If you know anything about us, or have looked at our campground reviews you’ll know we are a little spoiled. We are glampers (RV Resort regulars), not campers. Actually we like to say we are LIVING in our RV, not camping. So what were we to do when we found ourselves in a no hook-up boondocking situation for 2 (long, very long) weeks?
Boondocking aka Dry Camping
If you haven’t heard the term before, boondocking refers to camping without hookups (power, water, sewer), and is also called dry camping. It is very popular in rural areas, thus the name boondocking.
We have started using a program called Harvest Hosts where you can stay for free at farms, wineries, breweries, and golf courses.
Our RV Equipment
First off since we don’t boondock, or even stay at partial (gasp!) hookup sites, we had to work with what we had. Folks who do this regularly have installed things like solar panels and composting toilets or other water conservation methods. We have an Onan gas generator and fairly large water tanks. In preparation we bought a portable poop wagon (more on that later).
Lesson #1: Don’t Do It In Texas in Late May
While it may not officially be summer for another month, we had highs over 100 degrees on several days. It was HOT! While we can run two air conditioners in our Fifth Wheel on the generator, it burns a lot of gas! We thought we were going to get away with just using a battery operated fan, but not in that heat. Friends tell me that boondocking in temperate climates is much more enjoyable.
Lesson #2: Lead Acid Batteries Aren’t The Best Choice For Boondocking
Your lead acid batteries may have a 100% charge, but you can’t use it all. In fact, it is not recommended to deplete them beyond 50%. If you have a residential refrigerator like we do, you might want to upgrade. We upgraded to Lithium BattleBorn batteries and couldn’t be happier! Secondary to this, we learned that our inverter can only power the refrigerator. This meant we had no other power source while sleeping and no means to charge the batteries. So we also upgraded the inverter and converter. Below is the first of a 4-part series of videos on our power upgrade.
Lesson #3: We Use A Lot Of Water
One of the most inconvenient parts of boondocking or dry camping is the lack of a water source. You can get an additional water bladder or just get an RV with larger tanks (like we recently did). Luckily our first foray into boondocking was at a county fairground, so we were able to fill our fresh water tank when needed.
We were warned that daily showering uses a lot of water. In fact, I’ve read several articles from regular boondockers that forgoing the daily shower is helpful. Not for us. We like our daily showers. In fact, I sometimes take more than one a day. For example, I shower after my workout/walk every morning. One day we went to the lake in the afternoon, so I showered again before bed. I did employ one technique for my showers that I don’t normally do. Some folks call it a “navy shower” where you get wet, turn off the water, lather up, turn back on the water to rinse. I didn’t love it, but it seemed to help a little.
I also filled up a bucket with the excess cold water while I was waiting for the water to warm up. Then we used that water to flush the toilet. i
Lesson #4: The Water Has To Go Somewhere
Access to fresh water is not the only reason to conserve. The other reason is that all the water you use has to go somewhere. We purchased a Thetford SmartTote2 Portable Waste Tank for this particular camping adventure. We used it once and didn’t love the process. Dumping from the RV into the portable system was simple, but going from it to the dump station sewer drain was not so easy. When you lift the hose show in the image below hose, there is no valve holding back the flow until you get it in the drain.
We should have watched this video from Exploring the Local Life first. Robert explains how to overcome that particular challenge.
Will We Do It Again?
It really wasn’t so bad, and I think if we did it for a shorter period of time in a more temperate climate, we might even enjoy it. We’re going to take baby steps and check out some Corps of Engineer campgrounds with partial hookups.
UPDATE: WE DID IT AGAIN (AND AGAIN). CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE LESSONS LEARNED AND TIPS.
Recommended Products To Improve Your Boondocking Experience
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We just started boondocking a bit and the jury is still out for us as to whether we want to invest the money to upgrade our batteries and get solar panels (we already have the Pure Sign Inverter because it came with our coach). We want to get out and dry camp a lot more and make sure there are plenty of opportunities to use the stuff before plunking down all the money to upgrade. From what I’ve been told, it’s really hard to make your money back from those upgrades (in terms of saved camping fees or resale value) so it’s just a question of whether we love boondocking enough to spend the money to be able to do it more often. We definitely like the idea, but we’re worried there will be more places we can’t go than places we can go (because of our size), so we’re taking it slow. We hope to have a better idea by the end of this summer when we’ve had the opportunity to check out a lot of the national forest and BLM land in Colorado, Oregon, and Idaho to see if we could stay in those places.
