Wise water usage the key to extended boondocking

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In last week’s post, Power to the people: Upgrade options for your electrical system, I wrote about various ways to increase your electrical capacity while dry-camping (boondocking). Now we will move on to drinking water, that natural resource that will limit your consecutive boondocking days unless you are Moses and can strike a stone with a rod and water gushes forth.

If you run out of water you can’t make coffee, spaghetti, or jello,  brush your teeth, flush your toilet, wash and rinse dishes, shower,  or have a nice cold glass of it. In fact, you are probably so used to just turning the spigot that until nothing but a drop or two dribbles out do you realize how thirsty you are.

That’s why boondockers have to plan, curbing the natural instinct (and wasteful habit) of unconsciously turning on the spigot without thought. It’s the same as flicking on the light switch and not considering the amps fleeing your batteries. You don’t have to be paranoid about it, but if you adopt the habit of thinking about the consequences of  your actions, it becomes much easier–almost second nature–to mentally monitor your finite resources. And, of course, there’s the water level monitor gauge for you techies.

You need to know basically only two rules for managing your drinking water: (1) Carry more, (2) Use less. Carrying more is the easy part. There are a variety of containers in which you can carry additional water that can be loaded into your tow or toad for a water run without having to move your rig:

• One gallon plastic jugs – cheap, disposable or refillable, stow several in your RV’s nooks and crannies
• 2 1/2 gallon containers with a spigot – found in supermarkets, handy on a counter or picnic table for drinking
• reusable five-gallon collapsible containers –  fold flat and stow easily when empty and can be used with the spigot or poured into the water tank
• five-gallon sun showers – fill with water from any source and shower au naturale by hanging from a tree
• six-gallon Jerry jugs – pour spout helps pour into water tank.  Also strong arms.
• 45-gallon water bladders from Camping World – lots of extra water. Use with small 12-volt water pump to pump into water tank.

Use less. This is the harder part–breaking or adjusting old wasteful habits and adopting new conservative ones. But you can do it, and they will become second nature before you finish grousing about them. So . . . here are several ways to cut down on your water habit and extend your boondocking time:

• Take Navy showers – Turn water on, wet down–only enough to get wet–turn water off, soap up, turn water on, rinse–only enough to wash soap off–turn water off.
• Save warming-up water – Collect in plastic bucket or dishpan while shower warms up. Use to flush toilet, wash dishes.
• Don’t let the water flow while brushing teeth.
• Use dishwashing rinse water to flush toilet.
• Wipe the food off your dirty dishes and from pots and pans with paper towels. It will take less water to wash and rinse them, and food bits will not end up in your gray water tank creating unpleasant odors or fouling the probes.
• Wash dishes with just a small bowl of soapy water and a sponge or rag, then rinse them all at once in a plastic tub. Running water is a no-no.

There are more ways to conserve water usage that you will develop as you evolve into boondocking. Be creative and inventive, but the most useful tip is to be conscious of your water usage. Awareness = efficiency.

For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.

Power to the people: Upgrade options for your electrical system

By Bob Difley

In last week’s post, How to get the most out of your electrical system when camping without hookups, I wrote getting started dry-camping or boondocking and how to conserve the electricity in your house batteries to add time to your camping trip before having to recharge.

Today we will look at ways to upgrade your electrical system to provide even longer stays out in the boonies.

Lower wattage and Energy Star appliances will take less energy to run, pull fewer amps from your batteries, and run more efficiently than your older appliances.

However, it is not practical or economical to tear out your old installed appliances and replace with Energy Star (until they start getting tired and need replacement), but you can check before you buy a new RV whether the appliances already installed are in compliance.

You can also vastly improve your electrical system–actually more than doubling your storage capacity–by installing additional or different batteries. Here you have choices. Buy an additional deep cycle flooded lead acid RV battery like the one your rig came with. But, don’t add a new battery into a system with older batteries or the older battery will draw energy from the new one.

