HELP! I'm building a custom travel trailer.
Hi everyone, My name is Darla and I’m going to be building a small custom RV later this year to travel solo full time throughout the United States. Yup, I’m doin it! I would love to share my RV ...
Forum Discussion
Thanks for your extensive feedback, I really appreciate it. Oh, no need to worry about criticizing my plans... I WANT THAT! In fact, most here are going too easy on me. It's making me feel smarter than I am and giving me a big head :--) So you are a frequent boondocker? ...where do you dump your grey tank? 16' with 8 windows? That's a lot of glass. 16' is a nice size to park. I would be interested in knowing more about solo traveling security. Do you know if mace is legal in all states? SWAT?.... LOL. What about putting a really big bone and a really big leash outside my door.... they'd have to imagine just how big the dog is. :--) What model TT do you have?
My favorite and most frequent camping is to take forest service roads as far back in as I can get and the little TT allows me to do that. I get all the “civilization” I can stand at home and this is my way of escaping, I guess. I dump my tanks when needed at a dump station somewhere convenient to where I’m traveling. The rules vary all over the place about that. Some places allow it, some do not. BLM, for example, will allow bath water dumping, but not dish water, it’s classed as sewage. But it all goes in the same tank. Some national forests allow it, some don’t. Mainly, I have too much respect for the outdoors to litter or even dump gray water. Besides, I have to dump my black water somewhere anyway; it’s nothing to dump the gray at the same time. And I travel all over the west and I don’t want to have to research the plethora of regulations everywhere I go.
As far as security goes, I think I’ve had far more than my share of incidents than most people. So both I and my DW carry handguns. But I don’t want to turn this into a gun thread, there are other options. Some people carry mace, bear spray, wasp spray, bats, tazers, etc. My own experience has been that threats often involve two or three people, so I consider tazers and bats and such relatively useless. Having made that statement I have to emphasize that in 50 years of boondocking and camping in remote, campgrounds, I’ve never once had to pull the gun. Most all the hairy incidents have been in the city.
Your best security is being aware of your surrounding and if your gut tells you to move don’t engage in intellectual exercises, move. You'd likely be fine in the boondocks or in a private or public campground somewhere with other campers around.I don’t know if mace is universally legal, I’d think it would be. Your best option is to go online and research it. Keep in mind that not all, but most riff raff are from the city and don’t have the means to get in the backcountry. Besides, the lack of pavement and seclusion is unfamiliar territory and they’re not comfortable there. Thus my prior statement that your risk goes well down in relationship to the distance from “civilization”.
I think the food dish, leash, size 12 boots and bone ideas are already in use by a few ladies so no harm is trying it. To answer your last question my TT is a 1989 Wilderness Yukon.
My favorite and most frequent camping is to take forest service roads as far back in as I can get and the little TT allows me to do that. I get all the “civilization” I can stand at home and this is my way of escaping, I guess. I dump my tanks when needed at a dump station somewhere convenient to where I’m traveling. The rules vary all over the place about that. Some places allow it, some do not. BLM, for example, will allow bath water dumping, but not dish water, it’s classed as sewage. But it all goes in the same tank. Some national forests allow it, some don’t. Mainly, I have too much respect for the outdoors to litter or even dump gray water. Besides, I have to dump my black water somewhere anyway; it’s nothing to dump the gray at the same time. And I travel all over the west and I don’t want to have to research the plethora of regulations everywhere I go.
As far as security goes, I think I’ve had far more than my share of incidents than most people. So both I and my DW carry handguns. But I don’t want to turn this into a gun thread, there are other options. Some people carry mace, bear spray, wasp spray, bats, tazers, etc. My own experience has been that threats often involve two or three people, so I consider tazers and bats and such relatively useless. Having made that statement I have to emphasize that in 50 years of boondocking and camping in remote, campgrounds, I’ve never once had to pull the gun. Most all the hairy incidents have been in the city.
Your best security is being aware of your surrounding and if your gut tells you to move don’t engage in intellectual exercises, move. You'd likely be fine in the boondocks or in a private or public campground somewhere with other campers around.I don’t know if mace is universally legal, I’d think it would be. Your best option is to go online and research it. Keep in mind that not all, but most riff raff are from the city and don’t have the means to get in the backcountry. Besides, the lack of pavement and seclusion is unfamiliar territory and they’re not comfortable there. Thus my prior statement that your risk goes well down in relationship to the distance from “civilization”.
I think the food dish, leash, size 12 boots and bone ideas are already in use by a few ladies so no harm is trying it. To answer your last question my TT is a 1989 Wilderness Yukon.
