There is nothing like the feeling of freedom when you set up camp
in an ideal, secluded, picturesque spot out in the hinterlands
somewhere. Not in a campground, and not in an RV park, but
somewhere on the gorgeous public lands that have been set aside
by the government for recreational purposes. "Boondocking" refers
to this kind of camping (also known as "dispersed" camping), and it
is our favorite way to go. This page describes some of our
boondocking hints and tips, in particular:
• Locating boondocking sites
• Living without electrical or water hookups
• Managing the holding tanks
• Tips for conserving electricity and water
For further ideas and tips about living independently full-time in an
RV, see the Tips & Tricks page.
We first discovered boondocking outside Death Valley National Park in
California. As we drove into the valley from the east we saw all these rigs
parked on the left side of the road. They appeared to be camping, but it
wasn't a campground.
We got down to the valley and
discovered we'd arrived just before the
start of a parade to celebrate the 49ers'
trek through Death Valley 148 years
earlier. Not only were the roads lined
with people sitting in camp chairs waving
flags (and looking in our direction
expectantly for the parade to arrive), but
there wasn't a site to be found in any of
the campgrounds. The ranger recommended that we go back up the hill to the "slabs," where
we had seen all those RVs, and camp there.
Once we got set up, we discovered that we were in the middle of an Escapees Boondockers
Rendez-vous. Each rig was perched next to a large cement slab that used to be a mobile home
foundation. The area had been a little mining camp at one time. The mine had closed, the
mobile homes had been towed away, and all that remained were the cement slabs, which now
made ideal patios for RVs. We stayed for 12 days with the club members and learned a lot
about how boondocking works. We have been hooked ever since. Now, whenever we see a rig
camped in a spot that isn't a campground, we figure that they have probably found a really cool
little spot to spend a few days, and we make a note on the map for future reference!
The US National Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service all manage vast tracts of land.
Each agency oversees its land with a different mission and reports to different government branches. Maps are available from each
agency, but we've found that the Delorme state map books (see below) are excellent and they are our primary mapping resource.
The map books clearly show where the public lands are, and although it is sometimes hard to see the detail of the forest roads in
these books, once you are on them with your bike or truck it's easy to decide what is passable with an RV and what isn't.
It is relatively easy to locate beautiful places to camp.
It just takes a little time. If we don't have information
on boondocking sites in an area, we sometimes stop
at the ranger's office for the agency that manages the
land. They often have maps and suggestions of
places to go. If we can't find the ranger's office
(sometimes they are in a distant town), we will set up
camp for a quickie overnight somewhere nearby and
then we'll go exploring the area on our bikes or with
the truck. It's a lot easier to decide whether the rig
will fit into a particular site when we don't have it with
us. And there's nothing worse than going down a
narrow dirt road with the rig -- only to find there is
nowhere to turn around.
A lot of times we will hear about places by talking to
other travelers. But probably the best source of
information we've found for boondocking sites is the
Day's End list published by the Escapees RV Club.
The Day's End list is available to members (about
$70 to join for a year) for $5. It is a big resource. I
printed out the 2007 edition and it took most of a
ream of paper and filled two one-inch notebooks.
Both the NFS and the BLM maintain campgrounds on
their lands as well, and both have rules and
regulations regarding boondocking. Usually you can't
stay longer than 14 days, and they ask you to "pack it
in and pack it out," meaning: don't leave the place a
mess. Generally an RV won't leave a footprint
behind, but sometimes we arrive at a site and end up
filling several grocery bags with trash, some of it 20 years old or more (rusted tin cans with flip tops!).
I'd rather pack out someone else's trash than leave that legacy for our great-grandchildren to find when
they come with their RVs in 80 years.
My feeling is that if I get to stay for free for two weeks on a gorgeous piece of property, surrounded by
hundreds of acres of natural beauty, with a multi-million dollar view out my front door, it's no problem for
me to pick up a little trash so the place is nice for the next visitor. I'd also like to keep the NFS, BLM and
NPS happy with RVers so they continue to allow boondocking. Florida's Ocala National Forest doesn't
allow RVs to boondock any more because for years the winter visitors trashed the forest. What a
shame that those thoughtless people ruined it for the rest of us.
