CLASS A RV BOONDOCKING ADVANTAGES, IS IT THE BEST FOR OFF GRID CAMPING?
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Today I am here to share my thoughts with you of why I think a Class A motorhome is the best RV for boondocking, now I already probably got a few thumbs down for that opening statement already, but by the end of this video, maybe I will have changed your mind.
I am going to start with what my Class A came with from the factory and what changes I have made to make it even better off grid.
My Winnebago Vista is a 2016 28 foot Class A motorhome and from the factory it came with a 64 gallon fresh water tank and 96 gallons of combined holding tank capacity. That right there gives me enough water to go off grid for 12 days while showering everyday. With Sabrina with me it cuts it down to six days.
Fresh water is very important for boondocking and because of the overall size of a Class A you can typically get very large tank capacities out of it, but you also get large cargo capacities as well-meaning I can easily carry these two extras 6 gallons cans of water with me. Now I am up to 14 days on my own and seven days with Sabrina. Admittedly Sabrina and I are not very good at conserving our water and have friends that can go loner on less.
Large Propane, Our Vista has a 18 gallon propane tank that allows us to go off grid for over a month on one tank of propane, unless we are in freezing temps than we will obviously go through that propane faster, but fair weather conditions and we are good for a long while and again because of our large storage capacity, we also have the option to carry external tanks and connect them with a system called extend a stays. We personally have never needed to do this.
Large fuel tanks, Our Class A gas coach has an 80 gallon fuel tank this can be used to get us way off the main roads and still have plenty of fuel to get back as well as run our onboard generator.
Running the generator allows us to operate high powered items like our A/C and microwave as well as all other 120 volt appliances.
Roof top real-estate to get away from using a generator. Again because of the size of our Class A Motorhome we have a lot of roof top space for solar. This is an upgrade to our coach, where we now have over 1200 watts of solar. This matched up with 1000 amp hours of battle born batteries allows us to go offgrid without needing the generator. I have personally been out camping for over 14 days without needing to power up our generator and use any additional fuel. But again this is because of the Class A size and capacities. I had room not only for the solar panels, but also for a larger inverter and batteries.
Another Upgrade we made was to our Water Heater, we replaced our six gallon water heater with a Truma AquaGo, the AquaGo is much more efficient as it does not have a large tank to fill, it is considered a hot water on demand system, turn a faucet on and you have hot water, turn that faucet off and it turns the system off. It is not trying to constanly keep 6 gallons of water hot for when you need it. Also because the water gets hot so quickly we waste less water trying to get it to temperature.
Large Fridge and cabinets again, I am going back to the size of our Class A and keep in mind we are still only 28ft long, but we have a good size fridge and plenty of cabinet space to bring food on a trip with us, we are actually going to increase the size of our fridge a bit this year and change it out for a 12 volt fridge. The new fridge will then be power by our solar and batteries instead of propane. I really like solar and lithium for the fact it renews itself everday and can keep us off grid potentially forever.
Ground clearance, I know most people do not think of a Class A RV as a offroader and I am not going to tell you it is, but I have taken mine down some pretty nasty “roads” and have been able to get to very remote places with it, would a travel trailer and truck do better yeah, but the Class A might surprise you of where it can go since our Class A does have a decent amount of ground clearance.
Our biggest limiting factor is water and will probably always will be, but honestly 14 days off grid has always been plenty for us as we typically stay at places that have a 14 day limit anyway. We normally average 7 days off grid at a time, so our setup now a days is a bit overkill, but we love it!
So let me know down in the comment section, did I convince you on the advantages of a Class A motorhome for boondocking or do you think another RV style has it beat?
Take care, safe travels and hope to see you on the road!
I will be at the Escapees Escapade event June 16th to the 21st at Rock Springs Wyoming and would love to meet up with you there. I will be working the show for Winnebago giving RV tours of the new Journey, Ekko Sprinter and Vista 34R. I will also be helping out with their workshops where Winnebago will be looking for your feedback on future projects. Hope to see you there!