A newer type battery option is the absorbed gas mat (AGM) type, which has no liquid in the cells that must be monitored or refilled. Or you could install two or four 6-volt golf cart batteries. To help you decide which battery combination or type is best for your rig go to this text of a presentation by Greg Holder, owner of AMSolar, a company specializing in RV solar systems.

Just installing more battery capacity will about double your boondocking electrical capability, but by also using alternative, renewable energy sources you can pump amps into those batteries even while you are out in the booniest of boonies. There are four ways to do this: (1) idle your main engine, (2) run your generator, (3) install solar panels,or (4) install a wind turbine.

The problems with (1) and (2) are that they are noisy, smelly, cause wear and tear on the equipment, require maintenance, use increasingly expensive fuel, and are inefficient requiring hours of running to plump up a depleted battery.

My personal choice, solar, is totally silent, has no moving parts (no wear and tear), requires no maintenance (except a wash off or wipe down occasionally), produces free electricity, and works from dawn’s early light until the sun is over the yardarm without complaint.

The downside with solar is the upfront cost of panels and installation. If you install it yourself you can save some expense. But after that–free energy. If you intend to keep your rig for a while, the cost amortizes out. And it’s so satisfying to look at the control panel and see those amps streaming into your batteries and not have to worry whether you have enough juice left to watch Night of the Living Dead or play Halo 4 after dark.

To figure out what size system you need you have to figure out how much electricity you use on average in a day. You can do this on AMSolar’s system sizing page. Then add a bit for when it is cloudy or rainy or if you estimated a bit low–it’s a good idea to have a margin of error. But, if you are consistently low or your electricity usage grows, you can just add another panel into the system.

If you typically travel where there is no sunshine (Oregon and Washington in the winter come to mind), prefer to camp under the canopy of a deep forest in summer, or like camping on windy unprotected hilltops than you might want to consider a wind turbine. The newer models are less noisy and have less vibration than older models, and when you hoist them up on a long pole above your rig, it takes just a breeze to get it spinning amps into your system. But if there is no wind, no juice. If you don’t mind spending the bucks and like all this tech stuff, you can install both.

Next week we will take a look at the drinking water system.

For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (PDF orKindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.

How to get the most out of your electrical system when camping without hookups

By Bob Difley

In last week’s post, Moving forward: Surviving your first night of dry-camping I wrote about how to spend a night or two without hookups. This week I go a bit further by looking at how to extend our camping time–actually getting the maximum out of the batteries that provide our house electricity–prolonging the time when we need to go find a hookup or run our engine/generator for an extended length of time to restore the amps–the power–to the batteries. So let’s take a look at the RV’s electrical operation.

What could be easier to use in an RV than the electrical system? You flip a switch and there is light. Push a button and your coffee maker produces a perfect cup of Java. Nothing to think twice about–as long you keep an electrical wire connected to your house-on-wheels and the utility company’s equipment doesn’t brown out. In your stick house, when these fail, there is not much you can do about it but wait. And wait. Until somebody else fixes it.

But in your RV, it’s a different story. If you practice the cavalier attitude about electrical usage in your rig that you probably do in your house, chances are that your house battery will soon be completely depleted. The reason, of course, is that your wire to your house/RV continuously feeds infinite current, while when boondocking you are using up the finite stored electricity in your house battery.

There are two ways to deal with an RV’s limited source of electrical power. (1) limit or cut back on usage (conserving), the subject of this blog, and the other is to find additional sources (main engine, generator, solar, wind, or chipmunks on a treadmill), which is next Saturday’s subject.

Fortunately, or unfortunately if you are an energy hog, an effective way to improve your electrical usage is to change old energy-wasting habits. Once you’ve allowed those habits to die a well deserved death, you will find your new efficient habits aren’t as draconian as you may have thought. And running a generator for hours every day is NOT an efficient use of power; it is a very slow way to charge your batteries, makes noise (an alien sound in the boonies and annoying to neighbors), uses fossil fuels, requires carrying extra gas cans (if using a portable generator), requires service and maintenance, and will eventually break down requiring repairs or costly replacement.

