Off Grid/Boondocking Water Questions

Use paper plates for eating. Cook your food in aluminum foil on the grill.We take along a case of bottled water plus 2 gallon jugs. We also take a 5 gallon plastic can along for refill. We have a 12 volt pump that has alligator clips so we can hook them onto the battery and use that to pump water from the 5 gallon can into the water tank.

When our (2) kids came with us in the TT we had 45 gals in fresh tank, 8 gals in hot water tank, (2) 5 gal jugs to put out camp fires. Don't forget your shovel. With us 2 we can go a long time.

Here in AZ (no water even close by);
We went 5 days and still drained water out of the TT.
Sponge baths
Navy showers or usual showers on last day depending on how much is left.
Iron skillets we wiped with the dirt, sponge final wipe
Paper plates and plastic food ware when we could
Toilets as usual
Where we wasted was in coffee, couldn't limit there ~2 gals a day. What good is it enjoying the outdoors without coffee :-)

Composting toilet and combining gray and black. 5 gal jerry jug filled when u can. Solar and agm batteries=lots of day off the pole. Free for most part on BLM land or cheap

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're 205 days of continuous camping without hook up so far. This is in NF, BLM lands not in thier campgrounds but out and away from other folks/ noises as possible. The 5th wheel has 70 gal fresh and 62 gal black and grey tanks each. Plus have a 30 gallon water bladder that can be filled on a road trip to resupply the fresh tank. This will carry us through for 14 days (the length of time allowed by most places but not all).
Water can not always be trusted when travelling through the states so all water that we drink or used in food is pumped and filtered through a Katadyn Combi microfilter into 1 gallon jugs. The microfilter meets industry standards for reduction of bacteria (99.9999% Klebsiella terrigena) and protozoan cysts (99.9% Giardia and Cryptosporidium). It also reduces chemicals and improves the taste of water.

Just anther option for not having to buy water or having excess water bottle garbage.

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.)

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.

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!!

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).

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.