We're a retired FT couple who boondock almost exclusively in a 1999 National Tropical MH. We boondocked for 10 months last year and have been living off grid all this year so far. Our MH has a 95-gallon fresh tank, though both gray and black tanks are only 50 gallons each. Our goal is to make the typical 14-day BLM and Forest Service camping limit before we need to dump and take on water. Everyone's tanks fill at a different rate, but we've found that our black tank lasts us about a month before its full, whereas our gray tank's capacity often falls short of the 2-week camping limit, depending on how often we shower. If we shower once a week, taking "bird baths" or sponge baths during the week we can barely scrape by, as we average about 7 gallons per shower. This only leaves us 22 gallons of gray tank capacity for everything else, like dish washing, hand washing, bird baths, shaving, etc. That's only 1.57 gallons of gray water space per day. We usually transfer about 20 gallons of gray water to our black tank, as we have extra capacity there. This also helps the black tank drain more completely when we dump. We rarely drain some filtered gray water on the ground (on BLM land where its legal to do so) or haul some off with a blue boy if needed. We used to carry an extra 15 gallons of fresh water in our toad, in 3 five-gallon collapsible jugs, to give us a total of 110 gallons of fresh water available. While this is usually enough, we upgraded to a 65-gallon water bladder in our toad which we fill with about 50 gallons when we travel, so we never run short anymore.
We have a 25-gallon ASME propane tank with an extend-a-stay and a portable 20 lb. tank that we can take to go get more propane rather than moving our rig. We don't use as much propane anymore since we added our big solar system which allowed us to switch to a residential fridge, saving us about a lb. of propane a day. We chose a 10.7cf Whirlpool, which seems like it has twice the space as our old Dometic, like you mentioned. Our mini split heat pump stretches our propane use even more. We carry a Mr. Heater Buddy Heater with us, that is plumbed into our propane tank, for supplemental heat if needed, as this uses less than 1/2 the propane that our furnace does - though we rarely use it anymore.
We designed and built our solar system ourselves, on a tight budget. It took us 5 years to gather the resources to finally complete the project. We started by building a 620-watt liftable solar array on the side of our motorhome. Our side array makes a nice bedroom window awning too, practically lifting itself with a couple gas struts, and it's easy to clean, standing safely on the ground. Next, we built a 12v, 560ah LiFePo-4 battery using 8, 280ah prismatic cells and a Heltec 330amp BMS, as it takes about 300 amps to start our generator.
By mounting the solar array on the side of our coach, we left the roof free to rack 8, 550w Sungold Power solar panels down the length of our 35ft Class A, 15" off our roof, above our AC, vents, etc. We built the rack out of 2" 6061-T6 structural aluminum angle. The front 2 panels slope down at a shallow 9.5-degrees to meet the roof, producing a smooth laminar airflow over the array, making the RV more stable with less wind drag while driving too. It shades our entire roof, allowing plenty of cooling air underneath, increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners. Our overall height is still just under 12 ft. Our 4,400w array can run both our A/Cs, household appliances and charge our batteries from solar at the same time. We mounted a Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger, breakers and a Lnex battery monitor on the wall in our bedroom. It saves us space as well as money compared to a system built with individual components. We chose this model because it supports our 400voc solar array. Our 48v battery uses 16, 320ah prismatic cells and we use a 200amp BMS to keep it safe. Together with our 560ah 12v bank, we have a total of 23.5 kwh of batteries onboard, charged by 5,020 watts of solar. This solar/battery system is heavy, but my tag axle equipped MH's 3,700lb carrying capacity can handle the near 900lbs it adds. To help it out, we removed some weight from our MH by transferring heavy tools, fluids and chemicals to our 30mpg toad and selling the 2 electric bikes we used to carry with us but seldom used. Btw, my MH is 4WD too - it's just that all 4 drive wheels are on the same axle. 😉
We removed the rooftop A/C we had in the bedroom and replaced it with an EG4 28.5 seer-2, 12k btu mini-split heat pump on the upper rear of our motorhome. It's super quiet and cools as well as our 14.5k btu Easy Start equipped Furrion we have up front, using about 1/3 the power. This 48v system provides 24/7 off-grid air conditioning and heat from the heat pump. We have a total off-grid electrical self-sufficiency without the need to run our generator, for a total budget of around $11,500, including the high-efficiency heat pump.
Showering everyday😢 wow! That's living! When we were in the desert we would shower once every 3 or 4 days and use one gallon each.
Got to have our showers to start the day! We live almost exactly the same in our RV as we do at home, just use little less water. The RV life is a good life!
I agree Class A's are great for off grid camping, assuming you can get the Class A to the off grid site. Ours is also 28ft, though you have more rear departure angle clearance, we have 80 gallon fresh, 40 gallon gray and 40 black tank, though we have a much larger 32 gallon propane tank, We have the 8.1L gas engine, but our coach was also offered with a diesel engine and propane generator. Overall our water usage is about like yours, of course you have more solar and LiFePo4 battery than we do, ours is 400 watts solar 420 AH 12v LiFePo4 with a 2000 watt inverter, I may upgrade solar to 600 or 900 watts this winter. p.s. I wish we had an 80 gallon gas tank, ours is only 60 gallons.
