To boondock or not?

Campgrounds? You should see the big rigs we see on the back trails. They pick their way along the same ruts, washouts and wash boards we do to get to THE spot that makes it all worth while.

double post

Veebyes wrote:
I find it strange that those who are best equipped to boondock, or at least dry camp, do it the least. How often do you see a class A, which typically has a genny, has 100 gal plus water capacity, has an inverter etc. making it great for 'roughing' it, in a dry SP CG?

We love to dry camp, though going offroad to 'boondock' is no really an option dragging a 34' 5er we do use the no services or reduced services CGs wherever we can.

We like comfort too so if heat by day or cold at night is a question we will at least look for power. The little Honda genny can't cut it for the AC & the furnace does like to suck propane.

It comes down to where you would prefer to be, in a FHU carpark with all of the conveiences & everyone else close by, or to some degree on your own?

You need to spend more time out west to see the many, many Class A boondockers or dry camping in forest service campgrounds, including us, driving those gravel roads to get to very special places. You will also see many solar panels on rigs because of the free sun power available. In the boondocking world many use propane catalytic heaters instead of the RV furnace which takes much less fuel and is a constant warmth. In the west you can go according to elevations and not need air conditioning in summer.

The west also has more large areas in which to boondock - BLM and national forests. Not as easy to get off the grid in the east with a big rig.

Fastfwd75 wrote:

BubbaChris wrote:
If you're serious about the boondocking, is there anyway you can test it locally before heading out on the big trip?

My first night in our TT as in our driveway just to learn some of the basics. This could also be used to verify how quickly you use water and electricity.

We are going for the big trip either way but we can certainly "fake" boondocking by not connecting electricity and water at a site where they are available and see what happens.

I have already tested all systems on battery,electricity and propane and everything works. Just not sure how long :)

the challenge will getting your family to learn how to conserve water and power.

having camped in popups for 17 years and having our HTT for over 7 years, the two of us have learned this dry camping style quite well. we take navy showers and waste very little water/battery power. we have a Honda 2000, two deep cycle batteries, a 400w inverter and a 15 gallon tote tank.
we actually prefer this type of camping over hookups camping, because we get much more natural settings to camp in.

but with kids, teaching them conservation is a whole different thing.

Fastfwd75 wrote:
After reading all of this it seems like the best way to do this is by small steps.
Start by camping without services for 1-2 nights when it's not too hot at night.

Agree! Ease into it. Most any rig will let you stay off the grid for a night or two in mild weather. And for a lot of purposes that may be enough. LEDs, roof vent fans, and higher capacity battery bank would be a first step. Solar and generator next. Always carry plenty of blankets to reduce furnace time at night in cool weather.

Everyone has different requirements off grid. I love my dry camping but most trips are only a couple nights through a week of continuous off grid. My setup is less sophisticated than someone who camps off grid more extensively.

Regarding your grey tank size - how big is your black tank?

As you camp, you can off-load your grey tank into the black tank each time the grey tank gets near the top. We carry along a 3-gallon plastic bucket to fill from the grey tank outlet and then empty into the black tank periodically whenever the grey tank gets near the top. I carry the bucket full of grey water into the bathroom and dump it down the toilet. This effectively makes the grey tank a lot "bigger". You can even conserve fresh water by dumping grey water into the toilet whenever you want to flush the toilet so that you're not using freshwater to flush the toilet. We wash up ourselves a lot with desposable pre-moisted towelettes instead of taking showers or using precious fresh water in a sink.

Of course to boondock you just have to first to learn to drycamp in your RV ... it's not rocket science to drycamp and is a lot of fun. In my opinion that's what an RV with tanks, a battery, and propane is "for".

BubbaChris wrote:
If you're serious about the boondocking, is there anyway you can test it locally before heading out on the big trip?

My first night in our TT as in our driveway just to learn some of the basics. This could also be used to verify how quickly you use water and electricity.

We are going for the big trip either way but we can certainly "fake" boondocking by not connecting electricity and water at a site where they are available and see what happens.

I have already tested all systems on battery,electricity and propane and everything works. Just not sure how long :)

If you're serious about the boondocking, is there anyway you can test it locally before heading out on the big trip?

My first night in our TT as in our driveway just to learn some of the basics. This could also be used to verify how quickly you use water and electricity.

I can't say I boondock but I dry camp at events for 3-5 days at a time. My grey tank is 21 gallons, black is 25G and fresh water is 35G. DW and I would shower twice and manage ok. We found that switching to an Oxygenics shower head allows a minimum use of water for showers. Yes, we do have to conserve water, probably more than some people would like.

We do have a genny so power is not a big concern, however we did switch to all LED lights to reduce the genny run time.

Veebyes wrote:
I find it strange that those who are best equipped to boondock, or at least dry camp, do it the least.

It is an odd phenomenon. My GF does the same kind of thing.

Buying something is easy. Using to its full potential, and maintaining it, are something else.