What would be a Forest River Boondocking Ready RV

[NJKris]

Originally Posted by PoppySteve

On that Winnie FLX, was someone really saying that the AC could be run from the batts?

Yeah, the new Truma line uses less power than traditional units. I'm sure it can be done, but not for long.

[2dogs]

This is the FR fifth wheel we have. Very pleased with it.
https://www.rvusa.com/rv-guide/2014-...-282rk-tr20963
Take note the of the specs.
We use a Renogy 200 watt suitcase in conjunction with 2 6V AGM batteries and also carry 2 2000 watt portable generators.
Be glad to answer any questions.

[PoppySteve]

Originally Posted by ppine

Take a regular trailer and add some solar panels and a 2000 watt backup generator.

Sounds like the sensible, frugal approach I would most likely take and spend the saved money on gas.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by 2dogs

This is the FR fifth wheel we have. Very pleased with it.
https://www.rvusa.com/rv-guide/2014-...-282rk-tr20963
Take note the of the specs.
We use a Renogy 200 watt suitcase in conjunction with 2 6V AGM batteries and also carry 2 2000 watt portable generators.
Be glad to answer any questions.

That's not a Boondocking-ready RV, which is what the OP asked for.

[mnoland30]

Joeuncool has it right, unless you have a 12 volt fridge. It seems that is what the industry is going to. You'll need more panels then. If I were buying one now, I'd look for an older model with a propane fridge. Lots of folks try RVing, and decide they don't like it, so there are usually some nice rigs for sale.

I added a tongue box with two 6v golf cart batteries, a 100 watt panel on the roof, and a portable panel with an extension cord. I have a battery monitor with a shunt so I know exactly what is going in our out of my batteries. Most nights my batteries don't go below 80%. I figure we are camping. I don't need a microwave, cofee maker, blender, etc. On our rig, the heater is the biggest electricity hog. I hate the noise of the heater which wakes me up in the middle of the night, so we use sleeping bags. We use the heater when we need it. I quit carrying my generator on trips. Water then becomes the limiting factor. I have a lifted F250, so I can carry an extra 50 gallons in the truck, and it will siphon into the trailer. If you buy a spare water pump, and some hose, you can pump water from any truck.

Most places it iis not a problem to dump your gray water on the ground, as long as you're not too close to a lake or stream. The nutrients in the water are fertilizer, which can cause an algae bloom in lakes. We camped for a week with 6 people without overflowing our black tank.

[BD Nomad]

This is my 2020 Microlite 21ds parked in a desert about 29 miles from the nearest asphalt (and people). It is my second trailer in 12 years. My wife and I spend 98% of our trips boondocking similar to this.

As others have written, every trailer is capable of boondocking. The trick is, making it boondock the way you want it to. In other words, make it work off-grid and be totally self-sufficient. Mods I've done include:

1. Adding a Renogy 200 watt solar suitcase for battery recharging

2. Replacing dealer installed batteries with two Interstate 6 volt golf cart batteries

3. Installed a Victron Smart Shunt to monitor battery usage (amps, volts, time remaining)

4. Installed a 12v power socket and USB ports on my wife's side of the bed to run her CPAP machine and charge her electronics. (for some reason, our trailer came with these things on one side only).

5. Installed a 600 watt power inverter so that we can watch TV or movies and shows on our media hub in addition to powering a fan while on battery power.

6. Modified the fittings on my Weber bbq and propane fire pit to work on the low pressure propane port on the trailer (eliminates the need to carry separate canisters).

7. Got two 38lb 2000 watt Champion invertor generators for running the A/C (when needed), and for running the microwave- Although, I only need one geny for this. Why two instead of one? It's a lot easier for me to load and unload two light generators than one heavy.

So, how well does my setup work? One night I got down to 25°. Our furnace was set to 60° and kicked on and off all night in addition to my wife running her CPAP machine. In the morning, I still had 82% of my battery life left.

