Boondockin’ Part II

First I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I know you didn’t overeat, right. Oh well I guess that’s part of the stigma the ‘Sacrificial Bird’ has created.
In our last post we talked about one of our favorite methods of campin’, Boondockin’. Fer’ right now let’s take a look at things you might need to make your ‘Boondockin’ experience a mite easier.
You need to have water, well we already said your RV is capable of totin’ quite a bit, so fill up before ya’ head into that forest camp . If you need more you can haul some back to your camp in plastic cans designed fer’ this or go as far as 50 gallon bladders that fold up flat when empty. A little conservation is the key and it becomes second nature after a while. I’m at home after a six month trip and find myself turning on & off the water, rather than just lettin’ it run & I’m on a well. I’m just used to doin’ that. Some folks go as far as catching the cold water from the faucet while waitin’ fer’ the water to get hot, then use it to flush the toilet and other things. If you caught it in a clean container, I see no reason you couldn’t just put it back in the fresh water tank. We have not gone to this level as yet. A boondockin’ shower is a ‘NAVY’ shower. Water on to get wet, water off, soap up & wash, water on to rinse, a couple o’ gallons at most and rinse your wash cloth in the sink with a little water or some of that wasted water ya’ caught.
Wastewater can be held in your grey & black tanks for a least a week, with some conservation, till you move camp. Or you can purchase a portable waste tank, commonly referred to as a ‘Blue Boy’ and find a dump station to drain it in. We can go almost a week in our truck camper, which only has a 13 gallon black tank & 16 gallon grey tank, the trick is conserve a little.
Now your gonna’ need electric, but we have most of that with us too. Your water pump, furnace, frig, and most your lighting all operate on 12V DC, your battery(s). House current, 120 volts, can be had by purchasing an inverter to power TV, or to charge some rechargeable item. An inverter gets hooked to your battery directly or thru a cigarette lighter plug, most of us have this where the TV antenna amp is located. The connection type depends on the size of the inverter. You can use a small inverter to power most electronics today, we carry a 150 watt inverter ($18) in the truck to power & charge the laptops, cameras and even recharge my razor when we go down the road, it could also be used in the RV. We also carry a 400W unit ($24) for the TV, DVD player & Digital TV thingy, that we need today to get that lovely antenna digital TV.  
Now remember that we are using the battery(s) to power the inverter so we need to be able to recharge the batteries. Get yourself a cheap multi-meter and check your battery voltage, you can tell the % of charge by that. There is a terrific resource on the net that explains all about batteries, wiring and charging, called ‘The 12 Volt Side of Life’. If you have a MH, truck camper and to some extent trailers, charging happens goin’ down the road. If your not stayin’ but a night or two this is normally not a problem cause you’ll charge back up when your movin’. I will warn ya’ that the furnace is a ‘power pig’ and if’n ya’ run her all night while boondockin’, ya’ will have a dead or near dead battery come mornin’. Put on another blanket. True ‘Boondockers’ use a catalytic heater that runs on LP gas but has no 12v fan. When in camp we’d have to run the engine to recharge, which isn’t too efficient and you might choke to death. So we carry a small generator, weighs less than 50 lbs. and runs for ever on less than a gallon of gas. We also have more that one battery, cause this is the heart of your ‘boondockin’ electric system’. Again conservation is necessary, ya’ can’t be like Trace Adkins with “Every Light in the House is On”. We’ve gone 5 days without recharging batteries with a little conservation. Only time the generator runs is to make one round of toast in the AM.
The other common method of recharging the batteries is Solar. Quiet, reliable, but pricey. Again we have not moved to this technology because our budget won’t allow it at this time, but we’re getting’ closer. Solar panels are mounted on the roof of the RV and silently send power to the batteries as long as there is sun shinin’ on them. Still a small backup generator is nice when camped under those beautiful trees or when you get a stormy stretch o’ weather. I have found a source for solar panels that is quite reasonable that I will be purchasing from in the future, here’s the Link.

How’s this fer’ a boondockin’ camp, we watched the resident beaver have his supper.

So we’ve touched on water, wastewater & electric. Now turn the fridge on LP gas, to save power, but the circuit board still needs a tiny bit of electric for that too. Turn things off that you aren’t usin’ or don’t need. Lots of things in your RV have what’s called "’Phantom Loads’. The TV uses power even when turned off, all those smoke, gas & CO² alarms use power. I’m not saying turn these alarms off, just be aware they are usin’ power. That TV amplifier we talked about earlier uses power so turn it off when your not watchin’ TV. The inverter that magically make electricity fer’ us also uses power even when it’s turned off, Unplug it. I even read that power outlet strips use power when turned off as long as their plugged in. Anything that’s sneakin’ power from the batteries is robbin’ you of time at that fantastic spot you’ve found in the forest.
Well I don’t know if’n I missed somethin’. If I did maybe someone will point it out. With all this talk of remote campin’, I don’t want anyone too think I want to be off by myself away from people cause I like to talk as much, as the next guy. My wife refers to me as the ‘Campground Ambassador’. Next time we’ll go over some resources to help ya’ find that fine Boondockin’ spot.
That’s all fer’ now and as always we hope to see ya’ down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.