A team of Australian urinators/YouTubers have tackled the decidedly non-trivial problem of automotive urine-extraction systems. Having to pee while driving is a genuine safety issue, and I’ve attempted DIY urine management systems myself. These guys have made one very significant improvement that dramatically helps the effectiveness of the system.
Here’s the video documenting their efforts. It involves a nice Volvo 240 wagon, lots of tubing, and, for some reason, a guy dressed as a clown. It’s a little long, but worth watching to see the solution they came up with:
In case you don’t feel like watching it all, or that clown creeped you out like it did me, here’s the secret: airflow.
They started with just a simple funnel/tube setup, hoping the negative pressure at the rear of the car would be enough to draw the urine out of the tube and out the rear of the car, where it would moisten Australia’s notoriously dry roadways.
Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough airflow, and they experienced the dreaded splashback effects and poor urine stream flow from the tube, rendering the system effectively useless.
To fix the problem, they came up with a clever solution:
By using an air-intake funnel at the front of the car, a front-to-rear airflow within the urine tube can be maintained, which means that when urine is introduced into the tube via a Y-fitting, the urine will be carried out to the rear of the car by the flow of ram air taken in from the front.
Their execution of the system is charmingly shitty, involving lots of cardboard and tape. A better idea would have been to mount the urine system air intake behind the grille, run the main tube under the car, and have one hole in the floorboard for the urine funnel/tube that then connects under the car via a T or Y fitting.
Though, now that I think about it, if you’re going to do that, I bet a near-vertical tube from the drivers seat and through the floorboard would likely extract urine just as well, thanks to gravity. Huh.
Okay, so maybe this is overcomplicating things. Still, I’m delighted to see automotive urine management experiments in action.