The mother of all stupid truck camper questions....

[lcseds]

My wife and I are considering a TC for some travelling when retired. Part of the potential fun and cost saving of a TC is boondocking. The pictures we see of some boondocking sites are amazing.

But....where the heck do you boondock? I'm in NC so there isn't any barren desert or anything. All I can think about is someone banging on the door at night saying private property and have to move. I don't think I can just pull off anywhere, so where /how do you discover these spots? How do I know when I turn onto a dirt road or something I won't get stuck? I have not been out west so I assume it's easier out there to find spots. But in general, I'd like some tips.

I have an 2018 F350 diesel dually 4x4 (not FX4) and would get the TC reasonably equipped for a few days of boondocking at a time. We are "wanna-be" adventurers. Newbies if you will.

[noteven]

To the OP:

Take a look at iOverlander, Boondockers Welcome, and Ramblin Ralph

I think Ralph has a map showing hundreds of sites he has camped at with his truck camper rig.

I’m camped tonight in small village in SK with 15amp, showers and restrooms for US$8/night honor pay found on iOverlander. A Big Rig won’t fit but a truck camper is poifect.

[bwlyon]

work2much wrote:
Check out free campsites.net

North Carolina free camping

I have used this web site and can say it works. With that said, you are correct the number of free sites on the east coast isn’t near as numerous as the western states.

[ajriding]

Stealth camping is not illegal!

The reason to be stealthy is to be left alone, to not draw attention to yourself, to not cause concern for other citizens and in general to just fly under the radar.

I was in a town that had nowhere for RV's or trailers to even park. I asked the loacl police and they suggested parking on the street. Really? Yes, he said, there is no law against it. So I did, but I kept it stealthy anyway. Why? Because I wanted to be left alone and not bothered. I was parked on a neighborhood street for 4 days/ 3 nights. This was such a small town that I was close enough no matter where I parked to go do the things I wanted to do. I only was there for breakfast, supper and sleeping. I spent the day away from camp. My day was the point to see and experience, my time at the camper was for getting ready to do it all again the next day…

The neighbors all assumed I was visiting the other neighbor and no one ever asked. I left in the morning and returned after dark **(edit, I as in me, I left the camper parked the whole time while I left)**. I saved this spot on my GPS for the next visit.

[JD5150]

Lol I know what the OP is looking for but if you are in a pinch/tired or running behind and it is LEGAL to park on the street I'm going to take it and yes there is places you can do that and some not. Yes there is some that abuse it and do it illegally

I myself will stay out of the city because I hate driving in cities. I would rather use my money to help small towns to get my supplies I need if I run out while on a long vacation. I myself drive two lane highways and stay off of the interstate's while traveling. This helps me stay out of the cities and stay closer to nature/BLM/national parks/forest roads/woods

[Kayteg1]

Photomike wrote:
I hate paying but where I go paying is the easiest. ANY parks (provincial or national) seem to patrol a lot more for people not paying. I do a lot of my shooting in these areas and paying is so much easier.....

This is big country and you will find lot of variations.
When we did Florida run, we had lot of Corps of Engineers campgrounds placed at lakes.
With my senior pas I paid $7 or $10 for electric and water and since almost all night required AC, I was happy to pay those prices.
On Alaska run, lot of campgrounds would offer gravel pad with hookups for $25-40.
WI-FI was not usable and there was nothing more to do, than go to sleep and with mild weather you did not run AC.
With some search you can find motel room cheaper.

[toedtoes]

There is a difference between Boondocking (legally dispersed camping in your RV) and Stealth camping (illegally camping).

The OP is asking about how to find LEGAL places to camp not about illegally parking.

There is also a difference between folks who are looking for a free place to sleep and those looking for a boondocking site. The former will select rest stops, walmarts, etc. The latter is going out into nowhere to spend time (rock hounds and geo cachers are this type).

It sounds like the OP is looking for the latter - places of scenic/wild beauty to enjoy a few days.

OP - make friends with your national forest stations. Go online and check for any BLM or national forest/grassland areas that interest you. The website will usually say whether dispersed camping is allowed. Dispersed camping is similar to boondocking - dispersed includes hiking in, so may talk about trails, etc., as well as roads, so pay attention. Now that you know if it's allowed, you have to start hunting down actual sites.

One way is to stay at a campground for two nights. The first day, go drive the roads and look for potential sites. Be sure to pay attention to the type of ground - don't want to get stuck. The second day, move out to your selected boondock site.

