Now some of you may not know what I am talking about when I say boondocking, also known as dry camping. When you boondock you do not have any of the amenities that you normally get at a full service campground. There are no electric, water or sewer hookups for your RV. You need to provide your own electricity, replenish your water supply and empty your waste holding tanks.
Your electricity can be generated by using either solar panels, wind turbines or by running your generator to keep your batteries charged. You are basically running all of your electrical devices from your 12 volt battery system or using an inverter that converts 12 volts to 120 volts to run traditional appliances. Keep in mind that the refrigerator operates primarily on propane and only uses a small amount of 12 volt electricity to power a circuit panel. The cook-top and oven also operate on propane as does the hot water heater and hot air furnace. If you are a real simple camper and don't need to use a lot of traditional electrical appliances you can probably get by with just a simple 12 volt system to operate the lights,water pump and to charge your cell phone and laptop. For the heavy 120 volt appliance users (satellite TV system, microwave, etc.) you will need a large battery bank and multiple solar panels and/or a wind turbine. We are of the simple type. We currently have one 95 watt solar panel charging 2 group 24 AGM batteries. We have another 95 watt expansion panel that we bought on sale recently that was shipped to New York. We will install it when we get back.
The water that you use on a daily basis is stored in a holding tank in your RV and when it runs out it must be replenished. You can do this two different ways; you can bring the RV to the water or you can bring the water to the RV. If you choose to bring the RV to the water is may be as simple as driving your motorized RV to the fresh water station and filling up or you may have to hook up your trailer type RV to your tow vehicle and move it to get your tank filled. These two scenarios require too much effort and a waste of fuel, so boondockers have come up with some ingenious ways to get there water tanks filled. This usually involves some sort of container to fill with water, bring back to your RV and then transfer the water to your holding tank. The transfer is either by gravity feed or my some type of pump. We carry two 7 gallon water tanks in the back of our Jeep Liberty and when we need water we fill them up and then using a 12 volt water pump to pump the water in to our holding tank. We tried holding the 7 gallon tanks in our arms and pouring it in to the filler opening, but 7 gallons of water weighs 58 lbs and our backs were not going to survive this system, so we went with the water pump. So much easier!
Now, when you use the water in your RV it goes down the sink or shower drain and collects in a holding tank, also known as the grey water tank. The same goes when you use your toilet, but that goes in to a different holding tank, known as the black water tank. At some point these tanks will have to be emptied and the question arises; do I move the RV to the dump station or do I empty the tanks in to some type of container and bring that to the dump station? Some of the campers we have seen use containers for this job, especially the ones that own a tow-able RV. It is too much effort to move the trailer to the dump station. Most campers with drive-able RV's will drive their RV to the dump station to empty their tanks and while they are there, refill with fresh water as well. We like to use the latter method, because I don't like to let the RV sit for too long a period without starting the engine and moving the vehicle around. So when the tanks need to be emptied we just start her up and drive her over to the dump station. Now keep in mind that the grey water tank will usually fill faster than the black water tank, so the trick is to limit the amount of water that goes down the drain so as to lengthen the time between runs to the dump station. That means taking NAVY showers and using a wash basin in the kitchen sink to catch the water from going down the drain, then dump that in to a bucket and then dump the bucket in a nearby restroom toilet when it is full.
I know this boondocking thing sounds like a lot of effort, but we see it as a challenge to us to live "Off the Grid" as they say and reduce the cost of living in our RV while traveling on the road. This way our financial resources can be best used to fuel the RV so that we may continue with our trek to Alaska and stay within our monthly budget.
And here is Rene's view of Quartzsite, Arizona -
Well lets see, my first 'site' was just as we drove into the town of Quartzsite. It was the naked backside of the infamous Quartzsite bookstore owner - go figure! Once we found out which area had the water and dump station we headed there and looked for a spot not far from the fill area (you don't want to be too close to the dump area - enough said). My impression was that this was a big rocky desert area with RVs and assorted vehicles haphazardly strewn around the grounds. We got set up and were in shorts and flip-flops enjoying the sun soon after. We did our first tour of the selling areas near town, it was past the 'big tent' time so things were extremely downsized. (Quartzsite is known for its RV and Rock & Mineral shows.)
We spent time riding our bikes down through the trails that headed back into the mountains near camp. It got a bit too rough after a while so we decided to go get the jeep and do some 4-wheeling instead. We viewed campers way back into the outback areas, I personally am not looking for that much remoteness. While Frank worked on other RV projects I took the time to make some reflective window coverings to try to alleviate the heat on high temperature days.
We took a side trip one day to the Imperial Dam LTVA area to check out the scenery at this BLM managed area. We were considering splitting our 14 days between Quartzsite and Imperial Dam, but decided to stay put. This LTVA was located near the Yuma Proving Grounds, so we stopped on the way back to look at the display area of old military test vehicles just outside the entrance.
On one of our R&R days I spent the whole day hulling and cleaning a bunch of black walnuts given to us by a fellow camper from Iowa who camped next to us when we were at Padre Island National Seashore. My initial excitement wore off quickly after only a few walnuts, but I persevered on and completed the task. I have already used those walnuts in banana bread and I'm saving some for the brownies that I am planning on making soon.
It had been windy for quite a few days so we headed out for a hike through the camp area to check out the other RVs, buses and campers. We were looking at all the solar panels and wind turbines that some of the hardcore boondockers were using. We ended up wandering through an area that was thoughtful enough to post a sign warning people that there may be "nude sunbathers" - thankfully there were none out on this windy cool day.
We found out that Frank's cousin was going to be visiting their retirement home in Chandler, Ariz. so we backtracked one day and headed the 150 miles back towards Phoenix and spent the afternoon enjoying a nice lunch and letting Frank and his cousin Mary (husband Tom) get caught up with family news.
The next couple of days were spent restocking at Walmart in Parker, AZ, and doing laundry in town. Near the laundromat Frank discovered a classic old MCI RV bus conversion similar to his friend Jonathan's. It excited him and initially he began formulating options for the future - personally it was a scary investment that I just couldn't quite buy into. We both moved on and got ready for our next destination across the border in California.
FP & RG
To see photos of our travels, please go to Frank's facebook page by clicking the link below to view albums.
https://www.facebook.com/frank.posillico.351
You guys are so creative! And every time I read your posts it sounds like a fantastic adventure =) Really excited for you and all the places you get to see together...
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