Try out these ways to conserve the energy you have so you can stay camped out there by that mountain stream for a day or so longer.

• Turn off anything that pulls electricity from your battery–lights, radio, TV, computer–when not in use.
• Turn your porch light off (a particular annoyance to me when I am not so fortunate to be able to camp away from neighbors that leave the light on destroying my night vision).
• Coordinate your generator running time and using power-hungry appliances. Schedule showers (your water pump uses 8 amps), water heater,  microwave, coffee grinder, and dishwashing all within the same period of time when you can run your generator to power them, rather than pull juice out of your batteries. This also charges your house battery/ies at the same time.
• Rise and go to bed with the sun. This cuts your light usage down considerably. Florescent lights use about 1 amp each. Better is to install LED lights that are very energy stingy and will last the life of your rig.
• If you read in bed, try using a book light that uses rechargeable batteries that you can use over and over. You can recharge the batteries when you hook up next time or plugged in to your tow vehicle or dingy cigarette lighter that will charge when on exploration trips. You won’t run down your house batteries with your RV’s lights, and you will probably win points from your trying-to-sleep mate by not lighting up the whole bedroom.
• Forget our forced air furnace except when running your generator. It sucks up the juice from your battery and will discharge it in one night if left on thermostat. Pull up an extra blanket or install a propane heater (more on that in a later post). Turn your generator on in the morning to run your furnace to get rid of the morning chill and also to make your coffee if you haven’t yet switched to a French press or Melitta method instead of an electric coffee maker.
• Monitor your house batteries charge with a voltage meter so you don’t run them down too low, which can damage them. Deep cycle batteries are considered fully charged at 12.6 volts and completely discharged at 10.6 volts. Recharge before they get below about 12.0 volts.

Next Saturday’s post will be on how to upgrade your electrical system to appliances that require less power and how to use alternate power sources.

For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (PDF or Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.

Moving forward: Surviving your first night of dry-camping

By Bob Difley

In last week’s post, Where are the hookups? Camping off the grid, I clarified the difference between dry-camping and boondocking. But to be a boondocker, you have to learn dry-camping first–surviving overnight without water, sewage, or electrical hookups.

The most important feature to understand about your rig, assuming it was built within the last 30 or 40 years, is that it was built to dry-camp. You already have a built-in tank for fresh water, two waste tanks to hold your gray water (shower, sinks) and sewage (toilet), a propane tank and delivery system for heating water (hot water tank), cooking, and running your refrigerator, as well as a house electrical system (house battery/ies in addition to your engine starting battery).

Now what you need to know to dry-camp is how to use these self-contained systems. First: Unplug all hookups currently attached to your rig–water hose, dump hose, electrical cord. Turn on the faucet. Voila! Water! Watch the water drain into–yes—the gray water holding tank. Flip a switch. Light! If you can accomplish all this the next morning, you have successfully dry-camped–even if you are parked in your own driveway

You have discovered that dry-camping is not hard. But–and it is a BIG but–spending one night without appendages does not a boondocker make. The trick is how to line up successive nights dry-camping, without having to press the reset button (i.e. retreat to a campground to recharge, dump, and fill).  And that trick takes only three skills: (1) Understanding how your support systems work and their resource capacities, (2) Monitoring your rate of usage of these resources, and (3) A combination of conserving those resources and altering wasteful habits. Your capacities in (1) will be in your owner’s manual. Perfecting (2) and (3) just takes practice.

So,  just how do these RV systems enable you to camp without hookups? First, the water from your sinks and shower flow directly into your gray water waste tank, whether you are hooked up with a dump hose or not. The dump hose just empties your tank. So without a dump hose connected, you just leave the dump valve closed until you are ready to dump. Same with the black water waste tank from your toilet. For extended dry-camping or boondocking, knowing your tank capacities and reading the levels determines how many days it will take to fill your tanks. In a coming blog post I will go into the details and tips of how to control and conserve how much water you use and how to extend the fill limit of your waste tanks.

