Boondocking? What we learned from our RV Unplugged Contestants
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- Опубліковано 27 лип 2024
- Boondocking? What we learned from our RV Unplugged Contestants
In this episode, we'll be sharing some valuable boondocking tips that we learned from the contestants on RV Unplugged.
Check out RV Unplugged here:
• RV Unplugged Pilot EP1...
Boondocking, also known as dry camping, is camping without any hookups to water, electricity, or sewer. It's a popular way to explore nature and travel off the beaten path, but it can also present some challenges.
The National RV Training Academy, the largest hands-on RV technical career college in the country, conducted a rigorous test to find out which treatment reigns supreme. These products both do a fantastic job, but we're here to determine which one gives you the most bang for your buck.
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We have spent 14 consecutive days (you're supposed to move 20 miles or more from where you're at every 14 days - last I checked) in the deserts of AZ and have done a few things to make it more comfortable. After 14 days, we either spend a night in an RV park or find a place to dump and fill and head back to the desert.
Water:
1. We have a rig with 50gal of grey tank, 50gal of black tank and 100 gal of fresh water storage
2. Wash dishes with spray bottles (one with soapy water and one with clean "rinse" water
3. Only shower every 3rd day if possible
4. Oxygenics shower head
5. "Navy" showers
6. We've tried the "sock filter into a box of rocks" method of gradually releasing grey water, but that was a hassle
7. Something I haven't tried, but might work is a soaker hose attached to a macerator cap with a sock filter at the bayonet connection - seems legit
8. With any of the grey water dumping, make sure you're following state and local regulations and being good stewards to the environment (use only organic soaps)
Electric:
I work remotely and have a dual monitor setup that I'm on for at least nine hours per day.
1. We have a 3,000 watt inverter, 2,600 watts of solar and about 400ah of AGM batteries (going to upgrade to lithium this year)
2. Only use "large draw" appliances when the sun is high in the sky - we try to limit this to the hours of 10AM - 2PM generally
3. Open windows and use shades and awnings to regulate temperatures
4. USB chargeable desk fans for cooling at night (the fan battery will die, but by that time it's early morning when the temps are low anyway)
5. Listen to your dad and turn off the lights!
Food:
1. Avoid opening the fridge as much as possible - get in, get everything you need and get out
2. Cook outside as much as possible
3. Like you said, fruit and veggies don't have to be cold, keep them on the counter and eat them
4. Plan your meals - we have an Instant Pot and it's just the two of us, so we'll cook on Sunday or Monday and have 'creative leftovers' the rest of the week
5. Also with planning your meals, you will use those fruits and veggies before they go bad, so you don't NEED to store them for a long time
6. If you can, buy farm fresh eggs. They don't need to be refrigerated and you're helping out the local farmer
We've got a lot to learn, but this is some of what we've done :)
My wife and I have a 2023 Montana high country fifth wheel. It came equipped with a 200 W solar panel 3000 W inverter and 100 amp hour lithium iron phosphate battery in addition to that I run three Ecoflow Delta Pro. Solar generators located where a normal Cummings generator would be installed in the fifth wheel. The Ecoflow‘s together total 1080 W hours plus a 3600 W inverter. and a 1600 watt MPPT solar controller for a total of 1180 W hours! All in only the footprint of a normal Cummins generator! I can run my fifth wheel completely normally as you would on a 30 amp circuit and depending on my power usage so far, I’ve run it anywhere from all night long with the air conditioner with power to spare to a couple of days with the air conditioner off and on! So far my weak spot is the solar panels (I will be adding more)but I haven’t really had to recharge on solar alone. Another nice thing is the EcoFlow’s can recharge from solar panels, a wall plug or even an electric vehicle charger while simultaneously out putting power to the RV! My panels are plugged in all the time and they continually top off the batteries. The most I’ve ever had to do is run my small predator generator for an hour to recharge the batteries once and I can get a full recharge in about an hour and a half, and then run off batteries for a couple of days! And I’m talking about AC,microwaves, refrigerator, satellite TV! Also, I have a residential refrigerator and it doesn’t draw that much electricity with my EcoFlow‘s installed my refrigerator is always cold even when I travel and since it’s plugged into the solar full-time I honestly don’t even think about it much it’s just always cold unless I turn it off! And to install all of this all I had to do was wire in a 30 amp plug and cable to where the generator would be wired into the Power Transfer Switch and that plugs right into the front of the EcoFlow’s 30 amp port! I did a lot of research before I decided on this particular set up dollar for dollar it is quite a bit better and cheaper than any system I’ve seen so far I would’ve had to spend over $12,000 on batteries alone just to get the same amount of watt hours and then I would’ve had to add the inverters, MPPT controllers and everything else to make the system work. With my system I spent about $8000 and got every bit of that and more! Oh, and did I mention I do all of this, with the exception of the generator recharge absolutely quiet, no noise I have power 24 seven without bothering anybody! I don’t know so far so good!
