Boondocking: How to camp offline

You’ve probably heard a lot about boondocking (camping without hookups) and wondered why anyone would want to camp where there’s no water, sewer, or electrical hookups. All modern RVs have been built to be independent of these appendages that connect them to terrestrial resources. All RVs have a freshwater holding tank and, most of the time, two waste holding tanks, one for the toilet and one for the shower and sinks. They also have a house battery or batteries to supply 12-volt electricity to the RV and a generator to produce electrical power for the 120-volt and 12-volt systems and to recharge the batteries. Camping without these hookups opens up far more possibilities on the vast natural areas and public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Forest Service (FS) to enjoy your RV lifestyle. However, you must first get comfortable camping without hookups, which limits the amount of drinking water, battery electricity, and waste disposal capacity. Here are seven ways to conserve your natural resources and transition from hookups to transition.

1. Start by touring just one or two nights at a campground that doesn’t have hookups and doesn’t load your onboard systems. But to last longer, you need to learn some conservation techniques and change some wasteful habits.
2. Conserve your fresh water supply by taking Marina showers: rinse, turn off the water, lather up, rinse. Wash your hands the same way. Filling your greywater tank is one of the most limiting factors in how long you can stay in the water, so keep as much wastewater out of the tank as you can.
3. When you wash dishes, use a small bowl of soapy water. Rinse dishes in a tub of water, rather than under a running faucet. Clean food from your dishes before you wash them. Use a small container of soapy water to wash and a plastic tub of water to rinse. With a little practice, you’ll be amazed at how much water you were previously wasting.
4. Carry extra jerry cans or gallon containers of water to dump into your tank when your pump starts to draw air.
5. To conserve electricity so your home’s batteries last as long as possible, turn off lights, televisions, radios, porch lights, computers, and any other electrical appliances or tools when they’re not in use. Use rechargeable battery-powered book lights for reading.
6. If you need to use a 120-volt appliance like the microwave, blender, or coffee grinder, or the water pump that drains the battery, schedule their use in the same time block while running the generator, which will power them directly without use amps. out of their batteries.
7. To find campsites on public land, stop at ranger stations and visitor centers as you enter public land and ask about “scattered camping” areas. Find public land on state maps showing recreational land. Most of the roads to these sites will be dirt, but they are solidly built for logging and cattle trucks and firefighting equipment, and most should be suitable for recreational vehicles.

For more information, as well as RV tips and destinations, visit my Healthy RVLifestyle website or check out my eBook, BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands, a comprehensive manual on boondocking.