Hey Ike, I really should have highlighted my departure angle as it definitely makes a difference. 80 gallons of fresh water is awesome and would eliminate the need for us to bring those two extra water containers. Funny how different our capacities can be in a similar size coach. I do like having the 80 gallon fuel tank, we typically get over 600 miles out of it, which is great for cross-country driving. Thanks for watching amd for your feedback I appreciate it!
Yes! We have a motorhome also. But our fuel tank is only 75, water is 80 gallons, blk & gray tanks out @41 a piece. Propane...we do the same as you, carry an extra 10 gallon tank. Easier to take off & on to refill so the on board stays pretty full most of the time.
Our clearance is pretty high also. So we do a lot of BOONDOCKING!
Sure saves a lot of 💲plus lots of more places to visit. Much more beautiful places to explore.
Great info!👍
I like how you’re using your rig. Makes perfect sense. We do the same as you, in a 33’ class A. Just not as often. Safe travels.
Can you get a class a shorter
@@abcd.777 I think the shortest Class A that has been built in the last 10 years is about 26 ft advertised length, actual length 27'1", there have been shorter ones built in the past, but I can't think of any shorter ones built in the last 20 year, not counting the Thor Axis / Vegas which is more like a Class C with a Class A body kit on it.
Hey I love that shirt you were wearing while setting up the solar panels. I do agree lithium has changed the RV industry. And yes I gave the video a thumbs up lol. Stay safe.
Lol, Lou your RV Habit shirt was one of my favorites, so much so I wore it out 🤣 I really need to order another one to replace it. Lithium has been so great, we use it so much more than just while camping, like while driving down the road to run the rooftop AC and save a smidgen of fuel from not using the dash AC. Little things like that. It's been great! Wishing you safe travels as well and thanks for the 👍
Your probably correct as the more space you have the more comfortable you are however over the years; we downsized all the way down to a class B Travato. Now it's just the two of us with no more kids or pets. It's more important for us to be able to park in tight spots like parking lots, shopping areas and downtown to enjoy the restaurants and venues. When boondocking we add a portable room and have a large storage box on the hitch mount for storage.
Hi Phil, We product tested a Travato 59KL for three weeks and loved it. We really though a wet bath would have been a no go for us, but it wasn't a big deal at all and we loved being able to park anywhere. Of course water was our nemesis and we couldn't seem to go more than two days on the tanks, not much of a surprise there as we are not good at conserving water. Take care, safe travels and maybe we will see you down the road or at a future show
All of your points are well made. Excellent episode!
Thanks Gordon! We absolutely love our Class A and all of it's features.
Where can I get my solar panels installed? I am currently in Tucson, Arizona.
We drive out to Albuquerque New Mexico to have Echo One Adventures do all of our battery and solar installs. I just recently went back to them to have a DC to DC charger installed. They do great, clean work and really know their stuff. Here is a link to their website echooneadventures.com/ ask for Jordan he is the owner and did our install.
I like the video and couldn't agree more! I have a similar RV (2020 Adventurer 29B). My only addition to your comments would be just the overall comfort. Some of the things you touch on are part of that but we have full baths, full kitchens, tables, captains chairs all inside! Admittedly we can't go quite as far out as our friends in their adventure rigs but we can get respectably off grid on some forest roads etc. and live very comfortably for an extended period of time. Roughing it can be fun for sure, but when you get to be 50+ years old, bathrooms with running water and soft beds become important. Totally works for me!
Couple of questions on the battle born set up under the bed. Does that set up generate much heat? Feel it in bed? Any humming/noise from the controllers etc?
Yes our Class A certainly is very comfortable, really it feels like an apartment on wheels :)
The inverter does get warm when we run the AC from the batteries, but not enough to feel through the bed. We added small computer fans under the bed to pull the warm air out into our water bay, we can hear the fans running if we listen for them, but they are not oud enough to annoy us.
I do think if we were to build thus system again maybe we would have placed the inverter in a bay, but it has worked out fine where it is and it was nice to have everything all in one spot for running the wiring.
If you are going to be at the Escapades or the Winnebago Rally I am happy to show you the setup in person to check out.
So far your the only one that hits very important info.
Thank you Dave! I try my best with informational videos
Hi Kenny, Matt here. You had helped me with my lithium set up a while back. Now im looking at replacing my fridge with a 12v as you had mentioned. But every RV tech I talked with recommended against a 12 volt, and suggest a residential fridge. But we love boondocking in our class A too much! I would like to message you for your ideas... Great video!