We are avid FT boondockers who have found that our limiting resource is often gray tank capacity. We have 2 tips for you. First since we have a 50-gallon black and a 50-gallon gray tank but a 100-gallon fresh tank in our MH, we often transfer about 20 gallons of gray water into our black tank, so they fill relatively evenly. Not only does this extend our time at the campsite to the full 2-week BLM limit, but 20 gallons of soapy water added to our black tanks helps it to empty completely at the dump station. Second tip. Where it's permitted to do so, like on BLM desert land we sometimes filter our gray water with a 20-micron dedicated Clear2o pre-filter and allow the filtered gray water to drain slowly into the sand. The desert plants will thank you for the extra moisture and the odor associated with food particles will be eliminated. This is an even better, more hygienic method of disposing of your gray water than tent campers who routinely dump their food particle laden dish water directly on the ground. I've also seen desert campers use inflatable kiddy pools to evaporate some of their gray water. They simply weigh the kiddy pool down with a few heavy rocks and slowly trickle their gray water into it allowing the sun and wind to do the rest. This leaves a layer of dried residue on the bottom of the plastic that easily peels off to be disposed of with one's trash.
How did you transfer your Grey water to your black tank?
Great thoughts!
We just spent a week at a FMCA rally in Perry, GA, and we lasted 6 days without having to dump our tanks or paying someone else to have our tanks pumped out. We did it by using paper plates, plastic cutlery, and paper bowls and cups, taking very efficient showers, and minimizing toilet flushing. By weeks end we still had more than a third of a tank of fresh water, and slightly more than 1/3 fluids in our grey and black tanks! We also minimized hot food, saving energy. All this combined really Pais dividends!
We catch the water out of the shower faucet that usually gets wasted waiting for the hot water. We use that water for washing/rinsing dishes.
When I boondock (which I love to do!), when washing dishes (or prepping for a shower) I run the hot water into a pan or bucket (because it takes a few minutes to reach the faucet as hot), and save that water for other purposes (or to just pour back into the holding tank). No wasted not-hot water.
The thing that helped me out the most was installing a battery monitor. I'm able to quickly see what draws what from the battery. I can see how long the battery will last for the devices I have on and I can tell when I have to either plug the coach in to power or start the generator..
This is a very important point. You will look at draw and solar production frequently. A volt meter is ok, but can often mislead you,especially if you have an inverter. Additionally, you can figure out what you need before you buy. Possibly saving you thousands.
@@eddiedoherty2349 Thanks for your comment, Eddie. The battery monitor I elected to use measures the actual current draw as well as the battery voltage. This gives me a true reading of the battery status. It was around $50 on Amazon.
This TIP is about safety, when everything fails. It is for us with Class C or A rigs. If by any chance the weather is extremely hot and you or your family are overheating (no AC, batteries depleted to run fans, and your Truck or RV wont start to run the AC), get under your Class A or C motorhome. If you have been parked for more than a day, the temperature there will be about 6 degrees cooler and the walls of your rig forces the wind to go under there. I learned this the hard way. It kept me safe while help arrived (6 hour later).
Every person has their own needs. So the best way is just start small and add until your comfortable.
I agree with almost everything said here on conservative camping… we started tent camping in 1981, went to an old (20 y/o) Class C in ‘93, then as family continued to grow a 36’ TT, then 2 - 26’ TTs…. this last 26’ is my ‘she house’ that I let my hubby ‘stay in’ 😂
***One thing missed by most comments :
▶️ Toilet Paper!
