How long can you boondock?

Hi,

From May to the end of September where I live, the limiting factor is fresh water. I've done six weeks--but really prefer to use a campground once per week to take on more water and dump the tanks.

I'll also "treat" myself to a hotel about once a week--and one day per week I "eat out" if there are any decent restaurants.

45 Gallon Clean
40 Gallon Black
40 Gallon Grey

2 AGM batteries hooked up to a 160 watt solar panel.
2 propane tanks

I could probably go at least 2 weeks if I needed to.

That's if I had a couple of cases of water along for drinking.

WoodGlue

Three pronged answer.
Power... Change lights to LEDs. Limit use of lights.
Water, for consumption.
Waste disposable.

By far the easiest to control is lighting...

Unless you have Jerry Cans of water.
Unless you have a 'Rhino' to help carry off waste/grey water.
You will be limited by Black tank, Grey tank, Fresh Water tank...

I just got back from 4 days/3 nights on the Oregon Coast. 45 degrees and rainy, furnace set to 67 degrees at night but off most of the day, 4 showers, hauled grey water and fresh, so about 100 gallons of water. Two 2GC's from Costco for main batteries, 2-GP24 DEKA marine for 2000W Samlex pure sine inverter, LED lights. No real problems. GC's were down to 50% SOC by specific gravity. Used the microwave for about 15 minutes total and about 6 hours on the TV and DVD player. Didn't check the inverter batteries, I usually get about 30 minutes of microwave use before I sag the batteries too much to keep it above the inverter cutoff. I keep the inverter and house batteries separate so I have some reserve if somebody makes a mistake and leaves something on. Also, I can leave the inverter batteries home if I know I'm not going to need them.

So far I've managed 2 weeks. No generator, but do have a 95W solar panel. Tanks are more of a problem than electricity.

This is an interesting thread. I have never boondocked. Closest I came is camping without sewer. :)

That said I am very intested in boondocking especially after fitting the RV with solar (when I can afford it). I guess the initial investment would be to get a pair of 6V batteries. Not partial to using generators at all.

The thing is this new trailer of ours only has 37 gal tanks (FW, GW and BW) so water may well be the limiting factor as I like to shower daily. Using CG showers would likely not be an option unless the facilities were exceptional. Could get a water carrier I suppose, and lug potable water to fill up the FW tank. For black and grey water I have a tote so that should not be an issue. Don't see me boondocking for more than a week though. Wife is another story -- she may actually be the limiting factor. ;)

Solar heating for a shower works great. Just take a shower in the afternoon instead of your usual stick-house time. I guess you could always put the sack outdoors in the daytime, throw it in bed at night, and hook it up outside in the morning. Really, it is surprising how quick the sun will heat the water in the morning, probably an hour or two, depending on location.

It looks like nobody answered your question. Wondering whether you tried it?

I, too, had thought about those camp showers: assuming that heating the water doesn't use too much propane/electricity (on the stove), at the very least, this would keep water out of the graywater tank. You'd have to be able to shower outdoors, of course :)

I had a pretty awesome idea about boondocking today. So I see these "camp showers" all over the place, some are more durable than others, but basically it is a large plastic sack with a hose and nozel on it.

They usually hold about 5 gallons...the only problem is getting and keeping the water warm, they are supposed to be warmed by the sun, but most people take showers either in the morning or at night, if you take one in the morning the sun doesnt have time to warm it up and if you take one at night the water has cooled down by the time it has done.

My idea is to somehow keep the sack under the hood to warm it up while driving your rv. The only problem would be it may melt the plastic (ok..probably will melt the plastic) so i was thinking maybe putting it in a pot of water so that it never got above 212 degrees. Any thoughts?

My TT's 51 gallon FW tank can last me a while. Assuming I brought along a couple coolers of food (to stick in the refrigerator), my generator, a number of bottles of water, 2-3 5 gallon containers of gasoline, I can easily last a week if I'm boondocking in the Texas winter, since I just need to fire up the generator to keep the house battery on. My limiting factor will be grey water and showers. Come May-September and the Texas heat, my limiting factor will be gasoline since I will have to have the A/C on from 10:00 in the morning until 7-8 at night, which means I have to have four gallons of gas per day in a container. Fans won't cut it in 100+ degree weather with a high humidity.

I've also boondocked with the rig winterized, using bags lined in the toilet. Not as fun as a regular flush toilet, but workable.

Dishes, with using plastic utensils and paper bags, I can minimize water used for washing.

Showering is the biggest use of water with my rig, and usually running the grey water tank full is my biggest limiter when boondocking.

The type "B" rig I'm looking at getting, I am considering buying an enclosed trailer just for boondocking. This trailer can handle additional provisions, such as a number of 5 gallon water bladders, a couple "blue boy" tote tanks, storage for bulkier items such as my macerator pump, a mount on the tongue for my 3000 watt generator (so I don't have to fetch LP gas as often), a place for additional cans of diesel fuel, etc. That way, even though the water tanks on the van may be tiny in comparison to a TT, the cargo trailer will provide the added water/power/waste storage to balance things out.