Hey Matt, I'm not sure why techs wouldn't want to install the 12volt fridge. They are a much less amp draw, don't need to be level to run and I believe they operate at a cooler temperature (don't put out as much heat in the back of the unit) I called Winnebago Factory service in Iowa and asked if our fridge could be swapped out for one and they said absolutely and that it has been a popular request. You can of course email at movingforward01@yahoo.com to discuss further.
@@MovingForwardAdventures hey Kenny, what's a good email for you guys?
Excellent video. I don't know how much you stay in RV parks, but if you boondock exclusively you might want to think about a compost toilet. I go 4 to 6 weeks without having to change the media (coco coir) in the "solids" tank. The used media is dumped into a green garbage bag and is legal to take to the dump or throw in a dumpster, just as millions do with disposable diapers. The two gallon pee jug is dumped in the desert where it dries up and disappears within hours. I never have to leave a site to go to a dump station anymore. My compost toilet is an Airhead brand that was originally made for boats. It uses zero water, which is just like adding a huge fresh water tank to your rig. Toilets are a huge source of water usage in an RV, and eliminating that makes a big difference. It has a computer fan that runs 24/7, constantly dehydrating the solids. The solids tank never fills up as it dehydrates as fast as it fills. It vents to the outside via a vaccuum cleaner sized hose, and does not smell.
I am retired and live in Quebec for the summer months on my bush lot. In October I head for southern Arizona/California for the winter. I boondock 100% of the time, and haven't paid for a camping spot for 7 years. I tow a 16x7x7 ft cargo trailer to RV conversion that I built over the last few years. It is a boondocking machine, and is built exclusively for backcountry desert camping.
I have 1300 watts of solar on the roof and another 750 watts with 3 - 250 watt ground panels for a total of 2050 watts. I have 900 amp hours of LiFePO4 batteries. This solar system is the heart of my RV and makes everything else possible. I have a Magnum 2000 inverter/charger. I have 10 120 volt power outlets throughout the RV. All but one are invisible under cabinets or the bed, etc. I do not want to look at the receptacles on the walls, so I hid them. They also have USB A and C. Lights are 12 volt pot lights controlled and dimmed with either the light switch or a remote control. They are set into a tongue and groove pine ceiling from a mill near where I live in Quebec. It took me 40 hours just to sand and stain the boards before installing the ceiling. I have smoke, carbon monoxide, and propane detectors.
The RV is very well insulated, with 4 inches of styrofoam panel insulation in the ceiling, 2 inches in the rear ramp and floor, and 1 inch in the walls. My total cost last winter in Arizona per month in propane was $21 US. This includes the heat from a Mr Buddy heater that is plumbed into the RV propane system and kept in a cabinet under the kitchen sink until needed. Propane also heats my water using an on demand water heater, and fuels my RV oven/stove from a 5th wheel RV.
For holding tanks, I have a 100 gallon plastic farm tank in the bed of the Ram 3500 for fresh water. The outlet on the water tank has a Y valve attached so I can attach two hoses. One hose goes to the RV water inlet, and the other is a short 4 ft hose that gravity feeds water from the tank so that I have water outdoors for dog dishes, hand washing, or rinsing the dishes after washing them. There is a shut off valve at the end of this hose, so it is always on the tailgate ready to use. It takes a few seconds to hook the hose from the tank to the water inlet in the V nose of the RV. With just myself and a Golden Retriever, this easily lasts me the two weeks I usually spend at each BLM site. I have the luxury of being able to take long hot showers out in the middle of nowhere without worrying about running out of hot water. The truck bed also contains a 100 gallon diesel tank, so I have a range of about 1500 miles while towing, and almost double that if not towing. My shower and kitchen sink dump straight to the ground. No plumbing or holding tanks, except a small 6 gallon Gerry can under the kitchen sink. On the trip across the country twice a year I stay at Walmarts. On those nights I can flip a valve and divert any water from the kitchen sink to the 6 gallon grey tank. This is enough to get me across the country. I do my dishes in a Tupperware tub of hot soapy water on the tailgate of the truck, and dump the gallon or two of dishwater in the desert. Before I finished this RV, I had an outdoor shower tent. I was told by a BLM dude that it was not an issue, and moving it indoors would not change that. I think it is the stinky bacteria that they are most concerned about. Because I have no holding tank, this is not a problem. There are two small pieces of bug screening as a filter at the ends of where both the shower amd kichen sink dump through the floor to make sure only liquid is ever dumped.