Some boondocking spots are "destination locations"
where we'll stay for the entire time limit allowed. Other
spots are good just for a brief overnight while traveling
from one location to another. When we're in transit to a
distant location we'll look for a quiet rest area or scenic
lookout on a quiet road for an overnight.
Many roads that are marked as "scenic" on the map have pullout areas where
drivers can rest and enjoy the view during the day. At night no one stops at these
places, and they can be ideal for sleeping. If we can't find a rest area or pullout,
we'll look for a parking lot that might not object to an overnight visitor.
Walmart is famous for being very RV-friendly, however they are not always in control
of their land. We learned that it's best to get an "okay" from security before staying the night. In Buckeye, Arizona, after we got
permission to stay, we found out that the permission wasn't really theirs to give. We watched, horrified, as the police arrived and
ticketed every 18-wheeler and RV in the parking lot (except ours, not sure why!). The store was built on leased land and the town
did not want RVs or trucks in the lot. They are situated right on the interstate, so it is only natural that trucks stop there. Sadly, we
watched the police ticket a truck that had just pulled in for an hour. The driver went into Walmart to exchange an item and to get a
bite to eat McDonalds. When he found his truck ticketed, he went ballistic. The store manager and store security came out to the
parking lot and confronted the police, but the ticket was written and the police
would not budge. Needless to say, the manager and security were extremely
upset and the driver vowed that he would never stop at a Walmart again. The
store manager kept saying "Sam Walton would not like this at all. We're trained
on this stuff. This isn't the way he wants customers treated!"
In the places where it is
allowed, we try to keep a low
profile, usually remaining
hitched to the truck and
sometimes not even putting
the slides out. We watched
in amazement one time as a
family set up camp in a
Walmart parking lot, complete with camp chairs, patio mat, barbecue and
cocktails. They proceeded to play a football game between the parked cars,
narrowly missing our truck with a bad throw at one point. According to their
license plates they were 2,000 miles from home, and they had apparently
forgotten to bring their decency and respect for others with them.
BOONDOCKING LOCATION RESOURCES
Besides the Day's End list from Escapees described above, there are other resources we rely on. Walmart sells a Rand McNally
road map book that has several pages listing the address of every Walmart in the US and its interstate exit number if it is near one.
This is a handy reference. Cracker Barrel also allows overnighting at most of their locations, and they have a map that lists the
addresses of their stores. Camping World allows overnighting in some of their parking lots. We haven't found a printed listing, so
we look for them online. Many Indian casinos allow overnighting in their parking lots, and Casino Camper is a
terrific website that reviews the casinos and and indicates whether the casino allows overnighting or has its own
RV park. A couple has created a website that is a study of all the National Forest Campgrounds in the US,
and they list valuable information about all the campgrounds, including the date of their last personal visit, the
size of the sites, whether there is a dump or water, etc., and the cost (usually within a few dollars of the actual
cost when you get there). This is handy if you want to stay a night or two in a campground while you scout out
boondocking locations. There is also an online listing at freecampgrounds.com that we have used on
occasion. This is particularly helpful because some places you would expect to be free may no longer be free or
may no longer be legal to park in, and this website's reviews give the current status. If you have a GPS you can
use the GPS coordinate database at boondocking.org. Lastly, Don Wright has two books of free campgrounds
("free" being $12 or less) for the Eastern (out of print) and Western states. Most listings cost money, and most
of those are $12 or less only if you carry a National Senior Access Pass, for which you have to be 62 years
old. Some of the listings have incorrect or inadequate directions to the campground, but we have used the
books successfully a few times. The Army Corps of Engineers also has a book for inexpensive campgrounds
predominantly in the eastern state (sadly out of print).