As you do this, you will be able to skip the campground and go straight to a boondock site. Then you can spend a day looking for new ones further out.

If you do it locally for a while, you'll get more and more comfortable with the process and will be able to "take it on the road".

A fellow camper gave me a few boondock locations to check out. I made a day trip to check them out. Other than the fact that they were free, I found them lacking in beauty. Two were simply dirt parking lots on the side of the road. The other was set in the pines and was fairly pretty, but the nearest water was several miles away - there was a very popular hiking trail close by but it was very active. In comparison to them, my favorite campground is well worth the $20 a night - it has a creek right there, only eight sites on my loop, and hiking trails that are less populated. I have not given up on boondocking, but I realize that some are about camping cheap and some are about getting away - knowing what you want is important.

[Photomike]

I hate paying but where I go paying is the easiest. ANY parks (provincial or national) seem to patrol a lot more for people not paying. I do a lot of my shooting in these areas and paying is so much easier.

That being said in areas outside of parks and more rural you can find some great places. Sometimes you will get a visitor to see what you are doing but I pull out a business card and explain and they are usually happy for me to stay.

In the town that I live in the local arena is popular in the summer with people in everything up to $750,000 class A's. I also use truck stops and Walmarts. Sometimes a truck stop is closer to where I want to be then any camping spot. PLUS truckers generally are not partying all night.

[HadEnough]

One comment for the original poster and the guy from Idaho. You don’t park in front of a residential houses. LOL that’s not how you go about it.

Also, you don’t camp anywhere. At all. You have a day spot and a night spot. And you do not even turn the lights on at night. You make no noise in your RV. You go to the night spot when it is time for bed. You go right to sleep, you wake up in the morning, and you leave immediately. That’s how you do it.

It’s more of a visiting and traveling thing. Not a camping thing. It’s a very different way to use an RV.

[HadEnough]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Getting away with something is not making it legal.
All the streets around Golden Gate Park in San Francisco are filled up with "fulltimer RV".
The city has no LEO to handle the situation on regural bases and only from time to time they gather a task force to clean the streets... not for long.
San Diego rest area at least used to have sign "no parking between 2 AM and 3AM"
Guess how many RV left the area for that hour?

This I can believe. I remember that park was one of the sketchiest things I had seen in my entire trip to California. Really bad people in there.

[JD5150]

jaycocreek wrote:

Getting away with something is not making it legal.

That's just it..To many wear it like a merit badge that they camped for free in a city that has an ordinance against it,therefor breaking the law..If someone pulled up in front of my house and tried to camp out,I would call the cops..To many weird-o's out there to just assume he's a good 'ol guy trying to save a dime with his 30K pickup and 30K truck camper..

As for boondocking,Gdog hit it on the head..Forest roads are the gateway..Idaho has alot of city ordinances against staying in the city limits in any RV..Our town will not allow it even if your home burnt down...But you can drive 5 miles and be in the forest and camp anywhere you want for nut-tin.Miles and miles of nothing but forest service/state or blm land to camp on..

My opinion is,if a guy can afford to have a nice RV of any kind,he can afford to pay to park it legal in an RV spot,then they have the option to do laundry/get water and dump with park security..

JMHO

True and who would want to stay in the city on a city street when you can be out of the city in nature. But there is many doing it and the reason why is take like San Francisco. Cost $5000.00 a month for rent for a studio apartment so it makes some live in a vehicle because they can't afford it.

Many will break the laws and many will keep doing it. It's impossible to stop. It's like someone who speeds down the highway. They are breaking the law but it doesn't mean they have to obey it.

As time goes by you are going to see more and more doing it and getting away with it. They will just get more stealth about it. JMHO


Most that I know of don't break parking laws and don't park in front of or around houses but they do park on streets

[ajriding]

lcseds wrote:
.where the heck do you boondock? I'm in NC so there isn't any barren desert or anything. All I can think about is someone banging on the door at night saying private property and have to move. I don't think I can just pull off anywhere, so where /how do you discover these spots? How do I know when I turn onto a dirt road or something I won't get stuck? I have not been out west so I assume it's easier out there to find spots. But in general, I'd like some tips.

I have an 2018 F350 diesel dually 4x4 (not FX4) and would get the TC reasonably equipped for a few days of boondocking at a time. We are "wanna-be" adventurers. Newbies if you will.

