boondocking and extra water and tank emptying

I am hoping to full time with my 5th wheel when i get it in a few months. Next year i plan to snowbird to the south for winter as the cold makes my breathing really bad. My question is like in AZ or the other areas most of you go to boondock.
1. How close are you to the nearest towns.
2. How close are you to the dump stations.
I was thinking it would be great to get an extra water tank to store in the bed of my truck for fresh water.
Also i was thinking that the barker tote tank for emptying the grey and black tanks would be nice however i know lifting it couldn't be done. is there a pump i can use to empty the tanks if the tote is left in the bed of the truck.
how do most of you handle this
I am also planning solar with inverters for computer and tvs.
I want to be as off the grid and green as possible
thanks for any info

This is all you need for transferring waste uphill to the tote in the bed of your truck:
http://www.amazon.com/Flojet-18555-000-Waste-Water-Pump/dp/B001HKZHIW


Solar power is becoming more and more reasonable. However, good batteries are getting more and more expensive as the price of metals goes up. It's important to match the solar array to the battery size. It's no good to have a 400W solar array and only 200AH of battery capacity. The batteries will be full by 10:AM on a sunny day. Conversely, it's no good to have 200AH of batteries and a 40W solar panel. It just won't keep up and a cloudy day may find you with dead batteries.

A decent 200W solar set-up can be done for under $500. The thing is, a good set of batteries cost about $350- $400. Balance out the system with a good selection of LED lamps and you should be good to go as long as you are not sitting around watching TV all day or expecting to run the washer & dryer.

The inverter will not be your friend with a smaller solar array and batteries. Take the amps that your appliance uses at 110V... multiply that by 10 and you will have the rough amperage draw @ 12V.... in other words a 1200W coffee pot will draw 11A @ 110V...... convert that to 12V through the inverter and the draw on your batteries will be roughly 110A.  If you have a 230AH battery bank about 1/2 of that is useable. That leaves you with ~115ah of useable storage. Running the coffee pot for 15 minutes will use 27.5AH or roughly 24% of your total battery capacity.

I'm thinking that a lot of people on this forum may have solar arrays over 500W and battery banks of 400+ah.

I just took the 200W solar array off of my travel trailer and I'm installing it on my M/H this weekend. I'm thinking I may increase to 300W and install a set of Trojan T145 batteries which will give me 260ah.

thanks for the link book marked it plan to get it great help
Also i am in love with playing games or watching movies on my bad health days when active is just not an option. so I have priced out with AM solar who is local for me two 150 whatt solar panels and an inverter that will power my computer tv and game system or dvd player at the same time. also we talked about how a 5th will will have better battery storage then a TT one more reason i decided on a 5th wheel. With my health problems I just need to make sure that the up keep of stuff is easy to do. Glad i have a few months to do lots and lots of research.
Glad i have all of you to pick the brains of as well.
thanks

kaylin640 said:

Also i am in love with playing games or watching movies on my bad health days when active is just not an option. so I have priced out with AM solar who is local for me two 150 whatt solar panels and an inverter that will power my computer tv and game system or dvd player at the same time. also we talked about how a 5th will will have better battery storage then a TT one more reason i decided on a 5th wheel.

Click to expand...

300W solar array is like a 22A battery charger that works best in full Sun. That array should net you about 130ah a day. All you have to do is figure the draw of the items that you want to use and work it into that 130W diet.

You can buy LED TVs that run on 12V. You may want to find one. That is far more efficient than running it off of the inverter. If you are going to run the TV or other sophisticated electronics on the inverter, you will want buy a "Pure sine wave" inverter. A modified sine wave inverter is about 1/2 the price (or less) but you may be replacing electronic equipment at twice the rate too.

Good to know will keep that in mind for install thanks

Your biggest problem with any trailer is to find a place for a decent size battery bank. Few are designed to accommodate more than two batteries, and that isn't a lot of power storage for extended boondocking. An inverter really eats battery amps!

As for waste dumping, you can get a portable 12v macerator pump to transfer sewage. I carry one called the Tank Buddy from RV Sanicon. You could build a pump system into the RV, but you might want a portable so that you can pump OUT the portable tank as well. On the other hand, you probably wouldn't need to remove the portable from the truck bed to empty it - just tip it up and let gravity do the transfer for you. A 20 gallon tank, however, is over 160 lbs, so even tipping it requires some upper-body strength.

If you also have a fresh water tank in the truck bed, you may want to add a 12v water transfer pump to it. Gravity may not be sufficient to move the water to your trailers city inlet or filler spout.  Tanks are available in all sizes an shapes. Here is one selection:
http://www.plastic-mart.com/category/28/flat-bottom-portable-water-tanks

As for how far it is to a dump station or fresh water source, it varies all over the map, depending on where you camp.

thanks for the info have also book marked both those pages. not having to lift or tilt the tank to drain it from the bed of the truck is a must as my health just won't let me lift that kind of weight.

Arizona dust is h*** with breathing problems. I'm on oxygen and have fits with my COPD. My only only reason for being here is that I grew up in the Southwest and can't deal with cold/snow....gotta have the sun. We'll head for Oregon soon tho.

Frankly, we opted for a motorhome due to our health issues. We did not want to accept the challenges of hauling a trailer around and the extra work during each setup. A MoHo just suited our needs better.

Whatever route you take I hope you have the time of your life.