The Dark Side

Do you want convenience or opportunity? I like my cable with the evening news and weather, I like the microwave, I like the air conditioning etc. but I am willing to forgo all of that for a couple of days in the woods and being limited to battery power if the opportunity is right.

With the battery set up that came with my TT, I will go about three days on the battery but it is just my wife and I. If I were planning on an extended stay or frequent boondock trips we would have to improve on our electrical resources.

I am not a fan of generators but I am in the minority on that issue. Most of our travel is camp for a few days and see the sights then move on; so an occasional non-electric site is not an issue.

Dry camping is not that difficult. For me, that's pretty much all I do. Here are my tricks:

1. Only turn on lights when I need them. The inside lights do not need to be on if I'm sitting outside.

2. When it's convenient, use the campground bathroom facilities. During the day, it's not a terrible thing to walk a bit through the campground to use the bathrooms. At night, etc., use your RV facilities.

3. Try the campground water. Usually, it's pretty decent water (unlike RV Park water). You can use it for cooking, coffee, etc. That reduces your use of the fresh tank water.

3. Simplify. People have lived for centuries without a microwave or hair dryer. It's not that difficult to get back to that world. Use your power for necessities and skip the conveniences.

As for ruining the trip, my first camping trip with my TT, I discovered a crack in the hot water tank (so no TT water at all) and my battery wouldn't hold a charge (so no electrical). I had a great time. Lanterns, flashlights and LED puck lights covered lighting needs, propane covered cooking and fridge, and the campground water spigot covered my water needs. Sure it would have been more convenient had those things worked in the TT - but it didn't make it impossible to stay for the duration and enjoy my trip.

We have just returned from a 9 week trip, mostly in the Canadian Maritimes. We don't specifically choose to boondock but we like to be prepared because it gives us more freedom and we aren't tied to making reservations. We camped without services several times for overnight, during Hurricane Arthur in New Brunswick, and for four days in Ontario on the way home. All we need is full fresh water tanks and our little generator. We run the gen about an hour in the evening. lizzie

If we can do it, so can you. Last year we stayed at Julian Price Memorial Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway (just outside Blowing Rock, NC) for a weekend. Before the trip we added a 2nd house battery, 2 fantastic fans and LED bulbs. I did run the genny for about an hour on the Saturday morning because I was afraid of the batteries dropping too low. But we survived fine. lol

The best things I've bought are a Honda 2000W generator, 2 heavy duty deep cycle batteries and a gray water tote. A lot of the campgrounds here that don't have hookups will have water from a pump and a place to dump gray. I can survive for days/weeks with that setup. And the water thing is really only a big deal for me because I have 3 small kids. It's nice to be able to give them a bath every couple days.

In addition to what I have on board for water I also carry three 6 gallon jugs full. Last time I was out for a week I never even needed to go to the pump. The 40 on board plus the 18 in the 3 cans was more than enough.

Eight years ago, we started out just like you -- really worried about cutting the cord. After a season of RV park camping, we tried a couple of days at a regular campground without hookups -- it went well, but we realized we needed a bigger battery (our original one was very small -- a group 24). I knew nothing about batteries.

We got a bigger one -- group 27. We tried a longer weekend -- I realized we needed two batteries, mounted side by side. That worked well. We tried a few days without hookups. No problem, and very pleasant. I figured out when it was time to switch out the batteries.

Later still, I got a generator (which we almost never use -- it is mostly a "just in case" thing). I got even bigger batteries -- group 31, with 110 amp hours each. I had no idea what an amp was, let alone an amp hour. I learned, slowly.

I eventually changed out our light bulbs from incandescent to LED. Much less power draw.

We started "boondocking" for short periods of time, where you are not even in a campground. This is allowed in many national forests.

Eventually, boondocking became our preferred method of camping -- we are all alone, many miles from anyone else, in our own private forest. This is what it looks like -- you have to imagine the silence and the peace:



Bottom line -- don't jump into extreme boondocking right away. Take baby steps. Experiment. Learn how to live without hookups -- it is easier than you think. And come on over to the boondocking forum and start asking questions -- you will find that we are very eager to help out the newbies!

Yep, we stopped through the Grand Canyon this summer. We used Forest Service areas. We didn't have to stay in the rv park jungles of the park. We were less than one mile from the park entrance and could walk from the woods to the town of Tusayan. No noise, no cars, no generators, just pure starlit nights and the sounds of nature. We cooked with the crockpot using solar, one 400W panel, two Trojans, and a 300W inverter. Came home everyday and dinner was ready. Four months and we purposely left our generator at home.

Nothing like boondocking and there are plenty of places left.

We went from a tent to a popup, to a hybrid, to a TT and now have a 5th wheel. Two years ago, we went to the GSMNP and had reservations at Elkmont to see the fireflies. No hookups, no power, no water, no sewer - SHEW! The campground and surrounding areas were beautiful, but we had only our battery. This was the 2nd week of June and was in the 80's.

Elkmont is like a rain forest. It is humid, water drips from the trees throughout the day from the fog that hovered during the night. We had several battery operated fans and they were great, but we were still pretty uncomfortable at night. The fridge did work on propane, so that was something we didn't have to worry about. The creek (small river) running through the park was great and tubing was wonderful for us and the kids.

Fireflies are MAGNIFICENT!!

We will return, but we will get a site in Elkmont and put up a tent, leave our chairs there and a cooler for drinks only (Bears). We will be safely and comfortably ensconced in a campground down in Pigeon Forge that has power, water and sewer as well as WIFI and a pool. We will spend our days and evenings at Elkmont, but come back off the mountain to sleep in comfort.

I just don't boondock well anymore.

There are a lot of different solutions to dry camping depending on how often and how long you do it. Starting with the battery, it can be as simple as a heavy set of jumper cables so that the truck can charge you up, a rented generator will do it and you wont have to spend thousands or maintain it for that occasional trip.

Decide you like it and there are lots of ways to make your rig dry camping ready. We never have hook ups or even a campground, so we have solar, extra battery, LED lighting, a inverter, and a generator. We can do pretty much anything but run the roof top air.

Water. Depending on the campground you may have a source of water to refill your tank AND a dump station for emptying the waste tanks. Even so you will want to conserve so that you are not filling/dumping all the time. Navy showers. frugal dish washing and never leaving the water run for brushing teeth or washing hands uses less fresh water and tank space. Using the outhouse helps too. Again if you like it you can get portable jugs for filling and wheeled containers for the waste so you don't have to move the trailer.

Something you may consider is some driveway camping. You learn how long your battery/ water last for your style of camping. There you have the ability to plug in if the battery gets low.

Like I said if you like it, there are ways to do it better but I wouldn't spend the money and effort for a once or once in a while trip.

I can empathize with you. Years ago that's all we used to do - camp with E, but one trip we had to dry camp and although it was a little unsettling to me at the time, I soon became accustomed to it and prefer that type of camping. With that said though, a generator is a must to recharge, or at least hookup to your rig and run it while plugged in to recharge your batteries. That's what we used to do before we bought our generator. You may want to try that first, then if you like that type of camping, invest in a generator.