go for a true 20L jerrycan style then basically anywhere you could carry a fuel jerrycan then you can carry the water. (Though bear in mind the weight if it’s going on the roof!)

PVC pipe for carrying water

An often overlooked option for at least carrying shower water or short term drinking water (couple of days unless you line the interior) is to use PVC pipe. It’s inexpensive, super easy to put together (just needs PVC adhesive!)

Every metre length of the following diameter pipe carries this amount of water:

  • 75 mm: 4.4 L
  • 100 mm: 7.9 L
  • 150 mm: 17.7 L

It really depends on how you have your car setup as to how you’d hold it or how much you can carry. Sticking to the roof load limit with crossbars on the roof you might want only 15 kg up there or so. You can use 150 mm pipe clamps to attach a 1 metre length of 150mm diameter PVC pipe and suddenly you’re able to carry 15-17L of water quite easily. There are some considerations about baffles to make sure the water doesn’t splosh around, which I have covered in a DIY water storage from PVC pipe article elsewhere. Or you could make some 150mm segments that can stand up in the inside back of the car on each side where the rear seatbelts come out of the trim, and each of those would be ~0.8 m long giving you nearly 28 L of water storage for pretty cheap

Manufactured options

Water heating

One of the big things surveying people about what are some of the barriers to camping was around comfort, especially nice hot showers and the like. I actually will cover showering separately as its own topic, but I thought I’d at least introduce the topic of some options for

Camp stoves

Car cooling system heat exchanger

Probably the ultimate in off-grid shower arrangement that’s Jimnyable is to use a heat exchanger in the car’s cooling system. While not cheap, the Glind exchangers are well tested and used a lot in the 4wd community. You need to generally have some revs on the car’s engine to help coolant flow and temperature for the water, and, the best option is to recirculate water from a bucket to heat up water sufficient for a shower before activating the pump itself for a shower.

Combine this with a shower tent if you require privacy (also helps to keep the warmth in) and you can have a high pressure shower like at home, assuming you have access to sufficient water for it.

These types of systems can also be used for base level of heating water for cooking purposes, again done via recirculation, but they can never get the water any hotter than a reasonable proportion of the coolant temperature. However, starting boiling water for dinner with 65º water is a lot faster, especially if you’ve just pulled up at camp and use the heat in the cooling system from driving to help. It’s also a good way to make up washing-up warm water if you want that for hygiene.

Instant gas heating

Water purification and filtration

I’ve put this at the end not because it is important, but because most people skip the bits in the middle!

Water filtration for drinking water in particular is super important if you’re obtaining water along the way, and something that’s useful to know about before you plan equipment. This isn’t necessarily something to buy immediately: for short trips, even for a few nights, you’ll be able to carry all the water you need using the above information. It’s more for knowledge or if you want to get to a bit more of a tailored setup.

Physical filtering

A lot of the time you can find reasonably clean water but it can be quite murky. Sometimes you can get a lot of this murkiness out simply by pouring it through some clean cotton like a tshirt or shirt. Letting it settle and then just pulling from the top can also do a lot of good prefiltering water.

Another option is to make a traditional soak, an Indigenous Australian approach to let the ground do the filtering for you.

Boiling water

Filtration tables

Active filtering via osmosis

Pump filters