Keep in mind that we have a propane refrigerator. I do not know how my setup would work with a 12 volt refrigerator. Typically, we can go 6 to 7 days before needing to refill freshwater and pump tanks.

Again, it's the kind of camping we like to do. I hope you find this information useful.

Take care

[ppine]

Thanks to Nomad.

[PoppySteve]

Thanks Nomad, very good information. That looks like the kind of place we would like to be. I would be leaning toward a smaller trailer (20 ft) that would fit better in NF campgrounds.

[Jim S JR]

There is a lot of good information here.

The bottom line, what size are you looking at and what size tow vehicle do you have.

Are you looking for a toy hauler?

Are you looking for a smaller trailer?

How many people do you want to sleep?

I have a 36 ft 5th wheel (listed as a 29ft) and I mostly boondock for a week at a time.

What appliances do you want to be available when off grid?

[hogdooz]

We use a Forest River Work & Play 30WRS and have stayed up to a week at a time with no hookups. We have a generator, large propane tanks, large fresh, gray and black water tanks. We have the fuel station to fuel our toys and keep the generator going. I suppose the next thing would be the solar system, we were on a budget when we purchased it 3 years ago. We pull it with a 2019 GMC Sierra 2500HD Denali Duramax. The Work & Play is very industrial, durable, easy to clean and comfortable enough for us. We use no TV's, we prefer to be outside to enjoy nature and other people when we're out. We're in Calif, we've been to East Coast, Key West, etc. Happy searching to find what you need.

[Tmrut5]

Look at Forest Rivers Dynamax Isata 5 with the Explorer package. It is built based on being boon dock ready and in cold weather as well. It is a Class C

[jdebevec]

Or how about a Dynamax Isata 5?
With 6 6V batteries and inverter the residential fridge will run all night. And then the 2 solar panels recharge the battery during the day... it's a great set up. On a related note, ours is for sale.

[Stevemal]

Originally Posted by PoppySteve

What do you think the closest to boondocking ready RV Forest River has available? I am totally unfamiliar with anything FR makes except for the Class C we have.

If you get one with a 12V only fridge it will not be boondock ready unless you run your genny many hours during the day to keep your batteries up over night. Just my experience with 2 Trojan deep cycle golf cart batteries and 250 watts of solar. I still use 15 gallons of gas in the genny over 3-4 days.

[taylorfs]

Originally Posted by PoppySteve

What do you think the closest to boondocking ready RV Forest River has available? I am totally unfamiliar with anything FR makes except for the Class C we have.

We do very nicely boondocking with a 2020 Coachmen 192RBS. You have to decide on what is important for you for boondocking and what you can do aftermarket. In our case, the larger tanks were important and the addition of 200AH of lithium took care of the electricity needs.

[TheWolfPaq82]

Well..........you only have until 2028 to use a gas powered generator in California. Curious as to why 6 years down the road.

[pcsdpo]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Look at the No Boundaries and Ibex lines.
Also the new Revolve line from Palomino.

We have a 2020 19.5 NoBo (No Boundaries). It comes ready for off-pavement travel with high clearance and tires with lugs (in the olden days I call these "snow tires"). Ours has the Propane/electric refrigerator (I assume that it uses 120 VAC when we are on shore power because that's when it switches over from propane). 30 gallon fresh water and 30-gray & 30-blackwater.
We upgraded the single propane tank to 2x30# tanks. We've hardly ever used more than 2 tanks per camping season (we live in the high country of Montana and we generally camp from late April through October).
I used their "Solar Ready" wiring to install 400W of solar panels. We also added a 2nd DeepCycle FLA battery. I'm looking to upgrade to probably 200W of LiFePo batteries. We also carry a 3000/3500 watt generator that we use occaisionally to run the microwave or the A/C.
The nice part about "add-ons" is doing them yourselves and not leaving the selection of the equipment to the manufacturer who looks to add the capablility, but usually from the low cost (and probably lower quality) provider.
As an example of a dealer provided "add-on", the day we went to pick up the unit, they dealer put the "up-sell" on us for a couple of hours. One feature they wanted to add was "100 Watts of Solar" for about $1,400. We skipped that "offer". I believe that when I added the 400 Watts of solar, my out of pocket equipment cost was about $600 and the labor (me) was cheap (you get what you pay for). We also passed on the $400 tire blowout prevention option (Tire Slime) . . . we haven't had a blowout yet though . . .

