Boondocking Tips

[Roads_Less_Trav]

We've been living without hookups full-time for nearly 8 years, and I recently put together a blog post describing all the things we've learned about how to boondock happily and comfortably.

I'm hoping some of the tips will be helpful to a few folks here...

RV Boondocking - How to Live Off the Grid in an RV

[Roads_Less_Trav]

icanon - I appreciate making your web favs list!!

profdant139 - I like the "artisinal-pour-over" for more money...especially when you can pull it off with a Mr. Coffee basket and flat bottom paper filter and have the last laugh! How fun to have a house that's morphing into a trailer, until the day you try to hitch up to it with your truck! 🙂

PatrickA51 and everyone - thanks for reading!!

[PatrickA51]

Roads Less Traveled wrote:
We've been living without hookups full-time for nearly 8 years, and I recently put together a blog post describing all the things we've learned about how to boondock happily and comfortably.

I'm hoping some of the tips will be helpful to a few folks here...

RV Boondocking - How to Live Off the Grid in an RV

Very interesting, thank you for posting.

[profdant139]

I started using a Melitta type filter while camping -- actually just an old Mr Coffee basket with a cupcake style flat bottom paper filter in it, perched on top of the carafe. It turns out the coffee was so great that this is now what I use in my stick house, instead of a coffee machine! My stick house is starting to look more and more like my trailer. Hmmmm.

By the way, Starbucks calls this method "artisanal pour-over coffee," and they charge extra for it.

[Roads_Less_Trav]

p.s. - We had a chance to push both our RV furnace and vent-free heater very hard last fall when we were at 10,000' elevation in Colorado in a snowstorm.

I talk about that in detail on my page about vent-free propane heaters.

In a nutshell, the temps outside were in the teens at night and 30's during the day. The RV furnace ran full-time and couldn't get the buggy's temp above 50 degrees. In 30 minutes, the vent-free heater got the buggy's inside temp from 50 to 70.

That elevation is tough for any propane device due to lack of oxygen, and the vent-free heater's sensor shut the heater off several times (all vent-free heaters are built with sensors and auto shut-off valves) although our stove and oven kept going strong (they aren't built to the same strict specs!). This was easily remedied by opening the RV door for a few minutes.

All in all, it was uncomfortable no matter how you played it. Best solution would be an RV park with free electricity and an electric heater, LOL! But it was interesting to see the two heaters side by side in relatively extreme conditions they weren't really designed for!

[icanon]

Thanks just put it on my web favs list.

[Roads_Less_Trav]

pnichols - That's probably a great heater. Thanks for the link!

We use our RV furnace at night when it is in the 20's or colder outside, and it cycles on and off. I wake up when a pin drops, so any furnace will wake me (I've been woken by our propane fridge cycling on). The current draw from cycling on and off overnight is no problem if you have enough solar power or don't mind running the genny... it's all a matter of what works for you, how cold it is where you camp, how much you boondock, etc. etc.

[wbwood]

Roads Less Traveled wrote:
wbwood - I love my Melitta filter and am about to use it now! I've used one since I was 12 years old -- it's how my whole family made coffee back in the early 1970's!! I wish they were easier to find... but at least they are on Amazon!!

Yep, that's where I ordered ours from...for about $5-6 each, you can't go wrong. With it being plastic, you don't have to worry about it breaking during transport. And it's leightweight and takes up virtually no counter space.

[pnichols]

Emily/Mark,

Thanks for the link to your well-written heater article.

However I don't think the article mentioned this safe, ultra low-electric-power consumption propane heater:

http://www.ventedcatheater.com/2.html

By the way, for some reason our RV's 26,000 BTU ducted propane furnace does not meet the negative profile that many keep bringing up here in the the forums. It's not too noisy at all (... as installed by Winnebago) inside the motorhome, and it's by no means on all the time (it cycles) - so it's listed 7-8 amps continuous per hour electric power consumption rate averages way less than this hour after hour. However we do block off parts of the coach interior nights, so it has to heat a smaller portion of the volume ... but still including the all important bathroom!

It cycled and functioned well during 30 degree nights recently when we camped in Arizona. I'm beginning to think that some of today's RV appliances' performance depends heavily upon how they are installed. As an example, our traveling friends recently had installed a new propane furnace in their 20 year old Fleetwood Class C. Their new propane furnace is phenomenal on noise level - it can hardly be heard at all when running ... truly whisper quiet.

[Roads_Less_Trav]

wbwood - I love my Melitta filter and am about to use it now! I've used one since I was 12 years old -- it's how my whole family made coffee back in the early 1970's!! I wish they were easier to find... but at least they are on Amazon!!

mits22 - I don't know anything about the vented platinum heater you describe, but we love our vent-free heater and it would be the first thing (along with solar power) that we would install in any new rig we ever bought. I've got some info on those heaters at this link.

[wbwood]

Started reading the article. Haven't finished. But am liking what I'm reading. Funny how you mentioned about using the melitta coffee cone to make coffee. I've been mentioning it for a while here on the forums. It's awesome. We have two. We have an electric kettle for when we are on hookups and then if not, we can heat the water on the stove as you mentioned.

[beemerphile1]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.

[mlts22]

The boondocking post is an excellent read. What I've wondered about adding, provided there is a way to properly install it is a vented Platinum Cat heater. This should give the nice heat of a propane heater, while exhausting the combustion gases outside, and wouldn't be draining the battery like a conventional furnace does. It does use 5 amps at 12 volts for five minutes, then drops to 0.5 amp-hours once the exhaust fan is running, mainly because all the fan is doing is pushing exhaust gases out, not forcing air through vents and a heat exchanger.

[Roads_Less_Trav]

I'm glad this post is proving useful. Thank you for all the positive feedback!

There are many ways to put together a life off the grid, and whether you go solar or no solar, or vent-free heater or not, all that really matters is what works for you.

We do love our heater and use it all year long, although we don't run it overnight. Generally we use it for an hour or two in the morning and evening, at most. Between the gas sensors in the rig and the oxygen sensor and automatic shut-off valve on the heater itself, we feel very confident in it, as do lots and lots of other RVers and vendors of these kinds of heaters. But there's no sense putting something in your rig that makes you uneasy!!!

Profdant139, I don't think we met you that October, as we were on our boat preparing to sail from San Diego to Zihuatanejo at the time. I'd love to get to Goosenecks Utah sometime -- I'm sure it's gorgeous, and we LOVE Utah!!!

[profdant139]

Emily and Mark, thanks for posting that link!! (By the way, did we meet you at the Goosenecks in Utah in October of 2010? You may have had a different rig at that time?? We were in an older Fun Finder.)

[Tiger4x4RV]

I have done mostly boondocking or dry camping for many years. Have set aside your post to read later and am sure I will learn something from it. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.