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Boondocking and Full-time RVing
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Boondocking. What is boondocking and how do you go about
it?
If your idea of heaven is living on the cheap in out-of-the-way places far from the
crowd, you may be a natural boondocker. Boondocking is the frugal person’s nirvana.
In it’s most extreme form, boondocking is parking your RV for free with no amenities
of any kind. No water, electrical or sewer hookups.
There are ways of coping with the lack of traditional services, and if you are willing,
you can take a small income and stretch it so thin you can see through it. This is the
ultimate in low-cost living, and if you have the desire and means, is an achievable full
or part-time lifestyle.
If you have a small supplemental income and don’t want to work, your ship has
arrived. Of course, this section is not meant to be an exhaustive explanation of all the
nuances of boondocking, but it will give you a good overview.
Free Camping
Yes, that’s right, free camping on a long-term basis. And, the good news Is that
there are many forms of free camping. You’ll want to check out the Free Casino Camping pages on our website for a
comprehensive list about this free short-term camping resource.
The first major free camping resource is our National Forests. Administered by the
USDA, the Forest Service manages over 191 million acres with around 4,000 campgrounds. Not
all of these campgrounds will be suitable for boondocking in an RV, but you can get a list
by writing to the supervisor of each forest. You can get a list by writing to:
USDA Forest Service
Public Affairs Office
P.O. Box 96090
Washington, D.C. 20090-6090
A truly outstanding guide to this free resource is the Coleman National Forest Campground
and recreation directory. There is more information on this excellence reference book on
our recommended books page.
The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) administers millions of acres of public land. Free
camping – or low-cost permit – is abundantly available. You’ll not have
many, if any, amenities available and may have a time limitation on how long you can stay,
but if it is free your are looking for, they have it.
As an example, let’s say you’re in California near the town of Mammoth Lakes,
you could head over to the Crowley Lake Campground and park for free in the BLM
campground. It’s open from April 20 to November 1st on a first come, first served
basis. There are no hookups in the campground. Among other inconveniences you will have to
deal with the beauty of the high-desert scenery, and fishing for trout and Sacramento
perch in Lake Crowley. Gee, sounds like a rough life, huh?
Almost Free Camping
Ever thought about volunteering some time for free RV parking? There volunteer jobs
begging to be taken with National Wildlife Refuges, the U.S. Corps of Engineers, the U.S.
Forest Service, State Parks and even private campgrounds. You only have to work a few
hours a week and then you’re free to play.
Most of the volunteer positions will include some minimum amenities, such as water, and
many will include full-hookups including cable TV. What a deal.
You’ll be asked to perform a variety of duties including greeting campers, handing
out pamphlets, light maintenance, trail cleaning, answering questions, giving directions,
and other duties. No, you won’t have to do all of them. Check our Volunteer Camping
web page for more detailed information.
Beware of wild animals. See, Will is being attacked.
Roughing It
Let’s assume you have purchased a long-term use permit for a few dollars and you are
ready to settle into your site costing you pennies per day. What will you need to do to
maximize your stay without having to constantly run to the nearest store? Here’s the
overview for your venture into frugal living and conservation of resources.
Conserving Electricity
I’m assuming here that you don’t buy solar panels and are going cold turkey
from the electrical umbilical cord. You’ll want to make sure that you have picked an
area that isn’t too hot. You can always use a catalytic heater for getting rid of the
chill, but cooling off without electricity is a different matter. You’re electrical
supply is probably going to be one or two batteries that came with your RV, so using them
wisely is absolutely necessary. Having picked the right place to park for free, here is
what you can do:
Go to bed when it gets dark. Instead of sitting up at night and burning out your
batteries, simply go to bead and get up early. Enjoy your campfire at night, then use a
flashlight or candles for supplemental light if you want to stay up later.
Don’t use the built-in 12 volt clock and lighting in your RV. Turn off the clock and
use your wristwatch. Keep the water pump switch turned off. Use only the bare minimum of
electricity from your battery. Don’t use RV’s built-in radio or other 12 volt
appliances unless absolutely necessary. Use a portable battery powered radio if you must.
Learn to enjoy walking, hiking, fishing, reading, working on a non-electrical consuming
hobby. Forget about TV, the programming is toxic to the brain anyway. Enjoy what is around
you and your free time. That’s what this is all about anyway. Right? I mean, who
wants to retire so they can watch more TV. Well, maybe someone would , but probably not
you.
