Hino Saunatruck
Vancouver, Canada
www.saunasessions.ca/saunatruck
Three years in development, this sauna began when the old saunavan was hit by another truck and
taken off the road. The insurance money bought us a 30-year old, 3-ton truck, which took us some time to get roadworthy.
The truck is Hino Canada’s Most Rugged Survivor, a 1975 Hino KL, one of the first Hinos in Canada and the last KL series still on the road. It has a 183 horsepower, 6-cylinder diesel engine that we run on biodiesel. Top speed is over 100 km/h.
The sauna itself was built in about 2 weeks, operational just in time for the soundwave 2005 festival in Ucluelet on Vancouver Island.
Sauna Truck interior (2014)
Saunatruck Interior (2006)
The sauna was constructed according to Finnish sauna building codes and traditions as well as our own sauna research and experience. The box is heavily insulated with rockwool and STK foil vapour barrier, and finished with western red cedar with yellow cedar in the change area.
The stove was custom designed and built for this sauna. It currently uses a 35000 BTU propane burner, but it is designed to also use wood or vegatable oil by using a different burner assembly.
The truck was formerly party of the Mobile Cartographic Command Centre, or
MC3, a mobile media lab designed to explore art-led technology development dealing with issues of place and locality in Canada. Lab equipment included a GPS device, a Wi-Fi routers, an FM transmitter, DJ equipment and a sound system.
Music is still an essential part of our mobile sauna camps; some recordings of DJ sessions as well as live recordings with local artists can be heard and downloaded at saunasessions.ca. Be sure to listen for MC Cedar as he sings about his life and love of the sauna!
Squamish Valley: mobile sauna on the river