ELECTRICAL POWER
In order to boondock efficiently, you need to equip your rig to supply its own electrical power for extended periods. A generator is
okay if your stay is going to be just a few days or even a week or two once in a while. However, generators require fuel, and it won't
take long to run up a big fuel bill. They are also smelly, they require you to be home while you run them, and they are loud.
A far better alternative, and one which has the same initial cost as comparably
sized generators, is to install:
• a good quality battery bank
• solar panel(s)
• a charge controller to protect the batteries from being overcharged
by the panels
These three items work together to charge the batteries whenever
there is daylight. Separately, you need:
• one or more inverter(s) for AC power
This (these) items allow you to run AC appliances on battery power,
regardless of how you charge your batteries
Here is a more detailed description of the solar setups we installed on both the Lynx and on the Hitchhiker. The Lynx had a
modest setup with 220 amp-hours of battery capacity, 130 watts of solar power, and several small inverters. This worked well if we
were conservative with our electricity use. The Hitchhiker has a luxury setup (that allows us never to think about conserving
electrcial power) with 440 amp-hours of battery capacity, 490 watts of solar power, and one 1100 watt true-sine wave inverter.
WATER
Our Lynx travel trailer could hold 40 gallons of fresh water, including the 6-gallon hot water heater, and the Hitchhiker fifth wheel
can hold 70 gallons, including the 10-gallon hot water heater. We have never had trouble finding fresh water spigots to fill the tanks,
except in Flagstaff, Arizona where water is extremely scarce, and parts of inland northern California where many campground
spigots have become contaminated with bacteria.
The trick is getting the water from the spigot into the trailer's tanks. When you have
the trailer with you, it's easy enough to pull up to the spigot, get out your hose and fill
the tanks. However, when you are camped you need to get water in jerry jugs. We
carry six 6-gallon jugs (green plastic ones we got at Walmart for about $8 each) in the
back of our pickup. It is easy to locate a spigot and run a hose from the spigot to fill
the jugs. The only hard part is maneuvering these ungainly jugs to the water tank
intake on the side of the trailer. The intake was located at a nice low point on the
Lynx. The Hitchhiker has it located at shoulder level, so it is a good workout for either
of us to hoist 50 lbs of water onto our shoulders and hold the thing steady while
pouring it into the tank. We typically put two jugs of water into the trailer everyday,
and we try to do this chore everyday so it is just a five minute job instead of a long
ordeal.
Some people get a huge 40-gallon or larger tank that they keep in the bed
of the pickup and they use an electric pump to pump the water through the
hose into the water intake on the trailer. So far we don't mind getting a bit
of an upper body workout using our individual jerry jugs and manual pouring
system!
We also carry two 7-gallon blue plastic water jugs (from Walmart) for filtered
drinking water as well as 8 individual gallon containers of drinking water.
We use about two gallons of drinking water per day (I cook with it too) and
we like to have it taste pure, so we typically pay 15 to 40 cents a gallon to fill
up at the reverse osmosis filtered water stations found outside (or
occasionally inside) Walmart and other supermarkets. When we are in
areas that don't have these filtered water stations, we use an inline water
filter to filter the water at a regular water spigot. We learned the hard way that it is best to use a flow-reduction device so you don't
blow out the filter, and it is best to keep the filter refrigerated between uses so it doesn't grow bacteria.
Some people install a water filtration system at the kitchen sink, and others use a
two-stage filter system to filter all the water going into the trailer. We haven't found
either of those things necessary -- yet.
We prefer to keep all our water resources topped off, and we start all towing trips with
full tanks just in case we can't easily find water when we get to our new location. So
we tow our trailer with 70 gallons in the tank, 36 gallons in the green jerry jugs in the
truck bed, 14 gallons in the blue drinking water jugs also in the truck bed, and 8
individual gallons of drinking water in the lower kitchen cabinets in the trailer. That is
a total of 128 gallons of water. At 8.3 lbs per gallon, that is over 1,000 lbs of water --
quite a drag on our gas mileage! But that is one of the trade-offs we are happy to
make, as it means we can always unwind for a few days in our new location before
we have to start searching for water sources.
