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.

[Kayteg1]

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?

[JD5150]

HadEnough wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
Each state & province has different laws, so you can't assume anything.
Forget boondocking in California coastal areas. Basically each city has ordinance forbidding RV overnight stay and they force Walmarts to do that as well.
The practice seems to extend to Oregon, Yukon and who knows how many other places.
But on our drive to Alaska only few rest areas had "no overnight stay" signs, so we could pull over at any convenient area and sleep well. Canada Information Centers have dump stations and water faucet, so that was easy.
Than states like AZ allow boon-docking basically everywhere.

I hesitate to contradict your post because I don’t want to tell people they can park everywhere in California. Ha ha

But I have to say, in California coastal places, I stayed for about two months traveling around the entire coast from San Francisco to San Diego. I stayed in one campground. Only one night. And that was because of the lack of places to stay along the Pacific coast highway. The rest were all rough parking. I was even able to spend a few days in the Mission district. With the RV and all. That’s one of the hardest places to get into in San Francisco. But I did it. Walk out my door, and walk to everything that was the Mission district.


It’s an artform. You just have to know how to do it. And that just comes with a lot of experience. Keep trying. You’ll learn what places knock and what places don’t.

I’m coming back out again this winter to do the same.

I agree it's all on how to do it. I know of full time individuals, couples that have been on the road in the US for 8 to 10 years and has never stayed in a campground ever. They are full timing in a van or a TC. That's the beauty of a compact unit.

I would say if needed you can get away with a lot more with a stealth van. If you need to park on a street for just one night and then move out of there at daybreak it can be done easier because you can make yourself look like a commercial business vehicle.

Really don't think extreme stealth is needed today but I believe the days are coming where its going to get harder and harder to boondock.

[HadEnough]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Each state & province has different laws, so you can't assume anything.
Forget boondocking in California coastal areas. Basically each city has ordinance forbidding RV overnight stay and they force Walmarts to do that as well.
The practice seems to extend to Oregon, Yukon and who knows how many other places.
But on our drive to Alaska only few rest areas had "no overnight stay" signs, so we could pull over at any convenient area and sleep well. Canada Information Centers have dump stations and water faucet, so that was easy.
Than states like AZ allow boon-docking basically everywhere.

I hesitate to contradict your post because I don’t want to tell people they can park everywhere in California. Ha ha

But I have to say, in California coastal places, I stayed for about two months traveling around the entire coast from San Francisco to San Diego. I stayed in one campground. Only one night. And that was because of the lack of places to stay along the Pacific coast highway. The rest were all rough parking. I was even able to spend a few days in the Mission district. With the RV and all. That’s one of the hardest places to get into in San Francisco. But I did it. Walk out my door, and walk to everything that was the Mission district.


It’s an artform. You just have to know how to do it. And that just comes with a lot of experience. Keep trying. You’ll learn what places knock and what places don’t.

I’m coming back out again this winter to do the same.

[work2much]

Check out free campsites.net

North Carolina free camping

[time2roll]

Might find something in the Boondocking Forum section.

[midnightsadie]

I don,t have a tc but a small class C never paid for a camp out west. I have pulled up to a ranch house and asked to stay overnight, best stop we made. had a great time. theres thousands of places that are same and I like being alone in nature. heres one arizona roosevelt lake pull down to the waters edge was there three days before I saw another person.

[SidecarFlip]

Michigan is anywhere there is a turnout, especially in the UP. Leave it like you found it and if there is trash, pick it up even if it's not yours.

[Kayteg1]

Each state & province has different laws, so you can't assume anything.
Forget boondocking in California coastal areas. Basically each city has ordinance forbidding RV overnight stay and they force Walmarts to do that as well.
The practice seems to extend to Oregon, Yukon and who knows how many other places.
But on our drive to Alaska only few rest areas had "no overnight stay" signs, so we could pull over at any convenient area and sleep well. Canada Information Centers have dump stations and water faucet, so that was easy.
Than states like AZ allow boon-docking basically everywhere.

[srschang]

My wife and I have been truck camping for 15 years and I totally understand your concerns. We live in western NY, south of Buffalo, and there's not a lot of "public land" open to overnight stays. We just drove to Alaska and back over 5 weeks, and paid to camp every night. To me I need the comfort knowing that I'm in my "legal spot" every night. I couldn't sleep if I just parked somewhere down a dirt road not knowing if I was on somebody's property and might get a knock on the door as you suggested. I just haven't figured out how to tell if it's OK to spend the night somewhere - it would be great to have a huge map of the US and Canada that said "OK to camp here, not OK to camp there", but I've not been able to find such a map. And there's also the convenience factor - wife on her Ipad, me driving, tired, 6:00 in the evening, she says: "Hey, there's a KOA in 5 miles". Me: "Sounds great"

[_1Flyboy]

Well you might go to Campendium.com and also get the ULTIMATE CAMPGROUNDS App.... Also try GOOGLING boondocking... Also uscampgrounds.info

[gkainz]

Here's a place to start your research

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=North+Carolina+BLM+National+Forest+dispersed+camping