The first week of July, my family and I are embarking on a cross country RV trip from our home in the Florida Panhandle to San Diego, California. A good portion of the time, we will not be staying in campgrounds. Rather we will be boondocking. Put simply, boondocking is dry camping using only the resources you have available on board. Below is a list of onboard resources we have available and the items that run off each resource.
12 Volt House Battery
All lights
Bathroom Fan
Radio
Awning
Furnace Fan
Water Pump
Stove Fan
Propane
Stove/Oven
Furnace
Water Heater
Refrigerator
Grill (1 pound bottles)
Batteries/Solar
Wall Sconce
String Lights
Solar Night Lights (repurposed solar landscape lights)
LED Lanterns
46 Gallon Fresh Water Tank
38 Gallon Gray Water Tank
28 Gallon Black Water Tank
We have never boondocked before so last night we decided to make a practice run at it in our yard just in case things did not work out. We set up around 5pm and the fun began.
After a dinner of grilled burgers, we built a fire and made S’mores bowls.
This morning, I used a percolator to make coffee and a cast iron griddle on top of the grill to make breakfast.
Even our cat enjoyed the experience.
Before we packed up, I took inventory of the resources we used to get a better grasp of how long we could make it off grid. Here are the results.
12 Volt House Battery
Radio (5 hours)
Bathroom Fan (3 hours)
Awning (extended and retracted)
Lights (various for < 1 hour)
Water Pump (4 “Navy showers”, washed dishes)
Had ⅔ battery capacity remaining
Water
4 “Navy showers”
Washed dishes (used outside shower and dishpan)
Flushed Toilet 5 times
Had > ⅔ tank of fresh water left
Grey water was < ⅓ full
Black water was < ⅓ full
I need to invest in a gauge for our propane tanks to get a feel for how quickly we are burning through it. We used propane to power the refrigerator (pre-cooled with 110v electricity) and the water heater.
I would call our little experiment a success! I was amazed at how well everything worked. We plan on making a few small adjustments before our next outing but, overall, it went well.