The popup held just 26 gallons of fresh water, including the 6-gallon hot water heater. So we had to conserve quite a bit with that
trailer unless we wanted to spend all our time searching for water. The shower was outside the trailer, and we both showered
standing on rubber mats from Home Depot while wearing out bathing suits. This worked extremely well! Though I have to say it
was a little embarrassing and kinda funny the one time I was in Yavapai Campground outside Prescott, Arizona, and the ranger
came by to talk to us while I was all soaped up. She didn't say anything or even raise an eyebrow, and I just kept scrubbing away as
we talked.
With the popup we typically used 6 gallons of water per day. With the Lynx it increased to 8-10 gallons of water per day. With the
Hitchhiker we've gotten sloppy and we use 10-12 gallons per day. Some of this is because the tanks, both fresh water and holding
tanks, were progressively bigger with each rig, and some of this is because we have gotten soft and decided not to "rough it" any
more.
HOLDING TANKS
Our Lynx held 40 gallons of grey water and 40 gallons of black water. The Hitchhiker fifth wheel holds 78 gallons of grey water
and 50 gallons of black water. The popup didn't have a toilet and it just had a water outlet for the grey water (you needed to place a
bucket below the outlet to catch the grey water).
RV dumps are generally easy to locate. Any campground that provides spaces for RVs will typically have one, or the host knows
where there is one nearby. Many states provide them in rest areas. Flying J and TA Travel truck stops offer them for free, and you
can pick up a pamphlet showing the locations of all their truck stops at any of their locations. Private RV parks will often charge
$5-10 for the use of their RV dump, and some larger gas stations, especially ones situated on or near interstates, will have ones you
can use for free.
Oddly, most RV dumps are built so that the trailer is cantilevered away from the
drain while it is parked there, and many have the drain slightly raised. All of this
defies gravity and makes it hard to fully drain the tanks and the sewage hose.
So if we have the time and there isn't a line at the dump, we take the time to put
down boards beneath the trailer tires on one side to get the trailer tipped
towards the drain as much as possible. Black water first, then kitchen grey,
then shower grey (we have two separate grey tanks). This gets the worst stuff
out first and cleans the sewer hose and adjoining hoses upstream below the
tanks as we go along. Mark has thick rubber gloves and he has installed a
paper towel holder and disinfecting hand soap in the storage compartment near
the dump equipment on our trailer.
There are a ton of holding tank chemicals on the market designed to control
odors. Many of them use formaldehyde, which is very effective at preserving things (like the fetal pigs we dissected in high school!).
Unfortunately formaldehyde is so hard on the environment -- and on RV dumps -- that we learned some RV dumps in California
have had to close. We really like a product called RV-Digest It that we found in RV stores around Arizona. This product is basically
just enzymes and bacteria that like to munch on the stuff in the tank. Presumably this product will keep the tank level sensors from
getting clogged too, because the little critters climb the walls and chow down the stuff on the sensors. After a year and a half of
using this product in our new fifth wheel all the holding tank sensors are still 100% accurate.
PROPANE
Both the Lynx travel trailer and the Hitchhiker fifth wheel have two 30 lb. / 7 gallon
propane tanks (the popup had one 20 lb. / 5 gallon propane tank). On the Lynx (and
popup) the tanks were mounted on the hitch tongue and on the Hitchhiker they are
mounted in a side compartment near the hitch king pin, accessed by a door. Both
units have a valve connecting the two tanks that automatically switches tanks when
one tank is empty. When both tanks are full the valve collar is green. When one tank
is empty the collar turns brown and you manually throw a switch so that when that tank
goes empty as well the system will switch to the other tank. The idea is to fill the one
empty tank before the second one goes empty.