If it is dirty then MAYBE in the black tank.
If it’s just wet, trash can next to toilet.
TP takes up a lot of room in the tank and contributes to poop hills.
I spray the bag in the toilet trash with an orange natural room freshener and stay on top of the amount.
We now are without our 4 kids (empty nest so to speak) so it is MUCH EASIER to control water, waste, food, & refrigerator uses/abuses.😉
PS…. We are a NAVY couple…
So true NAVY SHOWERS in our camper!!!!
We dry camp most of the time. We use spray bottles for washing our dishes. We use battery string lights at night to light the camper at night. We don't flush our toilet paper down the toilet, we put it in a sealed container so it doesn't smell. We have a100 watt solar panels that top off our batteries during the day. On a 7 week trip to Canada we only used our generator twice. We use battery operated reading light to read books and see our computer at night.
We are PT boondockers but the first thing I did when I bought my rig was replace the (2) 6V lead acid batteries with (2) 12V Battle Borns. So I basically quadrupled my battery capacity. One of our boondocking excursions that almost nobody in the RV industry talks about yet it's extremely popular is College Football tailgating. We spend two nights in a campus parking lot at the University of Florida with no hookups. Not the "secluded and picturesque" boondocking experience you get at places like the Grand Tetons, but the same principles and great experience nonetheless.
Go GATORS!
The shower mizer in our shower is amazing.
For extended boondocking, we have 2 6 gallon jerry cans (the slim ones) and a 2.5 gallon small one for the kitchen that has a big mouth (opening) so we can easily transfer to from the jerry cans for coffee water, drinking water and other uses, which extends our fresh water capacity. And, of course showers are Navy showers or a bird bath with warm water heated up on the propane stove. A lot of folks don’t realize how effective this is, almost as refreshing as a shower just using about a half gallon of water. Also, we have a 60 gallon pillow bladder for fresh water replenishment and a 27 gallon honey wagon for the black tank. Being a guy, I just pee outside to minimize our black tank dumping intervals. Some BLM lands allow gray water to be dumped on the ground, just need to check before doing that. Just my 2 cents.
👍😃🍻
We have a set of solar patio lights that the solar panel detaches from the string of lights. We put the panel in the sun and drape the lights inside the rig. When it starts getting dark we take the panel inside and hook it to the string of lights. Lights up our rig very nicely when boondocking.
I installed 4 lithium batteries 100ah with a vitron battery shunt and a 3000 watt inverter. I currently only have a 180watt zamp solar suitcase to charge the batteries and a predator 3500 portable generator. With a 20lb onboard lp tank 100 gal of fresh water. And 6 gal od gass for the generator I can easily boondock for 3 to 4 weeks. Keep the inverter off except when charging all devices and making coffee or using electric cookware. Keep the refrigerator on LP. Cook on the gas stove 90% of the time. Use 6gal gas water heater every 3 days to shower and rinse the dawn power washed dishes. Keep the water pump 9ff when not in use.
Pretty impressive!
Just finished 3 month boon-docking in Florida. Low sun angle, flat solar panel production off 40% rating. Had angled solar on ground, moved to track sun twice daily, good production. Still needed to run generator, cloudy days happen and sometimes AC was needed. Was able to cut my generator use by about 50%. This paid about 75% of the 200 watt ground solar unit. WATER: use paper plates, washing dishes wastes precious water. Found we could go up to 3 weeks before moving to dump. FUEL: Jerry can to add fuel as needed.
We are new to RVing, but we've been avid tent campers for decades. My husband is super handy and built us both a solar generator and a hot water shower for tent camping that can pull water from a lake or stream, then we heat it and pump it through the shower. We also enjoy cooking outside over a fire or with a propane grill or stove -- we even have a propane coffee maker!
We also have a tent toilet ... the shower and tent toilet used to be two separate tent structures, now they share one. So, when needed -- and we're mostly on the East Coast, btw -- we're not really using our black or gray tanks that much. We do use them, like for night-time bathroom visits, washing dishes, etc., but since we have these alternatives we don't need to worry so much. We're also good at conserving and re-using water in general after all of these years of tent camping on BLM, etc. land.