You are unlikely to use all the water in your fresh tank, fill either of your waste water tanks, or drain your propane tank with just a night or two of dry-camping–unless your family likes practicing their operatic arias while taking lengthy hot showers. But you can use up all the electricity in your house battery in one night if you leave your forced air furnace on all night, fall asleep with the TV and all the lights on, or have a series of high octane AC appliances plugged into your inverter sucking up 120-volt amps from your 12-volt battery.

Since electricity can be the most critical limiting factor to extended boondocking, that will be the subject of next Saturday’s post: how to get the most out of your electrical system, how to upgrade, and how to use alternate power sources.

For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (PDF or Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.

NOTE: It appears that the “Comment” section of the blog is not currently working and the blog management has so far been unable to fix it. If you would like to comment directly to me you can use my website email address: hrvlcontact at gmail.com (you know how to write it correctly). I would enjoy hearing from you.

Where are the hookups? Camping off the grid

By Bob Difley

In last week’s post, Introduction to Boondocking for the curious, the closet adventurer, even the skeptic,  I urged those who have not yet tried boondocking to get off the grid and give it a shot. So let’s look at exactly what boondocking entails, clear up a few gray areas, and see how to ease into it with a minimal of drama and trauma.

To make boondocking enjoyable and fun–not even counting all the campground fees you will save–requires a combination of learned (and practiced) skills, adjusting to new habits, a desire to stay out in the wilderness as comfortably as possible, and to possess a curiosity about out-of-the-way places, nature, wildlife, and what you might find around the next bend.

Not all boondockers match this profile. Some of the differences can be attributed to the semantics of the words “boondocking” and “dry-camping.” They are the same in that both refer to camping without any hook-ups–water, electricity, or sewage. With even one of these appendages, we would have partial hook-ups and therefor not technically boondocking. Let’s call it almost-boondocking. The key–or difference–is in where we do it.

Dry-camping is what you do at an RV rally, in a Wal-mart parking lot, highway rest stop, or a primitive campground where there are no hook-ups but could have a fresh water supply, trash cans, or dump station on site.

True boondocking is camping away from civilization, out in the boonies, where no camping amenities exist. The word “boondock” comes from the Tagalog “bundok” meaning “mountain.” Answers.com gives the definition “rural country; the backwoods”.  A reader suggests that the word boondocking has become synonymous with dry-camping and there should be a new term “wilderness camping” for camping in the boonies. Good idea but it hasn’t caught on yet.

Whatever you want to call camping without hookups, where you do it and why is the driving force for practicing boondocking skills. For instance if your style is “blacktop boondocking” in Walmart and Cracker Barrel parking lots, you will have little need to perfect skills and change old habits in order to stretch your stay for an extra two or three days. Every modern RV has enough house battery power, fresh water storage, and waste storage tanks to camp without hook-ups for a night or two.

Fortunately, you can break the bond to hookups by starting with trying a night or two blacktop boondocking and graduate through myriad steps to as far as you want to take it.

Somewhere in the middle you will find the perfect fit for your style of boondocking. And that will be determined by your likes and dislikes–whether you like to be on the go and only spend one or two nights at a time in any location (then refill, dump, etc. before arriving at your next boondocking campsite), or you like to venture beyond the interstates, maybe even beyond even paved two-lane roads, staying in one location long enough to explore the area.

Each step you move beyond blacktop boondocking requires new or improved skills and tips to make it enjoyable. And that’s where we’re going to next week–what you need to know about one-night blacktop boondocking and progressing through rallies, primitive campgrounds, dispersed camping areas, and beyond. But if you want the expanded version, try one or more of my ebooks (links are below). Thanks.

For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (PDF or Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.

