Was There a Time When You Broke Away From W/E Site Camping?

Hello, all...and thanks for your time and consideration. 

As a relatively new RVer, I was hoping to elicit some thoughts/feedback concerning your comfort levels with different camping amenities as you gained experience over the years as RVers. 

(Just looking for some good-natured insights...we all do what we're comfortable with, or what we have to do, within logistical/family/work/economic lines.) 

Over the past 3 years, we've grown very comfortable with 30 Amp camping in state parks across the east coast.  30 Amp + water is even more convenient on the way in.

With "shore" power, I don't have to worry about our elementary-aged kids running us out of power.  I'm honestly still using the 35 amp-hour battery that came with our 21' TT, and it's been fine.  Our family and our dogs have been comfortable with the AC in 95 degree Marathon Key, FL and with the furnace/blower in the 30s in June up along the Maine coast.  I also like being able to run our overhead AC unit just on "fan" as needed...the way that thing roars, campground noise and issues with inconsiderate neighbors are pretty much non-issues. 

Looking at some potential National Park visits a ways out, I realize how different the facilities are in the National Parks, and how pigeon-holed that we've become in terms of the way we want/"need" W/E sites for our style of camping. 

I guess my question is...

Was there a point when you consciously/purposefully said, "I'm going to equip my rig for more basic/dry camping"?  Was it something that you started to do after "x" years of camping?  Something you phased in over time, or something that you did abruptly out of necessity?  Did you go through a "convenience" phase like we're in presently...then eventually branch out and expand your options? 

Looking at Shenandoah, Smoky Mountains, Pisgah, etc...it's apparent that we would probably need some combination of:

a) a solar array (not a strong option in mountainous, wooded areas, however)
b) an enhanced house battery arrangement
c) a generator (philosophically, I won't run a conventional generator, and an inverter generator would be on the wrong side of a buyers' remorse situation for us)
d) etc?

Private campgrounds are sometimes a viable alternative, but perhaps not the most convenient (relative to the sites being visited) or preferable (in terms of layout/privacy/noise/etc). 

Thanks...I"d appreciate hearing about your thoughts and experiences.  Is it past time to "equip" and to expand our possibilities, or are we experiencing a natural progression that will lead us to do that when it's "time" for us? 

Take care and happy travels. 

The first step would be leaving the kids' electronic devices at home, so they can actually see the country instead of keeping their heads down watching video displays.

We don't do a lot of boondocking, but we do use portable solar to supply power when we're off the grid.

We have been RVing for a long time, and with several RVs over the years, and we still do both hook-up and dry camping, and enjoy both. As a general rule our visits to the US National Park and National Forest campsites involve dry camping and we generally stay 2 or 3 days so we do worry about running out of basic battery power. Our present RV is a 2018 Winnebago Fuse and the refrigerator is all electric with no propane setting so, if our batteries die, we lose the refrigerator. We have done several things to avoid running out of battery power.

We now use solar panels. We had them on our old TT and we have them on our current Class C RV and they have helped us maintain our batteries. Even in heavily wooded places like Bryce Canyon National Park and some of the National Forest campgrounds there is enough filtered light to charge the batteries. We use 2 100 watt panels, but then we now have 2 batteries so perhaps one panel might be enough for you. One was enough on our TT.

We bought a second battery for our old TT and wired them in parallel so we would have more power to draw from, and that helped a lot. If you have space for an extra battery that might be a less expensive option for you.

We also bought some Honda portable generators for use with our TT and used them to make sure we were able to change the batteries and, when necessary, run the AC. We rarely had to use them with our TT but it was reassuring to know it was there and we were able to provide extra power on those rare occasions when we needed it.

We also generally try to either stay at campgrounds with hookups some of the time when we are doing extended dry camping to provide power to charge our batteries to full on those rare occasions when the solar panels could not do their job.

We occasionally dry camp so I purchased the cheap 100 watt solar system from Harbor Freight. It is easy to set up and keeps the batteries charged. We stayed ay Shenandoah a week using solar. It?s just my wife and I so that makes it easier. We also utilize the CG bathrooms for showers and toilets.

Wanderer:  Thanks...we do that already.  A couple school teachers here who don't take kindly to faces in screens.   