With the solar we have (currently just one external panel), during the day, we charge batteries of all sorts -- our little boat has a couple, and we have various rechargeable items (like actual AA, AAA, C, etc.; batteries, flashlights, etc.) and a couple of hand-held batteries for our phones. One charge can usually last two or three days, so we can rotate what batteries are being charged. We also have a couple battery-operated lamps that we use inside at night. And we definitely use the light from our windows during the daytime as much as possible.
We have two lead batteries that are relatively new for our new-to-us 2017 A-class Coachmen Pursuit. We can theoretically attach our solar panel to them, but haven't tried that yet. We do have lithium batteries and installed solar on our agenda, but probably for our next rig once we're full time.
We always manage to have more than everything we need, even with this sort of set up. The only real pain is that the tent toilet needs to be refreshed daily, which is to say we're probably running it and whatever other trash we have to the local dump every day. But that's also an opportunity to do whatever else we need to do in town.
small, drill driven transfer pump to source water, filter and use. ! cheers
Use outdoor shower to save gray storage. Use a small personal shower tent or nothing if really primitive.
Go Team Irene Iron! Chris & Aaron are the best!
Great video. Informative and fun. You guys give a lot of "food" for thought
Thanks for watching!
Boondocking is like balancing a check book you have X amount of electricity, water,and propane you need to know how much you can use
I have 40' 5wheel toy hauler, 2x100 watt solar, 5500 watt gen, 3 agm batt., 160gal fresh, 30 degees heater pulls batt to 75% overnite full charge 2 hours daylite. Shower uses 1+ gal per shower, can stay out a month on 2 propane tanks and 28 gal of gas for toys or gen. Can watch tv all day.
I have a 2004 32' Bounder with 500w of solar and 300w of Lithium batteries with a 2000w inverter. All outlets work. 100 gal for fresh water 45 gal of blk/gry. If I want a hot shower, we collect the water from the shower and use it for coffee and washing . dump the excess water in the black tank. (help for the Poop) Thanks Don
I boondock just fine with a champion 2000 watt inverter. I wash clothes in a 5 gal bucket with a plunger, I think that’s normal.
what would you consider a good generator to purchase for boon-docking in a fifth wheel with solar
I have a fifth wheel with a residential refrigerator and 2 lead acid batteries, how can I keep it running just overnight at Wallmart or somewhere there is no power?
I have a single 100 amp hour dragonfly lithium battery and the sooarflex 200 package on our rig. Approximately how long will our 12 volt refrigerator run with this package if we have a full day of sun.. and about how long will it run if its a cloudy day? Also consider those times while i use the waterpump occasionally and using our indoor lights sparingly which are LED?
So the data plate inside the fridge door will provide either the amp consumption per hour or the wattage used per hour.
The dragonfly battery also list its energy potential (100amp hours) or ~1200 to -1400 watts. You don’t want to completely drain it but you could safely drain 90%. So ~1100 watts to be safe.
Let’s say your fridge consumes 400 watts per hour. So with NO help from the sun you could expect ~4 hours.
6 hours on average is what you might expect on those solar panels. You probably will NOT get 200 watts all 6 hours. But any but helps during that time. In this example I would expect about ~8hours safely.
My example hopefully makes that 12v fridge running full on. I hope it will be around 250-300 watts/hour.
@@NationalRVTrainingAcademy Thankyou for the reply. Your answer gives me a good approximation for using the fridge. We stay at campgrounds most of the time but we booked a state park this summer for a week and there are no hookups available. But we did buy a champion duel fuel 4500 inverter generator to use in a pinch but I really only wanna use it if i have to. At least now you gave me an idea about how long the battery will last.
I have a question about the at-home course… There is an online version and a USB drive version. Do they both come with the workbooks etc? I’d love the best of both worlds, online access AND have the paper materials.
The USB version comes with the workbooks. The online version does not. It is strictly online.
@@NationalRVTrainingAcademy Bummer.
@@shanedenmark5536 With the USB version you still have access to all the online stuff.
@@AmericanAdventuresTJ The plot thickens…