One of the useless "features" that our NoBo came with was a Rhino Roof Rack and Kayak holder. First of all, the unit is already 9' 7" high and to add anything that I'd like to carry on a roof rack would exceed that height. I was able to take the Roof Rack bars off the roof of the NoBo and mount them on the top of my Tundra camper shell where I can carry my canoe and other stuff. Also, I'm getting on in age and thinking of climbing on the roof the unit and somehow getting a kayak or whatever loaded on the rack on the roof doesn't make a lot of sense (although I'm sure that my wife would make sure my life insurance policy is up to date). It also came with a "tire step" of the same brand. It hangs on the vehicle tire and provides a step up so that you can load things on the roof (absolutely useless for a 9' 7" high trailer). It actually works really well for loading things on the re-purposed roof rack on the shell of the Tundra where I now carry my canoe.

[BD Nomad]

Originally Posted by TheWolfPaq82

Well..........you only have until 2028 to use a gas powered generator in California. Curious as to why 6 years down the road.

Come get me coppers!

[NJKris]

Originally Posted by Stevemal

If you get one with a 12V only fridge it will not be boondock ready unless you run your genny many hours during the day to keep your batteries up over night. Just my experience with 2 Trojan deep cycle golf cart batteries and 250 watts of solar. I still use 15 gallons of gas in the genny over 3-4 days.

Holy smokes, I don't think I use that much gas in my big open frame contractor generator at my sticks and bricks house during a 3-4 day outage!

[PoppySteve]

@pcsdpo
Thanks for the info on the NoBo.

[NJKris]

Originally Posted by BD Nomad

This is my 2020 Microlite 21ds parked in a desert about 29 miles from the nearest asphalt (and people). It is my second trailer in 12 years. My wife and I spend 98% of our trips boondocking similar to this.

As others have written, every trailer is capable of boondocking. The trick is, making it boondock the way you want it to. In other words, make it work off-grid and be totally self-sufficient. Mods I've done include:

1. Adding a Renogy 200 watt solar suitcase for battery recharging

2. Replacing dealer installed batteries with two Interstate 6 volt golf cart batteries

3. Installed a Victron Smart Shunt to monitor battery usage (amps, volts, time remaining)

4. Installed a 12v power socket and USB ports on my wife's side of the bed to run her CPAP machine and charge her electronics. (for some reason, our trailer came with these things on one side only).

5. Installed a 600 watt power inverter so that we can watch TV or movies and shows on our media hub in addition to powering a fan while on battery power.

6. Modified the fittings on my Weber bbq and propane fire pit to work on the low pressure propane port on the trailer (eliminates the need to carry separate canisters).

7. Got two 38lb 2000 watt Champion invertor generators for running the A/C (when needed), and for running the microwave- Although, I only need one geny for this. Why two instead of one? It's a lot easier for me to load and unload two light generators than one heavy.

So, how well does my setup work? One night I got down to 25°. Our furnace was set to 60° and kicked on and off all night in addition to my wife running her CPAP machine. In the morning, I still had 82% of my battery life left.

Keep in mind that we have a propane refrigerator. I do not know how my setup would work with a 12 volt refrigerator. Typically, we can go 6 to 7 days before needing to refill freshwater and pump tanks.

Again, it's the kind of camping we like to do. I hope you find this information useful.

Take careAttachment 270140Attachment 270141

Love that top pic.