Not used to boondocking - want to be ready

[ppine]

The first thing your group has to learn is to be conservative with water, and power.
Then you need to figure out a power source. I bought a 2000 watt generator a few years a go. I find it to be heavy, loud, and not always dependable starting because it sits around. I have bought a new trailer and plan to buy a portable solar system on the ground for it.

I always ask my girl after longer trips, which nights were her favorite. It is always "the night up on the National Forest road, or the night out in the desert. " Boondocking changes the whole experience.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by bobpalin

I have easily camped for a week on two 75AH batteries using the lights and water pump, I did replace all my lights with LEDs which helped a lot.

Many people use solar very successfully so I don't know why you think it wouldn't work.

I also camped for 6-8 weeks with two 75AH Deca 24 Marine batteries for several winters. I had a Yamaha 3000SiB in the bed of the pickup. With the dual fuel mod and remote start, making coffee using the electric coffee maker was a dream and I could do it without leaving the camper.

I made a canvas covered box using aluminum angle and pop rivets to keep the rain off while it was running. The flap on the exhaust side was an aluminum plate that was heat resistant.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Stepdad1234

I installed 4 Trojan j305H floor machine batteries, (720 amp hours, which gives me enough power for minimal generator use!) I had an Electrical Engineer design this. Who is an avid boondock camper! My 2018 Cardinal 3250RL is my rig.

https://www.funtownrv.com/product/ne...250rl-734662-5

Wow, that's a lot of payload sacrifice for your rig. You have under 2000 pounds of available payload (assuming no dealer adds) and 25% of that is taken up by batteries and supportive wiring (those batteries are a hundred pounds each!).

https://www.trojanbattery.com/product/j305h-ac/

That does not include the solar panels, inverters and any other mods you have done.

I looked into doing something like that but was unwilling to sacrifice that much payload.

[nodrawers]

Originally Posted by Bianchina3

Will that run an A/C as well?

Yes no problem.

[Suru]

I always ask my girl after longer trips, which nights were her favorite. It is always "the night up on the National Forest road, or the night out in the desert. " Boondocking changes the whole experience.

I couldn't agree more with this statement. Boondocking is a very different (& I think much better) experience than staying at a FHU campground. It will take a few tries before you figure out how long the batteries, water, and propane will last. If going for a week, you will also have to adjust your usage. I would suggest getting a generator so you have the ability to recharge your batteries. Solar is a great thing, but if there is no sun then you always have the generator. If you do happen to fill your tanks or run out of propane, you can always hitch up and find a place to dump and fill. It won't be the end of the world :-)

Have a great time on your trip.

[JohnD10]

We are going out to the desert tonight for the "Howling At The Moon" just outside of Yuma, AZ with the 5'ver.

We are not really set up for boondocking, but we did a test run last week by using the local 'Camp Walmart' about a mile from the house.

Did two nights there...

First night we conserved the battery as much as possible, only turned on lights when needed and used flashlights and lanterns mostly, used a CAT Battery/Air Compressor/Jump Starter to run the TV (so we could watch our shows and the news) and only turned on the furnace once in the early morning to take off the chill, and the battery did OK and was only half depleted according to the battery gauge, plus the fridge on LP.

Went home in the morning and plugged the trailer in and started to put stuff away when we decided to go back for a second night.

While we had a nice stay, the battery didn't charge up as much by just leaving it plugged in for about six hours, as did the CAT battery thingy.

Got everything all charged up good for tonight, so I think we'll be OK on this little adventure...less than 10 miles from home!

Photos later!

[ppine]

I hear people talk often that "we are not really set up for boondocking."
What that must mean is that they like RV parks. Power is the only real issue, you still have water and propane. People just need to learn to be more conservative with their use.

We got invited to a big group trip with lots of RVs and old friends. I suggested some nice campsites in the woods near a lake with water and power. The group selected an RV park in the Foothills near wineries. It will be hot with no public land. It costs $75 a night. I don't get it at all.

[JohnD10]

Originally Posted by ppine

I hear people talk often that "we are not really set up for boondocking."
What that must mean is that they like RV parks. Power is the only real issue, you still have water and propane. People just need to learn to be more conservative with their use.

We got invited to a big group trip with lots of RVs and old friends. I suggested some nice campsites in the woods near a lake with water and power. The group selected an RV park in the Foothills near wineries. It will be hot with no public land. It costs $75 a night. I don't get it at all.

Then you've got a lot to learn...

[JohnD10]

Buy the buy...

Here we are out at the 'Howling At The Moon" festival outside of Yuma, AZ...

Still there...

Enjoying some coffee...then packing up for home.

[JohnD10]

Just took this ...

[Paulie1138]

Sounds like it might be fun!

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by JohnD10

My old house in the north Denver metro area was at 6000' (well, it was like 5982 or something like that) above sea level.

I camped all over the state of Colorado and New Mexico for almost two decades and never experienced the stove, refrigerator, furnace or water heater not starting, no matter what altitude I was at, and three different RV's.

That is not saying that it can't happen, but just saying I've not experienced this yet.

Now that I live in the desert southwest, I guess this won't be much of an issue for me to worry about.

Same here. Stayed in Central City, CO for a week which has an altitude of 9600 ft. We were probably closer to 10,000 feet as the campground was on top of a large hill above the "City".

Not a single issue with ANY propane device. Only issue the wife and I had with the stove is that water boiled a lot quicker at that altitude so it never reached a full 212 degrees. Food took longer to cook and baking anything in the oven was a pain because everything had to be made using a High Altitude (above 6,000 feet) recipe. Forget baking an angel food cake at that altitude.

Last October I camped for a week in Norther NM at over 8,000 feet, again no issues with any propane appliance.

Not sure where the "authors" of instruction manuals are getting their information.

[pgandw]

Having lived in Colorado at 7800ft for 8 years, I never had any problem with propane appliances in my A-frame. The only thing possibly altitude-related was starting the continuous run fridge. Once somebody showed me the immediate 2nd spark trick, no further problems. The larger fridge in the High Wall A-frame auto-starts and runs just fine on propane.

Interesting that the stuff I did have trouble with because of altitude: Honda 15HP outboard motor worked very poorly at Lake Tahoe (6K ft), 2 cycle gas weed eater very difficult to start and took 20 minutes before it would run without choke.

The worst of all was my propane soldering kit was totally useless - the torch could not get copper pipe even warm - when it would stay lit. Had to switch to an MAP torch - that thing really works and is my go to tool for copper piping. And an MAP canister lasts a lot longer than the propane bottles do.

just my experiences
Fred W
prev 2014 Rockwood A122 A-frame
now 2019 Flagstaff T21TBHW A-frame
camping Colorado and adjacent states one weekend at a time