Yes, out west is the boondocking place, and the truck camper place. You will not see near as many TCs on the east coast. Though they are great and versatile, they also do not fit down forest roads or other wooded places with low branches well at all. You will also not see as many RVs in the SE for this same reason.

Im from GA and there just is not as many places to go boondock for free. The East is developed where the West is more primitive and offers many rural and open spaces to roam free.

On almost any forest road in NC you can pull off and camp unless it is specifically signed "no camping", which is a lot of places you would want to camp.

So much vegetation that you will hardly find any views even on mountains. Around lakes, forget it, "no camping", "no parking" and all the good spots are pay sites or "day use only" sites.

Huge population areas are too close to where you want to escape to, unlike the barren deserted west. Recently the local NC people have been boondocking in the forest as their vacation. These are not traditional mindful campers, they are local-yocals and bring in and leave all their trash, they trash the local foliage, trampling the vegetation, cutting down trees, harvesting fire wood and over-staying their time limit. They have caused the forest rangers to close more free camping road side spots lately. The NC rangers are on the lazy side compared to nation-wide. Their solution is alawys to close it down, kick people out so they do not have to bother with doing their job. It is sad.

Before you go buying a lot of camper stuff, get a tent and try some boondocking just to see what the available options are, or rent one of those RV America class-Cs for a weekend and try it. Rangers are on the prowl, and I have even been hassled in the middle of the day for "camping" they are so anus driven.

[wanderingaimles]

You tube has a lot of material, some is great, some,,,, not so much.
But one of the ones I thought was helpful is this one.
Grand Adventure
His videos cover a lot of the western states and he gives more info than most on how he finds the spots.

[jaycocreek]

Getting away with something is not making it legal.

That's just it..To many wear it like a merit badge that they camped for free in a city that has an ordinance against it,therefor breaking the law..If someone pulled up in front of my house and tried to camp out,I would call the cops..To many weird-o's out there to just assume he's a good 'ol guy trying to save a dime with his 30K pickup and 30K truck camper..

As for boondocking,Gdog hit it on the head..Forest roads are the gateway..Idaho has alot of city ordinances against staying in the city limits in any RV..Our town will not allow it even if your home burnt down...But you can drive 5 miles and be in the forest and camp anywhere you want for nut-tin.Miles and miles of nothing but forest service/state or blm land to camp on..

My opinion is,if a guy can afford to have a nice RV of any kind,he can afford to pay to park it legal in an RV spot,then they have the option to do laundry/get water and dump with park security..

JMHO

[Grit_dog]

OP, I’d imagine there are considerably less boondocking spots back east from our travels there, and growing up in the Midwest.
“Generally” most boondocking as it is, is done in state and national forests. And some lesser populated national parks.
I’d say the vast majority of places you’d stay is public property.
Forest roads are the gateway to boondocking.
There are also plenty of low amenity city/county/state parks. Again my experience is the Midwest to the west coast. We’ve done plenty of them. Driving along, start googling camp grounds nearby (when you have cell service). Lots of $5-15 a night parks some on the honor system, some maintained.
Imo you’re on the right track for off the beaten path adventures. Probably some good beach camping boondocking on the Atlantic coast too.
Bottom line, if you’re on public property and setup for the day/night and a ranger or fish n feathers comes by and tells you no bueno, you move. If not, stay.
Even after we retire, think I’d have a hard time parting from a TC setup for touring. Just because you can camp a lot more places than if you’re rolling in a big RV or towing.
I like the concept of having a toyhauler of some sort be it TT, 5ver or super C as well because we doo stuff that would be ideal with those rigs too, but a TC is a staple of “luxury” camping with the ability to go the most places.
Any big TC with, say 50 gal fresh tank is enough to go off grid for close to a week without re-filling for 2 people (and taking miserly showers). Plus it’s easy to take on more water pretty much anywhere in civilization and if you’re out in the toolies, losing your gray water is easy too. Some folks have a stigma about dumping gray water but seriously, think about it. It doesn’t harms dang thing. The stigma is you’re dumping nasty stuff so don’t publicize it.

[Lwiddis]

Regarding the US Forest Service, each forest's website should tell you if boondocking is allowed and, if so, where.

Your limiting factor on TC boondocking will be water if you have a solar system or (ugh) a generator. Get the biggest fresh water tank and waste tanks you can.