When we first started traveling in our RV, the concept of “boondocking,” or camping without water/electric/sewer hookups, was downright intimidating. In fact, it wasn’t until our second year that we got up the courage to spend a night – just one night – boondocking at a Walmart. Eventually, after many nights at Walmarts, Cracker Barrels, and Harvest Hosts, we got up the courage to book a week of boondocking at the Bayside Wildlife Management Area near Navarre, Florida. Unfortunately, due to unusually cold weather, we had to pull up stakes and head back to hookups before the week was over.
The biggest issues we faced were water/waste management (we mastered that fairly quickly), limited battery capacity for electricity, and comfort – specifically, heat. The furnace in our RV does a fine job of keeping us warm, but the fan that delivers hot air throughout the motorhome could easily chew through most of our battery reserve in just one cold night. Of course we could run our generator to recharge the batteries, but it’s loud, guzzles gasoline, and just seems to defeat the whole purpose of harmonizing with nature!
In this video we share some of the hacks we’ve learned to overcome those challenges. And, we are glad to say, we have now successfully reached the goal of camping for an entire week without hookups!
As promised, here are links to the two most important tools in our boondocking arsenal.
Mr. Heater Buddy Portable Propane Heater: https://amzn.to/3As7QYX
Renogy Solar Suitcase: https://amzn.to/3CyisY1
As a reminder, when you order products from Amazon through one of our links, Amazon gives us a small commission at no additional cost to you. But you should shop around! As we mentioned in this video, we actually found the Mr. Heater Buddy for substantially less at Lowe’s than on Amazon.
If you have questions, or you’d like to see a more comprehensive video about boondocking (or some other RV subject), please leave us a message either here or in the video comments. Your comments can help shape the future of our channel!