I was more referencing kids leaving lights on back in their bunks, not toggling the water pump back to "off" after using the lav, bumping refrigerator/water heater buttons and drawing electricity to multi-power appliances, etc.

Mike:  Thanks...are your panels mounted, or the "suitcase" variety?  I think I know the Honda generators you speak of...hoping to do that down the road sometime. 

Gator:  Love the Drop and your setup...Micro Minnie here. 

Did you mount your HF panels?  Suitcase style?  Did those come with all the controller/adapter stuff?

Thanks! 

Is it past time to "equip" and to expand our possibilities, or are we experiencing a natural progression that will lead us to do that when it's "time" for us? 

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I don't know about a "natural progression" but your question indicates it might be "time" for you to start, since it shows an interest. Our first experience with that was when the trailer group we were with headed for a small state park with no hookups, so we were there a couple of nights. It was summer time so no need for the furnace. We had that trailer for four years, so we soon bought a Honda generator to extend our capabilities.

Later, when we got a motorhome, we found this forum site and went to Quartzsite to meet some of the folks in that very next January, running the onboard generator some each morning and evening. We learned a lot from that. So, for us, dry camping is something we do when needed for where we want to be -- we're prepared for it and do it when needed, but we don't do it just to be doing it.

not toggling the water pump back to "off" after using the lav

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I'm not sure why you'd need to do that, since the pump is supposed to shut off when you quit using the water (maybe a few seconds to pressurize the system again). If it keeps running you either have a leak in your water system or you have a defective pump.

Run, don't walk away, from Harbor Freight solar panels. To get 100 watts, you need four heavy 25-watt panels. For the same price, you can get a single 100-watt panel.

steelmooch said:

Gator:  Love the Drop and your setup...Micro Minnie here. 

Did you mount your HF panels?  Suitcase style?  Did those come with all the controller/adapter stuff?

Thanks!

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The panels come with PVC frame. Not too heavy. I move them around the campsite as the sunshine moves. Came with a controller and enough cable to move around a good distance.

HappyWanderer said:

Run, don't walk away, from Harbor Freight solar panels. To get 100 watts, you need four heavy 25-watt panels. For the same price, you can get a single 100-watt panel.

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Mine is three panels. Not very heavy. I think I paid about $125.00. I would like a suitcase system though.

steelmooch said:

Mike:  Thanks...are your panels mounted, or the "suitcase" variety?  I think I know the Honda generators you speak of...hoping to do that down the road sometime.

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They are mounted. The TT had a single panel on the roof and the RV has 2 roof panels. I expect to add a 3rd soon, but will decide once I see if the 2 existing panels provide enough power to keep the batteries charged.

The suitcase panels are probably a good idea, but they are heavy enough that I do not know I would go to the trouble to set them up regularly. Sometimes, especially after a long day's drive, I am too lazy to do much and the mounted panels mean one more thing I do not have to worry about.

As for the generators, I consider that to have been a poor decision. It is not the generators themselves - they were fine, they were quiet and provided the power they were advertised to produce, but we used them so rarely once we had the solar panels that it turned out to be a waste of money for us.

Larry N. said:

I'm not sure why you'd need to do that, since the pump is supposed to shut off when you quit using the water (maybe a few seconds to pressurize the system again). If it keeps running you either have a leak in your water system or you have a defective pump.

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+1.

I was going to respond in a similar way but your post said everything I would have said.