Conserving Water
If you aren’t careful, you’ll wonder how you could have blown through 50
gallons of water in less than two days. You don’t want to have to be running back and
forth all the time to haul water, and if you’re using that much, then you’re
also sucking down your battery charge every time the water pump comes on. Here are a few
suggestions:
Keep the water-pump switch turned off. If you have a small leak, the pressure will force
more and more water out, wasting electricity and water. Of course, if you have a water
leak, repair it immediately.
Heat your water on your range. You’ll get three benefits from this one. If you have
to wait for hot water to get to your faucet then you will waste water (unless you capture
the cold water in a pan), you’ll waste electricity pumping the water, and you’ll
waste propane by keeping the water hot all the time in the hot water tank (you’re
going to turn off your water heater to save propane). Whether you are bathing –
we’ll talk more about this in a moment – or washing dishes, you can use far less
hot water than you are used to. It actually, takes very little water to wash and rinse
dishes.
Take a bath using a wash cloth. You don’t have to shower and there is no need to
stink either. If you have really long, thick hair, this could be a problem. Short hair
that can be wet and rinsed with minimal water usage is by far most efficient.
Get a container and save some of the soapy water from bathing or washing dishes.
You’ll use this water to flush your toilet instead of using your supply of fresh
water. Again, you conserve by not using electricity to pump water to flush the toilet, and
by using soapy water to flush, you save your fresh water.
Invest in a few collapsible five-gallon water containers so you can refill them on trips
into town. You can get water at many service stations by just asking.
Install the best water filtration system you can afford. You don’t know for certain
the quality of water even in the best of campgrounds. At least you will be able to filter
out many harmful pollutants, and all microbes and amoebae.
Propane Conservation
Turn off your hot water heater. A substantial amount of propane is lost just keeping
the pilot light burning. Heat only the amount of hot water you need on top of your range.
Think about getting an “on demand” hot water system and doing away with your
hot water heater. This system provides any quantity of hot water you need without wasting
propane.
If it is chilly at night, put on more cover rather than burning propane. Wear warmer
clothing during the day.
Sewage
No, we aren’t going to try and conserve sewage. It is a force to be reckoned with
and will require your attention whether you like it or not. Unless you purchased a large
fifth-wheel trailer or motorhome, your gray water, and black-water holding tanks are very
likely to be pitifully small in holding capacity. Below are a few points to
consider.
Always dump your black and gray-water holding tanks and top off your fresh-water tank
before you arrive at your boondocking destination. You may not have a dump facility
available at your campsite; not even a primitive pit toilet.
If your boondocking site has bath facilities, use them instead of using your RV.
You’ll be lucky to have access to a pit toilet, but if one is available, you’ll
be glad to use it rather than manually toting sewage from your holding tank.
Some people use an external tank to dump sewage into. This is not only difficult to deal
with, but offers many opportunities for spills. If you are serious about boondocking
routinely, purchase and install a macerator that pulverizes the sewage and discharges it
through a garden hose into smaller containers that can be securely sealed. You’ll can
purchase smaller, easier to handle, hard-plastic containers to hold the waste.
You are going to have to find somewhere to dispose of the sewage. Whatever you do,
don’t just discharge it on your campsite. First, it is the wrong thing to do and
secondly, if you get caught you’ll not like the consequences.
Gray water is another issue. In some places it is ok to drain wastewater from sinks and
tubs directly onto the ground. Be certain that it is an acceptable practice where you are
camping. Otherwise, follow the same disposal practice as with sewage.
Trash
By now you are probably feeling a little queasy about all the boondocking complications
you have to deal with. Well, here is another one. You probably will not be provided with a
handy dumpster to whisk away your trash at most primitive boondocking sites. Here are a
few things to consider:
If at all possible, dispose of excess packaging before you leave the store. Modern
packaging techniques deliver you product enclosed inside a package which is enclosed
inside another package which can also be enclosed within yet another package. You
don’t need to carry all that excess material back and then have to haul it out again.
Break your purchases down into the small possible packaged units and dispose of the excess
packaging at your store’s trash receptacles.
Don’t just assume that you can toss your trash into the first dumpster you find.
Business pay to have their trash contained and dumped and most dumpsters are not for
disposal by the general public. Think about it. Would you want some stranger stuffing
their trash into your personal garbage cans while you pay for the service. If you have
just shopped at a merchant, ask first if you can toss a bag of trash in their dumpster.
Contact the local city hall or county services to find out where you can dispose of your
trash. Often you will find that there are city and county parks with dumpsters available
for your use.
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