Boondocking | Best RV Living
Boondocking when it comes to RV’ing, means to make camp without any external hookups. No electricity, water or sewage. With the rising costs of nightly camping, boondocking can be a viable option when you are on route to your destination but just need to stop for the night. Or just to save a couple of bucks.
To be honest, I just heard of the term boondocking and I’ll be sure to post more as I learn more. But here’s a rundown of what I’ve discovered with a bit of searching on the Internet.
Always the biggest problem is getting enough water and electrical power to cover your needs while unhooked. Fortunately electrical can be covered by the fact that if you have a generator in your unit and it has the right capacity, then your are covered. I’ve been told that a general rule of thumb when boondocking with air conditioning, you will want to have at least a 3,000 watt generator. Or else you could burn out the air unit or the generator or both.
With using a generator, you have to realize that you are using diesel to run the generator and one writer mentioned that you can eat up $10 of diesel overnight running the generator to run the air conditioning. Good point. I’ll add more here when I find out more details.
Second, is the water. That is an issue. You only have a finite amount of water and you have to conserve it. You can make use of facilities that allow you to replenish like the Flying J’s in the states. So, I guess one could over come this problem. But if you are in the bush far away from replenishments, that could become an issue very quickly.
I’ve read that you can normally boondock for up to four or five days without getting water. So, that’s a good point to remember for remote travelling. But I’m thinking of keeping to civilization, so I’ll just have to plan out the replenishment points while boondocking every three or four days.
Where to boondock?
I’ve also read that most have never been turned away from any place they’ve wanted to boondock. Stores such as WalMarts and Targets as well as truck stops like Flying J’s welcome overnight camping. (It’s recommended that you don’t say 24 hours. You’ll surely get a knock if you try to stay more then that.)
Many have boondocked in church parking lots. Driveways and side yards of relatives are another great idea for boondocking. They take our home to visit their homes while they visit their families.
Out west many have found many “safety rest areas” just off main highways and even stayed at visitor centers. Some membership campgrounds offer boondocking sites and we always use them. Some of the best boondocking areas are state and national parks and national forests where camping is often free.
So, boondocking looks like quite the viable option. I’d love to hear your experience good and bad regarding boondocking! Thanks!