Do you boondock or dry camp in your TT?

[RoyBraddy]

We like to camp around here off-road without facilities. Reading all of the above posts I see it was mentioned several times where the Generator was used through the night to power up an air conditioner.

I guess we are always in the wrong spot around here on the East side of the US as we never are allowed to run our small 2KW generator after 8PM and before 8AM at the public camp grounds due to noise restrictions I guess... Even some sites only have a couple of hours during the morning and maybe three hours allowed in the late afternoon... Most Generator run times now are from 8Am to 8PM each day in the Natl Forest areas around here.

Maybe it is different if one has a built-in generator in a larger trailer but mine is mounted just inside my truck tail gate area and when it gets used I have to pull it out onto the tailgate.



We have a large enough battery bank to run all things we want to run off the batteries directly or using a Power Inverter. All planned to last until 8AM the next morning dropping our batteries down to their 50% charge state. Then during breakfast we can fire up our generator and hookup to our on-board converter to re-charge our batteries back up to their 90% charge state in three hours so we can do this all over again for the next day/night run off the batteries. I can do 10-12 the 50% to 90% charge cycles and still get great performance out the battery bank. When the Battery Bank performance starts changing I know I need to run a full 100% charge cycle which of course takes a good 12-14 hours to complete so this is a good time to head for home base and get things back o normal in our back yard setup. Not ever allowed to run my generator that long of time anyway where we usually camp...

Been doing this since 2009 and it is all second nature now to us camping off grid...

Roy Ken

[enri1982]

Impossible to do in Miami (South Florida) your family would be boiled like an egg.

Originally Posted by Octopus Prime

I notice it gets talked about a lot.

I can't imagine doing this at anytime other than winter. A few weeks ago, our TT was rather warm when we went inside and it was a cool day and the TT was under cover.

Curious as to your experience with this, or if it is more a motorhome thing.

[alegria]

We primarily use our trailer for dog competitions, and most of those are now boondocking only since one of the venues we used often decided that roller derby paid better than the other events. Usually we're parking in a gravel or paved lot for the weekend with the rest of the RV crew (10-30 trailers depending on location and time of year), and we all work together to set up camping spots for each group and to keep an eye on things.

Most of us run generators in the morning to power the coffeemakers (it's pretty funny to hear them all start up in sequence around 6:30am as people get up) and then again after the competition is over in the evening to power up batteries, cool the rigs, and cook dinner. We usually lock up our generators inside the truck when we're not there due to theft.

[blacklabbob]

We boondock about 80% of the time. I carry two Honda's and connect them in paralell when using the A.C.. otherwise, I use one on "eco" for s couple hours each day to keepntwo 6V batteries charged.

[enri1982]

I find it impossible to boondock in my area, (Miami) if the heat dont kill you the mosquitos will.

[ALJO]

Always boondock and be self sufficient. Love nature of things in the backwoods.

[samiam95124]

I put a lot of work to set up for boondocking, since in California, virtually all state parks do not have hookups (and the few that do are booked solid). I got 200w solar and external tanks and pumps to put in the back of the pickup.

The short story is I got rapidly tired of making a trip every day to empty and fill tanks. The solar electric thing worked, but there is just to much work to move water around (in all its forms). Now what we typically do is find a real RV park near the national park, then just drive the pickup in for the day.

If I get tempted to do dry again, I think I would double or quadruple everything. Like 400 watts of solar, and the biggest tanks I can find for the back of the pickup.

[bdreinv]

Boondock 98% of the time, less folks generally much quieter! Been set up on Solar almost three years not much need for the plug in!Thanks

[Woolibaar]

I have been at places where there were no hookups, but I have stayed dark with flashlights. My fresh water tank is full of dirt & mud so I can't use the water for anything and my grey water tank has a hole in it, so I can't hold any water. It is okay with h/u and I keep the drain open.

[Moonunit36]

Originally Posted by NewBlackDak

The best camping here(Utah) is boondocking. In central and northern parts of the state, even on a hot day it’s nice at night. Just open windows on one end of the trailer, and vent on the other end. The whole trailer is ambient temperature(mid 60’s-low 70’s) in about 15 minutes.

Hello, We will be heading to Utah in mid July. Does it get cooler in the evenings even during the summer? Also, have any campground or area favorites you could suggest?
Thanks!

[jmgoodmon]

Primarily boondock. We live in NM and the best campsites are the less-developed ones. We have solar and a small inverter generator to run the AC when necessary. We keep the freshwater tank topped off with a 7-gallon water jug, run the fridge off propane and keep the battery charged up with the solar panels. This style of camping is probably easier to do in the western US because of the amount open spaces available and the drier, sunnier weather.

[BCx213]

Originally Posted by therealsafetya

All the time here in BC, Canada. Pretty much all of the Provincial Parks are boondock only, and generally it is the best way to get large, private sites in the woods.

It takes a bit to figure out how much you can use your lights and managing your water (keeping the grey's from filling up), but you figure it all out pretty quick.

Evenings cool off enough that it is always comfortable.

Alice Lake and Porteau are the only two powered sites near Vancouver. We are headed to Alice Lake June 17 for 5 days ourselves and then scoot over to Golden Ears for a week....there I will have my solar panel and generator for power...

[PlayersZ28]

We boondock about half the time when away for the winter. There's nowhere to boondock where we live but we don't use the trailer during the summer anyway. We don't have AC in the house so wouldn't miss it in the trailer either during the summer.

I've normally referred to boondocking as no hookups and non-designated sites (free or cheap). No hookups and designated sites in a park I call dry camping (nightly fee). Looks like boondocking gets used for all of it though by most people.

[X213_2015]

Last summer we spent 52 (beautiful) days camping (8750 miles towing 12500 miles of driving) - it was epic. About 1/2 of the camp locations were dry camping or boon docking. The hottest place we stayed was Yakima River boon docking - it was 103 during the day. Thankfully at night it got down in the 70's and the 12V upgraded bathroom fan made quick work of sucking the hot air out and getting the cooler air in. There were a couple warm nights - but nothing that would have prevented me from wanting to do it again. These clip-on fans also work pretty good: 12 V clip on fans there's a couple locations we clipped them just to keep air circulating through the bunks for the kids and into the sleeper box for us.

We didn't worry about the batteries either as I had installed solar panels to keep the batteries topped off. The biggest problem we had was with the fridge as our burner went bad and I had to clean it several times until I could find a replacement. Not sure what did it in.

I think we have dry camped or boondocks more than we have stayed in powered/hookup sites with the X213 so far.

[Pauls72]

We do boondock's/dry camping at the Nebraska Star Party for 9-10 days each of the last few years. State park has a dump station, so I dump and fill up with water when we first get there. We have a 2015 - Jay Flight 23RB with the Elite package, so we have 80 gallons of fresh water capacity. We take our showers at the campgrounds. I added a second 100 amp battery in parallel and we have a 3KW generator. We have a couple of 12V fans. All are lights are LED, so they are low power. We will run the generator every couple of days for a few hours to charge up the batteries, cell phones, my telescope batteries, battery for my CPAP machine, etc... or if it gets really hot to run the AC. We do keep the awning up when we are not around due to the wind. We have seen more than one trailer with an awing mangled or a tent destroyed due to the wind out there.

I am going to the Grand Canyon North Rim Star Party and will be boondock's camping with a friend, in a week or so.

Full hookup is nice, but if you manage your resources dry camping isn't a problem.

These fans run of batteries or 12V:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/O2COOL-10...e-Fan/49332866