Thousand Trails announces new sweepstakes contest

By Bob Difley

I received this press release from Thousand Trails. It looks like a contest with great prizes for RVers. Take a look.
THOUSAND TRAILS ANNOUNCES GEAR UP AND CAMP SWEEPSTAKES

CHICAGO (April 1, 2013) – Thousand Trails, home to some of the most beautiful and natural campgrounds and RV resorts across the U.S., is giving outdoor enthusiasts a chance to get out and camp with the Gear Up and Camp sweepstakes.  One lucky camper will win a free week of camping and a camping gear package, with a combined value of $1100.  Sweepstakes entrants will also be entered for a chance to win one of four second place prize packages, and one of 30 third place prize packages daily.

The sweepstakes grand prize includes a week-long camping trip for the winner at any participating Thousand Trails or Encore RV resort campground.  In addition, the winner will receive a package of camping gear, including the following: Rand McNally’s RV-specific GPS device – the  RVND™ 7720 LM; $100 gas card; Strongback Chair; Coghlan’s Camper’s S’mores Grill and Corn Popper; Coleman Lantern; $50 MyRVMarket.com gift certificate; Thousand Trails sweatshirt, umbrella, window cling, backpack, blanket and travel mug; and a Duck Harbor Cool Weather Sleeping bag.

Four additional winners will be selected each week of the promotion to receive a second prize package that includes a week-long camping trip at any participating Thousand Trails or Encore RV resort campground and a package including a Thousand Trails backpack, blanket, travel mug, and window cling.

Thirty winners will be selected at the end of each day of the promotion to receive a Thousand Trails camping pack, which includes a backpack, blanket, travel mug and window cling.  All in all, 35 prizes will be awarded throughout the course of the Thousand Trails Gear Up and Camp sweepstakes.

To enter, visit the Thousand Trails Facebook page.  Entrants are also encouraged to invite their Facebook friends to enter for additional entries.  All official terms and conditions can be found on the Thousand Trails Facebook page.  The contest will run through April 30, 2013.

About Encore and Thousand Trails
Encore and Thousand Trails feature 173 RV resorts across North America.  Owned and operated by Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE: ELS), Encore, Thousand Trails, and its affiliates offer RV and outdoor recreation enthusiasts opportunities to enjoy the outdoors in top vacation destinations, complemented with resort-style amenities.

For RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (PDF or Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.

Go RVing, hit the road–and save money too with these tips

By Bob Difley

There hasn’t been a better time in the last few years to hit the road in your RV than now. The economy is moving ahead–if a bit sluggishly, Spring is almost here, and the RV industry is on the rebound. You can make your RVing lifestyle even better by saving money on the road to further extend your camping days. Try some of the following cost-cutting measures to reduce your overhead while not constricting your RV lifestyle. Most are just changing your old habits for new, more efficient ones.

• Drive 55. Lower speeds means more miles-per-gallon. Relax, and you will enjoy the scenery more and have less stress at lower speeds.
• Avoid fast starts and quick stops. It’s all about torque and kinetic energy, which with the proper use will save fuel.
• Keep tires properly inflated. It can save up to 3% on fuel mileage.
• Stay longer at campgrounds or boondocking sites.
• Check out campground weekly rates, sometimes significantly less expensive than the daily rate.
• Boondock more often. Save campground fees, and losses at the weekly rec. room poker games.
• Install a solar system. Provides renewable free power to enable camping longer off the power grid–and you can save on campground fees by staying at no-hookup campgrounds.
• If traveling and staying only one night in a campground, pay less by choosing a non-hook-up site (sometimes called a tent site) or stay at lower-priced regional or state parks, or at businesses that welcome over-nighters like Walmart, Kmart, and Cracker Barrel Restaurants.
• Eat in restaurants less. Save on food costs by preparing your own meals in your RV kitchen. You don’t really have to send the waiter’s daughter to college.
• Reduce food costs by bypassing the middle man. Buy from farmers markets, roadside farm stands, U-Pick farms and orchards, and other local food producers and ranchers. You can find these resources wherever your are with a little online searching.
• Reduce cost of food packaging. Buy in bulk from stores that offer this option.
• Eat healthy and get plenty of exercise and you might be able to cut down on meds and doctor visits–and you’ll feel better.
• Volunteer or become a camp host, which usually comes with a free campsite, and gives you something new, interesting, and constructive to do.
• Take a caretaking position. Subscribe to the Caretaker Gazette for nationwide opportunities to trade out your presence or skills for free rent.
• Shop for quality-label–but slightly used–outdoor wear at St. Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army, or other charity stores—and you will be helping worthy charitable institutions while at the same time buying quality labels at far below retail prices.
• Some libraries have used magazine exchanges where you can get current or one month old magazines for free–you might be able to cancel your current magazine subscriptions as well as save money by having them re-shipped to you on the road–where you pay the postage.
• Be creative. As RVers we are in a unique position to find ways to cut our road expenses. And you’ll save enough money to put a down payment on your next rig.
• Buy my ebooks (shameless plug coming) that will guide you along to boondocking and saving money on the road (see links below).