As for the wastewater tank, we use ours at W/E campgrounds just for gray water. We got the one manufactured by Barker which has the hose attached to the side and a valve that opens to allow the water to exit. It’s still a pain to use, but it allows us to stay at partial hook-up parks which we often really enjoy. If you’re ever near Nashville, check out Seven Points Campground. It was one of our favorites.
I can’t wait to hear more about your travels this year. We’re traveling out west after Thanksgiving.
Back when we were looking to purchase an RV we had Solar Power and a Pure Sine Inverter as must-haves. Then thought we would just add them…. then decided to wait until we tried boondocking to make sure we really loved it before paying for the upgrades. Here we are nearly 2 years later and the road has taken us on a journey we didn’t expect and needless to say, we haven’t boondocked yet, haha. Gotta love that “must-have” list, eh?
We’ve had partial hookups on my husband’s family’s farm but that was about as close as we’ve gotten. I’d really love to spend more time dry camping but am definitely happy we didn’t go out and upgrade right away, especially with technology and pricing always changing. I figure the first few times we can use our generator and see how it goes. I love the convenience of RV parks and campgrounds, but it would be nice to sprinkle in some boondocking for better views and more privacy.
By the way, I grew up in TX (at least partially) so I can only imagine how hot it was for you guys! I used to joke that it would be so hot I didn’t even want to walk to the mailbox. The heat wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the humidity, ugh!
I don’t know that we’ll ever become regular boondockers, but it would be nice to have the option from time to time. We were stationed in San Antonio for 4 years and it was pretty hot there, but we had air conditioning. Haha!
Oh my gosh! Boondocking is my absolute favorite way to RV as I prefer the solitude and freedom… But I can’t ever imagine doing it in Texas in the heat! No way no how! You guys are brave. We lived in Texas before full-timing, and one of the reasons for RVing was to escape that oppressive Texas heat.
Funny enough, my first boondocking experience was in south Texas in the winter, on the ONE weekend the weather decided to drop down to 0 degrees in the Sam Houston Natl Forest. aaannnnd our furnace didn’t work!
That was one cold experience – but I remember it fondly. Boondocking truly is a journey, it seems like we do it differently and a little more efficiently each time.
Are you considering doing any boondocking in the desert this winter? That’s my most fond RVing experience by far! We made it over a month without any hookups and 1 trip to a dump station while camping near Sedona.
We are thinking of doing a bit more boon docking when we get out west this winter. There’s no way I could make it a month before going to the dump station. We have to dump our tanks every 7 – 10 days.
COE campgrounds are great… just not enough of them. A few of our favorites: Balk Ridge Creek COE and Sawnee COE in Cumming, GA (northern suburb of Atlanta) and Eastbank COE, Bainbridge, GA (right on the FL panhandle border). These offer W/E, waterfront sites and give discount for Nat’l park pass.
I’ll make a note of those. We recently stayed at one near Montgomery, AL called Gunter Hill. It was wonderful!
Sean & Julie, this is hysterical and very similar to our first (albeit much shorter times) couple of times boondocking. We were traveling from AZ to MN last spring and decided to try two overnight boondocking experiences.
The first night we tried to stay at one of the truck stop gas stations shown to us on a very popular app in NW Texas (yes the panhandle). Well, one thing the app doesn’t provide is that truckers are smart enough to hunker down much earlier than we planned. When we arrived (around midnight) there wasn’t space at all for us and our trailer to be found. So off we went to find an alternative location at midnight!
We found a T&A truck stop that we could fit into with a drive-through spot for the rest of the night. Additionally, it was warm enough so that we needed to open our windows and vents to cool the trailer even at that hour.
Roughly 20 minutes after we had settled down the dogs and began to settle in ourselves for the night. Two young men in a car pulled in alongside our trailer (right below our bedroom window). They decided that they were going to leave their vehicle running for the rest of the night and sleep with their air conditioner on. As you might expect approximately every 20 minutes the cooling fan in the vehicle turned on so loudly and prolonged that it woke us up constantly until the early morning.
Copious amounts of caffeine are the only way we made it to our second night.
What a fun learning experience it was and we are much wiser having made the attempt.
I loved your post and will be sharing it too!
I always tell people that our worst mistakes make the best stories (after the fact of course).