By Chuck Woodbury
Wow! A GMC pickup truck with a built-in, foldable shower. “Water is fed by an integrated system, drawing from a five-gallon water tank placed under the truck. An auxiliary heater is present to warm up the water in the piping before it exits the shower head, delivering clean, warm water for the user to shower under,” wrote the website GM Authority.com on Friday, April 1.
I, for one, thought, “Here we go with another gadget that ‘one-ups’ the competition.” The article went to state that the shower in the GMC pickup would be handy for “contractors who may get especially dirty while on the job site, giving them a place to catch a quick shower before they go out to meet friends for the evening.
“Another popular use case can be for campers, who could use a nice shower after a long hike back to the campsite.”
Even though I figured this was mostly a sales gimmick, I figured it would at least be worth a short news item in our Sunday newsletter. But I’d need more information. I began by searching the General Motors website but found nothing — no mention at all. After that, I searched everywhere else I could think of. No luck!
Then it hit me — the dateline — April 1. I went back to the GM Authority website and re-read the article. Near the end it said “Happy April Fools’ Day.”
Yikes! I almost got duped and, worse, maybe even wrote something in our Sunday newsletter. Geez! It was yet another reminder how easy it can be to spread fake information, even in this case when it is simply meant as a joke.
I’ll bet you, though, that more than one other website or blog will pass along the news of the shower as legitimate. Just watch.
Related:
Take a hot shower anywhere; no fresh water tanks required!
##RVT1046b
Obviously you forgot the most fascinating part of the story, Chuck. In usual GMC fashion there is a full line of accessories for the folding shower, most notable being the “hamster ball” enclosure that mounts in the pickup bed. It has a drain with hose that connects to another under-bed gray water tank. A second under-bed installation includes a battery bank for heat lamps mounted inside the upper circumference of the ‘ball’ for ultimate comfort. Warm air fans arranged around the circumference provide gentle drying. Most innovative, however, is the auto-screen that, when desired, turns the ball opaque for privacy. Safety concerns are addressed by auto-coupling to the truck’s starter circuit. The shower ball systems will not operate if the engine is started. This prevents a repeat of the disastrous event that occurred during testing when an occupied shower ball rolled out of the truck bed and caused a freeway crash.
Great imagination, Gray. Thanks for telling us “the rest of the story” (apologies to Paul Harvey). Take care. 🙂 –Diane