How long can you realistically dry camp?

rvfiddleddd wrote:
Never having dry camped before, we plan to do so on our trip out west this summer. We'll be gone for 3 months, and we'll be looking for ways to camp a little cheaper for some nights. We have a generator, but not solar. I'm trying to understand how dry camping works. How long can you realistically stay out without dumping? I guess we'd have to use mostly paper products, eliminating dish washing, take fewer showers, etc. Can someone please give me some sense of how you need to modify your lifestyle in order to prolong your stay while dry camping? In my view, I'm thinking we could only do it for 2-3 days. Perhaps there is a way to manage to do it longer? Also, since you're not supposed to tow with your water tanks full, how do you get your water? Thanks for clearing this up for me.

You did not provide any information on your RV so it's rather difficult to guess your situation. In our RV we have 66 gallons fresh water and 50 gallons black and 50 gallons grey tanks. Our RV has enough robustness that we can tow our car and carry a full tank of water. We ( the two of us) have dry camped near Quartzsite in the Arizona desert for 12 days without need for more water or dumping. That entailed a lot of strict navy showers .... and a few just damp washcloth cleanings in leau of showers. Very little dish washing....used paper and plastic mostly. ( we did have to make a couple garbage disposal runs in the Tow car ).... but could have just bagged it all up for later.

We ran the generator a couple hours in the morning to recharge the battery bank, and again a couple hours in evening to go into the night with fully charged batteries. Ran the furnace for heat.... the furnace fan does draw on the batteries pretty well through the night. We now have solar power so generator run time will likely be a lot less in our next drycamp excursion. We also drank water from store-bought 2.5 gallon containers, which extended our fresh water supply a fair bit.

Hope this helps in your determinations. Your water storage and gray and black capacity will play a major roll in how long you can dry camp.