With all this solar, I am able to have a home 120 volt fridge with drawer freezer and ice maker. This really helps me to not feel like I am camping. I also use my microwave, coffee maker, deep fryer, and toaster. I have a desktop computer with a 32 inch monitor that is right at my feet when I sit in my recliner chair. I am an astrophotographer, and I surf and photograph the universe from my recliner chair using this computer screen. I have a portable weather station on an aluminum pole that I set up at each site.I have a high double bed at the rear of the RV, with lots of storage underneath for the solar system and astrophotography telescopes and cameras. I also carry a generator, though it is rarely needed.
My internet for two years now has been Starlink. It has tripled the size of my desert playground, as I can now get high speed internet anywhere, no matter how remote.
The interior of the RV is mostly pine and maple cabinetry that I built using wood from a cousin's sawmill down the road from where I live in Quebec. I am not quite finished yet, but if I do say so myself it is starting to look like a luxury RV.
For my particular use, I am happy with what I have built, though I would go a bit bigger if I had to do it again. But nothing breaks. I had a fifth wheel before this and it was non - stop trouble and expensive repairs. That problem has vanished, and the peace of mind I have now when on the road is priceless.
Maybe I'll see you out there one of these days!
Great video, I agree that class A RV's are the best. We haven't boondocked longer than 2 days because we only have 200w of solar and AGM batteries. We do have a 10,000kwh Onan generator but, I just don't like running the generator 24hrs a day, and Having a 45ft coach with 3 AC's we need a lot of solar and a big lithium battery bank. Safe travels.
I will just add that many RV parks including KOA offer Electric Only sites (no water hookup, no sewer hookup) at a reduced rate. Then you just use their dump station/water station on the way out. Everybody camps differently. We have a 26 foot Class A Fleetwood Flair. We could be towing a car and actually the car we have was purchased for that option. But we found that our camping style makes it easy to drive the motorhome anywhere we want when we want. Most of the time the only thing we care about at a campsite is being level. The next most important is electricity. For us that's it. We don't hook up to city water, we don't hook up to the sewer. Yep, other campers might disagree, but let's just think this through. We have a 70 gallon water tank and I can be sure that the water from my home is clean, I know the water pressure is safe because it is from my water pump, I am not creating additional "pathways" for ants to get into my rig. Most of all, I am not wasting my valuable weekend messing with hooking up the water hose, water pressure monitor, water filter, etc. Then 2 days later disconnecting the water hose, draining it, and putting it all away. Now let's talk about the sewer. I have 55 gallon gray and 35 gallon black holding tanks. If I don't hook it up to the sewer at the beginning and just dump at the end what am I saving? First disposable gloves to connect the system, another path for ants, the smell from an "open" sewer coming up into my rig, I can "only dump my grey tank" at the beginning because I need liquid to stay in my black tank so it does not clog. The hassle of bending down and hooking it up “twice.” So again we just dump at the end of our trip or as needed. So by eliminating those areas we can be driving to the store, restaurant, or show in about 5 minutes. I hope this helps. Happy RVing.
Awesome!!!! Wish you were closer. I’d love to do a comparison of our rigs! We LOVE to boondock with our 4x4 c class. Almost same solar, battery specs as you. Tow our jeep as well. I think we can get further out there then you guys but would kill to have your storage and capacity’s! That was our trade off. Love to see more motorhomes out in the boonies! Subscribed!
You will definitely be able to get to more remote places than us. I think if I had 4X4 in my RV I would just be getting myself in trouble lol it actually sounds awesome and I have mentioned to Winnebago about putting 4x4 in their larger vehicles, but I think it's maybe too niche if a market for it to be worth it to them. Sabrina and I are constantly on the road, hopefully we will meet up some day and do some Jeepin, I see you have a channel as well and I'll subscribe to you as well! Take care and safe travels!
@@MovingForwardAdventures that’s actually my buddies rig. His modifications are doing great. Mine is the baby c doing the rescue lol. Funny you mention the leveling jacks. The video I posted last week. I forgot to put mine in four-wheel-drive and buried it and I use the leveling jacks to get me out. Worked awesome!
I agree what you said but the best is whatever a person has. I am a Class A Thor Hurricane with V10 gas ⛽️ engine. My fresh is 50 gallon fresh & 2 Black & Grey tanks with bath & half & residential fridge & my length is 37 ft Rv. I have about 50 watts of solar for my 200 amp hr lithium battery. My boondocking has been at sporting events or at homes seeing family or over night stops during travel.
James, I definitely agree about the best is what the person has, but I'm also very partial to Class A's 🤣
I am jealous of your bath and a half, we once borrowed a Winnebago with that setup and loved it, especially since at the time we had our niece with us. It was a life saver! 😆
Safe travels and thank you for always watching and for your feedback.