This is a really nifty system. In the spring, summer and fall, when we aren't using
propane to heat the rig, we empty one tank in about 18 days. In the winter one tank lasts about 12-14 days. It usually takes us 3 or
4 days to get to a propane filling station to fill the tank. Usually, we take the empty tank off of its mounting brackets on the trailer
and haul it in the truck to get it filled. Occasionally we are towing the trailer when we need to get propane, so we take the tank off its
mount right there at the filling station (most stations won't fill the tank if it is mounted on the trailer).
We use propane in the buggy to run quite a few appliances: the hot water heater, the stove, the oven, the refrigerator and the
furnace. It is critical to have at least a little propane in one tank at all times, as the fridge runs on propane continually. So propane
is the one utility that we purchase for our home. At 2008 prices, it costs about $40-$60/month. Some RVers travel with the propane
switched off so no gas can flow while driving. This is a very safe way to go and we have heard of trailers essentially blowing up
while being towed because something went wrong in the gas lines and a spark ignited an instantaneous fire. However, we always
keeps our propane on so things in the freezer don't melt.
CONSERVING
When boondocking, or drycamping, it is necessary be conservative with our various resources. If we get crazy running all our
appliances all the time we will run out of water or propane or even battery power sooner rather than later, and resupplying each of
those things takes some effort. We have learned little tricks from friends and from our own experience for keeping our usage to a
minimum.
Conserving Electricity
-Use lights only where you need them. Each standard bulb that is installed in an RV draws about 1.5 amps. Some lights have two
bulbs, drawing 3.0 amps. Flourescent lights typically draw 1.5-2.0 amps. The more lights running, the more amps are being drawn.
-Run your laptop from its battery and charge it when it is turned off, rather than plugging it into power when you use it. Our 15"
Macbook laptop uses 1.6 amps when it is turned off and charging. It uses 4-6 amps when it is turned on and running. It can run for
2-3 hours without being charged, and it takes the same length of time to charge as the amount of time it is used. So, if it runs on
battery power for 3 hours and is charged later, it uses 4.8 amps. If it is run while plugged in for 3 hours (leaving it fully charged
when finished), it uses 15 amps. Also, if you are using a portable modified sine wave inverter there is no chance for software to get
corrupted when the computer is turned off. So if you don't trust your inverter, it is less likely to damage your computer if the
computer is not booted up. Wacky inverter power will not likely damage the hardware components of your computer when it is
turned off and charging. However, a brownout while it is booted up, with the operating system and data files open, may corrupt the
files. That being said, we have used a $17 inverter purchased at Walmart for hundreds of hours to charge our Mac, and it has
never had a problem. My understanding is that if you have a lump (transformer) somewhere along the charging cable of the device
you are charging, that transformer will protect the device. Our laptop has a lump in its charging cable. The Sonicare toothbrush,
electric razor, cordless drill and camera battery chargers do not. Still, none of those devices has ever had a problem with the cheap
inverter.
-Rather than using a coffee maker, which can draw 1,000 watts or more, I use a
plastic Melitta coffee filter and pour my own drip coffee. There is no mess and it is
very easy and quick. Mark doesn't drink coffee, so this one-cup-at-a-time method
works great for me. When I lived on a sailboat and wanted to make pots of coffee I
used a French Press. This method has the advantage of preserving the bean oils in
the coffee. The only difficulty for an RV lifestyle is that you have to dispose of the
grounds before washing the French Press so they don't go down the drain, and that
can be messy. On a boat you can just rinse the grounds out of the press in the
ocean off the swim platform.
-Charge things while you drive. We keep our cheap Walmart inverter in the truck
glove box, and we bring Mac (and sometimes the toothbrush and camera battery chargers) into the truck to charge them as we
drive. This isn't necessary now that we have the huge solar charging system on our fifth wheel, but we did it daily when we had
the Lynx and its modest solar charging system, even when driving just 5 miles to the store.
