Off Grid/Boondocking Water Questions

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.

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.

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

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 :-)

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.

We use 5 gal of water a day for showers and dishes and the toilet. We have a 30 gallon tank. We also have five 6 gallon plastic jerry cans. We use a funnel to fill the tank from the jerry cans when the tank gets low. I should add that we shower every night before bed.

The real limiting factor on our boondocking range is our gray water capacity of 25 gallons, which we reach in about 5 days. Some folks dump gray water on the ground, where it is permitted. We don't -- I just can't justify it. We sometimes dump gray water into a bucket and dump it in the toilet. The toilet's capacity is 25 gallons, which we never reach.

So due to the need to dump gray water, we usually have to find a dump once a week.

We also drink around three gallons a day (coffee and water in our water bottles while hiking).

That water has to be of a better quality than the stuff in the tank -- we bring reverse osmosis water from our home system, use the Brita filter to improve the water in the tank, or (as a last resort) buy big 2.5 gal. jugs of good water at the supermarket.

Once in a while, especially in the mountains, we find water spigots with delicious water, which we then put into our plastic tanks. A rare but pleasant event.

By the way, DW has fairly short hair (because she does not like to fuss around with it), and I have almost none. That saves a lot of water.

We boondock around 60 to 90 nights a year. There are other folks on this forum who do it a lot more than we do, I think.

44 gallon water tank and casette toilet. Easily more than a week - although I don't want to run out when many miles from pavement, so I sometimes fill up when I need to buy fuel (at friendly stations). Standard conservation methods as mentioned above.

I dry camp almost exclusively. I fill my fresh water tank before each trip. 40 gallons.

I use regular plates and cups and wash them daily. I use the fresh tank water for cooking and drinking. I don't bring bottled water (other than a couple empty bottles that I fill for hiking).

I wash my hands after using the restroom - every time. Flush the toilet - every time. I use baby wipes and face wipes for "spot cleaning" (put them in the garbage).

My trips are usually 4-5 days and I use about 1/2 the fresh water during that time. The dirty water is pretty evenly distributed between my grey and black tanks (each 20 gallons).

I could go 7-10 days on my 40 gallons before I reach the "out of fresh water" and "need to dump the grey/black tank". Fortunately, the grey and black tanks fill pretty equally.

My "breaking point" is my hair. I have long curly hair and that doesn't lend well to the RV shower. If I'm near a lake or river where I can swim and bathe, I can go longer by washing my hair that way. If there is no lake or river (or it's too cold to bathe in), then 5 days is the longest my hair can take it without having a good long solid wash.

We have a 40 gallon fresh water tank. We conserve for showers as mentioned above. Washing dishes can be a tough one but cooking in advance and freezing helps quite a bit. There are many different methods and it is best you look on YouTube under "washing dishes boondocking".

The toilet is the next big water user. Each person has their own technique and a depends on how close a couple is. We #1 outdoors as much as possible, use public toilets when available. Some people dig cat holes, others don't flush #1 at night so first one up in the morning can use that for flushing.

I spent last summer boondocking using only 40 gallons of fresh water, the toilet techniques above and went into town each day to the gym where I would shower. Worked great for one person.

I'm sure others will chime in with their boondocking tricks. I will say though, I like a shower daily. You can check your usage by timing your shower and then running the water into a bucket for the same time to see just how much water that is. Then, you can adjust it.

How do you conserve water when off bondocking? With common sense
How much water do you take with you? 50 gallons
How do you refill your water tanks/jerry cans or what other solutions do you use? After a 5 days to week I change campgrounds and find a dump with potable water