Off Grid/Boondocking Water Questions

was watching video from cheaprvliving talking about water while boon-docking and he mentioned the glacier water stations u see at walmarts and such.

https://youtu.be/g4XUFEWUbDE

One thing that has saved my water tanks is using a 5 gallon container to wash dishes, hands, coffee,boiling water etc out side. With 4 people 5 gallons is filled every other day and 60 gal tank lasts 5-7 days.

polish_texan wrote:
How long can you usually camp before having to go into town to refill or buy more bottled water?

At least a week.

Bottled water? No. I think that's a scourge on the environment.

Dan,

I find that electricity is easier to come by than water when drycamping ... so I use an electric shaver. ;)

Shaving -- good point! I shave every few days. Very easy to save water -- I have a small plastic tupperware-type container (maybe ten ounces?) that I fill with hot water to rinse my razor while shaving. So if I take into account washing my face before and after shaving, I think I use about sixteen ounces in total -- maybe less.

One more point about showering -- I bought a very stingy and very small shower head at the hardware store, the kind that a mean landlord installs in very modest apartments. Almost nothing comes out of there -- it sprays out less than a half gallon per minute. (I have measured it.)

And I also put an in-line on/off valve onto the hose -- very easy to make small adjustments to the water flow so that the spray is just barely adequate.

I am so grateful to DW for putting up with my "water miser" behavior. But she loves the silence and privacy of boondocking, and she understands why it is so critical to save water in order to prolong our time in the boonies.

In our Eagle we did a lot of dry camping and found that by taking navy showers and making sure that we never ran water unless it was doing some kind of "work". Never just let it run in the sink (or any where else).

We wash dishes and shower daily.

Two people consistently consumed 10 gallons of water a day without going crazy with conservation.

If we needed to extend our water supply The navy showers got shorter, I quit shaving, we grilled outdoors and used paper plates. That would get us 30 days or more on 200 gallons of water.

Some real good info already!

I spend the majority of my full-time life boondocking. I carry 130 gallons and drink from it (several layers of filters). No use of plastic for water. Going a full month is not a problem but I've not went any longer to know what the limit is.

I'll add using the BBQ (seems like fewer dishes are used). Being solo, it is easy to eat out of the same pan/dish in which the thing was cooked (I know... gasp!!!).

I'm not much of a fire pit guy but when boondocking for long runs, I'll save the paper type garbage and burn it when I do have a fire. (so I don't have bags and bags of garbage).

Dirt is always handy, but few of us have the courage to use dirt to clean a pan. That is exactly how the pioneers did it, of course. But I would bet that very few people remember that trick today! I've read about it, but I have never seen it done.

I should add that if you are using cast iron, soap can damage the "seasoning" of the iron. Dirt does not damage the seasoning!!

profdant139 wrote:
eichacsj said, "Iron skillets we wiped with the dirt, sponge final wipe."

Dirt -- now that is really the boondocking spirit!! Well done.

We are wimps -- we wipe the teflon skillet with used paper napkins -- so we need a lot less water for a soap and water cleaning.

We camp over fire, so it is handy.

One more water saving tip -- just use a trickle of water when washing dishes. We also use Dr Bronner's soap for dishes -- a few drops. It rinses out with very little water -- no additives. I also use it for shower soap, for the same reasons. (DW does not like it for that purpose -- it dries out her skin.)