My wife and I do a lot of fishing so most of our trips are to places that have no hook ups. Its just the two of us so we can get by with 50 gal water and 35/35 gal black/grey water holding tanks for 3-4 days max to our favorite fishing spots in our truck camper. If the campground keeps the toilets clean we'll use those during the day on longer stays, but that's not always the case with the vault style bathrooms combined with a full busy  campground. I've always had a boat, when our kids were young we did almost all of our camping at a lakes, 100 degree temps are common here during summer in the foothill lakes and the central valley along the rivers and delta. We were all in the water all day water skiing/swimming so nobody felt they needed A/C during the day or a shower at night. It would of been nice, but hey its camping. Power is what we would have to watch the most. Our Camper has a onboard genset but it can be a little loud in a quite campground ,,,fyi  a honda suitcase gen is really quite,,, so I pick my times to use it.  I'm not sure how solar will work out for us in the Sierras with all the big trees we camp under, but it sounds like a good thing to have when it can be used in other places. Our latest camper has all LED lighting in it, that really has helped to make a difference over our last camper that had traditional lighting and a fluorescent. Also our Artic Fox camper has really good insulation compared to our last camper so we can use the furnace at night on the early season trips when there is low night time temps. It cycles a lot less not killing the batteries. Before we would use a propane catalyst heater on low. Before the safety monitors all start chiming in, yea, yea fresh air has to be considered when using a heater. Trial and error is going to get your own set up dialed in. One thing is for sure, your kids will have the best memories for life from family trips and camping. Now that our kids are grown with their own family, we still laugh at some of the things that happened on trips we took many years ago,,,gregg
Two 5gal jugs of water if you have a place to haul it, this a reserve if water goes fast for your crew
camp at or near a lake/river/stream if its a hot area
Honda suitcase genset
stand alone propane heater in cold climate, saves the batteries at night
Solar if it makes sense for your area of the country
A blue rolling tote to dump holding tanks, I did this with the old camper because of its really small holding tanks, I would dump it in the vault tolits at the no service campgrounds

When boondocking, we always turn off the water pump after each use.

Having to turn it on every time is a powerful reminder to conserve water.

Oldgator73 said:

Mine is three panels. Not very heavy. I think I paid about $125.00. I would like a suitcase system though.

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Harbor Freight has two solar ?systems? available: one is four 25-watt panels; the other is three 15-watt panels. So three solar panels will provide less than half the power as a single 100-panel. That?s not much of a bargain, and a lot of storage space.

Equip your rig for the 90% type of camping you prefer, and just adjust for the remaining 10%. You like W/E. No problem. For the national parks without those facilities, just camp outside the parks or plan on borrrowing/buying a generator to handle your power needs.

Our history: We started out tent camping, then pop ups for years, the hard sided trailers, now a motorhome. We never had to compromise on power or water because we were always used to so much less. Note though our camping is 90% where AC isn?t required so it was easy. Just get your kids used to the idea of using less water and electricity when the hookups arren?t available. All the places without hookups have toilets, and many have showers available in the campground or a nearby town. Note we have a generator (built in) and a lot of solar plus lots of batteries because it fits how we camp most of the time. It would be a waste of money if we needed it once every few years.

UTTransplant said:

Equip your rig for the 90% type of camping you prefer, and just adjust for the remaining 10%.

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+1. Very good advice.

HappyWanderer said:

Harbor Freight has two solar ?systems? available: one is four 25-watt panels; the other is three 15-watt panels. So three solar panels will provide less than half the power as a single 100-panel. That?s not much of a bargain, and a lot of storage space.

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I think you?re right. Mine are 45 watts. It?s plenty to keep my batteries charged. Like I said we were at Shannandoah for about a week and plenty of battery for lights and anything else we needed. Ran the fridge off of propane. I would like the suitcase models. Easier to tote and store.

As far as a "progression" I think we may have progressed somewhat backwards from what you are thinking.

We tent camped, slide in camper etc. from the time our kids were born until they in junior/high school.  Advanced to a pop up but still stayed in the boonies dry camping.  Bought our first hard sided trailer about the time my son graduated high school and still liked to dry camp.  Added double batteries and bought a generator. 

Fast forward to now; we've about stopped dry camping except on a rare occasion.  We spend a lot of time out in the RV but stay in established campgrounds.  The son is 50 and daughter is 45 so they no longer have an interest in going with us to speak of. 

In your case I think trying to equip for dry camping with the young ones is the way to go.  They will get SO much more out of it than staying in developed campgrounds.  When the time comes and the kids are gone you may find that a more developed campground fits better, but, until then I think I would keep going in the direction you seem to be headed.  Good luck.

Lots of wise words...thanks so much, everyone! 

HOW funny! we grew up with a 1964 Roll-A-Long (chassis mount, no A's or C's at the time), our routine was to only use the waterpump when needed and shut off when done(A** chewing). 50 years and change later we do the same in our DP. Damn German! HA