-Use oil hurricane lamps for light at night. These can be found at Walmart for $5. Get the better quality "no smoke" lamp oil ($8 for
a big bottle). In the Lynx travel trailer we usually used two oil lamps at night when we sat around chatting or making music. It wasn't
quite enough to read by, but cast a nice romantic glow in the trailer when we were just sitting around. When we watched TV we lit
just one oil lamp. We purchased some metal hooks and hung the lamps on the hooks from the lip on the big slide. In the morning
we just put the lamps and hooks away in a cabinet. Hurricane lamps are also terrific as outside lights, so you can find your trailer in
the dark, or as picnic table lamps.
-Use small inverters, as they draw fewer amps to run. Our Walmart 150 watt inverter draws 0.4 amps when it is turned on. Our
Radio Shack 150/350 watt inverter draws 0.6 amps. The 800 watt inverter draws 1.0 amps. Our 1100 watt true sine wave inverter
draws 2.0 amps. This "No Load Draw" is an important spec to consider when you are buying an inverter.
-Charge more than one item when you turn the inverter on. Since inverters use battery power just to run, you might as well charge
a few things at once. Our toothbrush takes 2-6 hours to charge, so we would also charge up the cordless drill or camera batteries
or computer at the same time. With the toothbrush and computer (turned off) charging at once, our draw was: 0.6 amps for the
inverter, 0.1 for the toothbrush, and 1.6 for the computer, or 2.3 amps total.
-Keep the volume down on the TV/DVD and stereo. We measured a difference of 1.5-2.0 amps on our 19" LCD TV if we turned the
volume way up.
-Switch to LED bulbs. We have not done this with our DC lights because
they are very expensive and they cast a weird glow. However,
Hitchhiker installed two 40 watt 110 volt AC bulbs in each of the sconce
lamps next to our recliners and sofa. These drew so much electricity (8
amps DC per sconce lamp!) that we never used them. Then we found
some LED bulbs at Walmart. These drew 0.15 amps per bulb, well
worth the $5 or so that each bulb cost. Sadly, we have never seen
these bulbs at Walmart again, and I suspect they were being test-
marketed and failed for some reason. They were rated as good for
replacing 40 watt bulbs, but in reality they cast what feels like about 15
watts of light and the light is a bit harsh. They are perfect for
background lighting when we watch TV.
Conserving Water
-Turn the water off when you soap up in the shower. Some shower heads have a button on the handle to make this easy.
-When you turn on the hot water faucet, use a container to catch the cold water that comes out first. We collect just enough to fill a
large drinking glass when we shower. We keep that glass on the bathroom sink and use the water during the course of the day
each time we brush our teeth.
-If the water supply is really scarce, collect dirty dishes all day and wash them all at once. Or, fill the sink with soapy water and keep
using that water to wash dishes during the day until the water is too dirty.
Conserving Propane
-Run the hot water heater just once a day. There is a debate whether keeping the hot water heater on and allowing it to "warm up"
the water throughout the day and night uses more propane than simply heating the water once a day. We have experimented and
have found that it takes about 20-30 minutes for the hot water heater to heat up our 10 gallon tank. If we keep it on, the heater will
come on again within two hours and run for another 10 minutes. If it does this for 24 hours it will use a lot more propane.
-Cover the hot water tank with a few fiberglass insulation blankets. We put two blankets on ours, for a total R-factor of R-12. We
also put insulation on all the hot water pipes throughout the rig. I first wrapped each pipe with aluminum foil coated insulating tape
(R-2) and then put a foam insulating tube on top (R-2) for a total R-factor of R-4 on the pipes. I couldn't reach all the pipes (if you
are ordering a new rig, ask the factory to insulate all the pipes). However, the difference is amazing. We heat our water each
afternoon before we shower. The water is still hot the next morning to wash our breakfast dishes. Also, once the hot water has run
through the pipes to the kitchen sink and shower, it stays warm in the pipes a lot longer.
More Tips & Tricks
For more hints and suggestions of little ways we've come up with to make this independent full-time RV lifestyle a little easier, check
out the Tips & Tricks page.