Thanks for reading, but since the comments section below is not working, if you have any questions or comments I would like to hear from you. Email me directly at: hrvlcontact at gmail dot com (you know how to write that correctly).

For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (PDF or Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.

How important are size restrictions when searching for a public campground?

By Bob Difley

When you were scouring the campground directories for campsites–especially those in National Parks, Monuments, and Forests–to spend a few days or for one-nighters when traveling and you see restrictions on maximum size allowed, such as “Maximum size 27 feet” did you cross it off your list of potential camping locations? If so, you may have missed an opportunity to visit what might be a wonderful national treasure or a nesty, forest campsite beside a tumbling stream.

The maximum length referred to means that all–or most–of the campsites in the campground will accommodate that length. But . . . SOME will also accommodate longer lengths, sometimes much longer. Those who write the rules do not want to officially include longer lengths when maybe only three or four campsites will fit longer lengths, and if those are taken but smaller ones remain open, they may get in a tangle with RVers with a longer rig urging them to move someone with a shorter rig out of the larger site and into a smaller site. Or, when those with larger rigs show up and find there are only a few that fit the maximum size stated and they are taken.

Whatever the reasons–not that I blame them at wanting to avoid such hassles–knowing this does open up some options. If you can fit into the campsite they won’t tell you to leave. And often, the measurement is made from the wheel barrier at the rear of the campsite to the front, the length of the pad itself . So, when you back in, your overhang extends over the barrier adding quite a few feet to the length that will fit. But watch out for those wood posts that some campgrounds use. Your overhang may not clear them. And there might be several sites that are long enough even without the overhang factor.

When you arrive at a campground that has a stated maximum length, drive around the campground and if you find one you fit into–no extending into the road, into foliage in the rear, or onto other obstructions–take it. It’s unlikely that you will find a host or ranger that will ask your length–unless they know exactly which sites are open and whether you will fit in any of them.

In national parks, it’s a bit more difficult, especially on busy holidays and weekends. If the park is filled everyday those that assign campsites may hold to the size maximum to reduce chaos, so plan to arrive early mid-week, before they start to fill up, when you can scout for larger sites on your own.

For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (PDF or Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.

NOTE: It appears that the “Comment” section of the blog is not currently working and the blog management has so far been unable to fix it. If you would like to comment directly to me you can use my website email address: hrvlcontact at gmail.com (you know how to write it correctly). I would enjoy hearing from you.

Book Review: Rising Son, an adventure not unlike RVing–but a lot more arduous

By Bob Difley

Do you remember your first days RVing, when the RV lifestyle was a new and adventurous undertaking? When you didn’t always play it safe but sometimes just winged it, letting your curiosity dictate which way you would turn and finding campsites on the fly, seldom making reservations?

I just finished a book that reminded me of my first days as a fulltimer, when I had no idea what I would find out on the road, what would pique my curiosity, and who I would randomly meet that would enrich and influence my life.

The book, Rising Son, was written by Charles R. Scott and published in February 2013 and tells the story of how he decided that he needed something more in his life than just work, work, work. This was much as I felt when I left my job and began my life as a homeless, wandering, RVer way back in 1992.

