Fitting a shower pump under the bonnet of the Toyota 79 series ute.

Just a little project I’ve been working on prior to heading off with the Crown Prince in July. Having had a heat exchanger type shower in the Nissan, I’ve decided to go the less complex route in the new vehicle and simply mount a 12 volt demand pump somewhere under the bonnet near the front of the vehicle. This allows a pick up to be placed in a bucket of warm water and a longer length of hose with a garden sprayer to throw over the top of the shower tent. The preferred method these days is simply to use the fire and a 10 litre stainless bucket to heat the shower water and then pump away. The pump can also be used to filter water using the dual canister filtration set that I have had for some years now.




Now the key problem with any 4x4 these days is the lack of real estate under the bonnet to mount something as significant as a pump. She’s fairly crowded in there. On having a good look around, I noticed that there appeared to be a good lot of space in the front mudguard area behind the internal lining. This involved with the removal of the main battery on the left hand side, or the air cleaner box on the drivers side. There are also plenty of access ports and more than a few holes with captive nuts ready for use. As the shower tent is usually on the drivers side, the toss went the way of the air filter box.




The filter box was an easy removal involving three mounting screws and two hose clamps for the intake from the snorkel and the outlet hose from the top of the box. There is also a plastic sleeve that pulls out from inside the guard. This is a connection piece from the snorkel to the filter box (It can be seen in the forground of photo No. 3 above). Once the air cleaner box was removed, this cleared ample space to work and gain access to the guard. The pump with fittings and hoses attached, easily slid inside the front port and the hoses cleared the edges of the hole. It was simply a matter of holding the pump on the inner lining of the guard and marking out four holes. I also drilled out the holes in the rubber mounting as well to allow for a more robust fastener. Make sure that all hoses are fitted and clamped to the pump before fitment as it would be a bugger to fit them after.


A bit of extra wire was soldered and sealed in shrink wrap. Fortuitously, the standard Toyota auxiliary power box is located on this side and sitting nearby. These fused plugs only work on accessory but that’s a small price to pay for ease of fitment. A simple in line toggle switch was also placed on the active and mounted into a bracket on the inner wall of the guard.


I fitted flat dome headed nuts to the engine bay. Having the nuts inside the guards meant that there was nothing protruding into the engine bay that would foul or hinder the fitment of the air filter box. A couple of hours work and it was all done. A very nice, unobtrusive and protected location for a water pump. Now I’ll just have to sort out where I want the hoses to terminate under the vehicle.