But Charles’s story goes further, not only in connecting with his 8-year old son but in taking on a physical challenge that most of us would consider for about 10 seconds before rejecting it. This is a review of the book I posted on Amazon.

Rising Son by Charles R. Scott

This is a totally enjoyable story of a Silicon Valley executive who decides that his eight year old son, Shu, is growing up too fast and that he is not spending enough time in his life. It’s not an unusual story. However, instead of just lamenting his misfortune at having to work so hard he doesn’t have the time to dedicate to his son right now (and never will, if he wanted to admit it), Charles Scott actually does something about it. He quits his job and goes on a two-month long, 2,500-mile, bicycle ride with his son from the top of Japan to the bottom. In his specially rigged bike with a tandem for Shu attached to his bike, Scott attempts a physical and mental feat that he, a conditioned triathlete, is no so sure he could accomplish alone, let alone with his young son. This is not a dry documentary of this exceptional trip, but a joyful collection of conversations, not only with the evident growth of both father and son during the trip, but also with the wonderful collection of locals they encounter along the way–including RVers–who help them out with meals, places to sleep (dryer an more comfortable than the two person tent they  carry), and traveling snacks as they struggle through rain, wind, and cold on parts of the journey.

This is a fun and enjoyable read, and you will see correlations between Charles and Shu’s journey and your own RV adventures–except for the arduous physical parts. You can find Rising Son on Amazon.

You can find RVing articles and tips from my 17 years as a fulltimer onmy Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (PDF or Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.

NOTE: It appears that the “Comment” section of the blog is not currently working and the blog management has so far been unable to fix it. If you would like to comment directly to me you can use my website email address: hrvlcontact at gmail.com (you know how to write it correctly). I would enjoy hearing from you.

RV camping options that you likely won’t find at the Tourist Bureaus

By Bob Difley

What could be more enjoyable than roaming around the country in your RV and exploring places you’ve never been before? But if you just go to the major tourist attractions, most popular national parks, and stay in only campgrounds recommended by Tourist Bureaus, Chambers of Commerce, and State Campground Organizations you will miss a lot of what America has to offer.

The following three alternate camping opportunities, from my ebook 111Ways to Get the Biggest Bang From Your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), could lead you to many memorable places that most RVers overlook or miss.

Indian Reservations

Indian reservations are scattered about the country with the largest reservations in the western deserts. Each tribe has its own rules regarding camping and depending on the reservation, you can find any style of camping from a full service hook-up campground to boondocking on open land (photo – Lake Tombigbee campground on Alabama-Coushatta Reservation east of Livingston, Texas). Always check in with the tribal headquarters before setting up camp. Most have Websites where you can get info.  A good place to start is the American Indian Web site.
National Wildlife Refuges
In addition to all the state wildlife areas around the country, the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service manages the world’s premier system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America’s fish, wildlife, and plants. Since President Theodore Roosevelt designated Florida’s Pelican Island as the first wildlife refuge in 1903, the System has grown to more than 150 million acres, 551 national wildlife refuges and other units of the Refuge System, plus 37 wetland management districts.

The guide book to the refuges that I use is 714 pages long–though you can find them easily on the Internet. Not all of them allow camping, but many do. Locate the NWR by state to find those that match up with your travel plans and that allow camping (photo – Sheldon NWR, Northwest Nevada). Don’t forget to check the dates of the hunting seasons, a good time to avoid them. However, in the off season they are great places to see birds and wildlife, as well as enjoy quiet and solitude.

Local and Regional Parks
Some small towns allow an overnight stay in local or city center parks for visitors passing through, but often there is also a local unpublicized park used mostly by locals that permits camping. Ask at the local chamber of commerce, police station, or RV dealer. Staying in or near small towns that do not have national tourist attractions is a great way to see middle America and can be wonderful, friendly places to stroll about and talk to the locals–and all of them have interesting local history stories.

For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck (PDF or Kindle), and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts (PDF or Kindle), and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road (PDF or Kindle reader version). NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.

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