Month: January 2017

Twelve Tuneful Ways We Conserve Water & Power While Boondocking

~ A song-inspired list ~

No matter what you’ve got by way of power sources or water tank capacity in your RV, here are a dozen ways to extend the life of both while dry camping (boondocking). Don’t miss the item at the end that brings us up to a baker’s dozen!

All set up in the desert.
No power? No water? No problem!
Our own big test came in January of 2017, when we spent a personal record 12 days without electrical, water, or sewer hookups, on BLM land just outside Quartzsite, AZ with an RV social group called the Xscapers.

Since singing a cheerful tune makes any situation better, at least according to Disney cartoons, I did a lot of singing while I learned to waste not, want not in the desert.

Sing along with me!

In the Navy

You might not be near a Y-M-C-A, so learn to take Navy showers! As a retired naval officer, Tim is an expert. Get wet, turn off the water, lather yourself up, then turn the water back on for a quick rinse. If you don’t have a shower head with toggle switch, get one. It helps keep the water temperature right where you want it for that rinse.

Makes for a right handy microphone, now don’t it?
I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

If you’ve got an onboard washer-dryer, wear clothes maybe a few more times than usual so that you can go a week or longer without running either one. If you just have to do a quick load of underthings and socks, take advantage of a warm breezy day to hang them outside to dry. Amuse your neighbors!

 

You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman

Ladies, go au naturel when it comes to your face. Skipping the makeup saves at least one hand-washing and one face-washing each day, and it’s liberating. Give it a try!

 

It’s Only A Paper Moon

We compromised on paper plate waste by using them for only one meal a day. And speaking of paper, you’re going to want an extra roll or two of paper towels, for wiping off regular dishes before washing. See next song.

 

Splish Splash

Give your dishes a bath — the non-paper ones, of course. We washed dishes only once each day, and used a dish pan to help conserve water. On Night 1: put a small amount of hot soapy water in the sink for washing, and an equal amount of hot clean water in a dishpan for rinsing. Save that rinse water in the dish pan, to use the next night as wash water. Continue pattern.

We All Live In a Yellow Submarine

You know the saying, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow?” Do that. It saves space in your black tank. And on a related note (pun intended)…

 

Wake Me Up Before You Go Go

Pretend you’re in Mexico, and throw away your toilet paper instead of flushing it. It’s not as bad as you’d think! Just carry out your bathroom trash daily, or invest in a can with lid to reduce odors. We believe that when dry camping, it’s far easier to deal with a few extra bags of trash than it is to manage a black tank dump.

Dim All the Lights

If you’ve got toggle switches on your ceiling lights like we do in our 2008 Bighorn, set them all to the half-way mark, so that when you turn them on at the wall, you use only one side or the other. Yes, this means half the brightness, but if you’ve switched to LED bulbs (another way to conserve power) it won’t make a tremendous difference.

Baby It’s Cold Outside

With regard to heating and air conditioning, go back to your “starving young adult in a crappy apartment” days. Run your HV/AC only when absolutely necessary, and keep them set a couple degrees cooler or warmer than usual.

 

You’re the Cream in My Coffee

Unplug your electric coffee maker, and use a pour-over method instead. We love our 10-cup thermal carafe, but smaller versions are available, including individual mug sizes. You can make your morning java using no power at all if you use a gas cooktop or camp stove to boil the water, and minimal power if you use an electric range. Bonus: because we use paper filters, clean-up is easier — and uses less water — than with a French press or percolator.

Red Red Wine

Conserve water by drinking wine. Conserve gray tank space by covering and saving unfinished wine for the next night (I know I’m a lightweight). Hey. Every little bit counts, and I am a team player!

We’re All In This Together

Be prepared to meet other RV’ers who are far more rabid about conservation than you are. It’s not a competition. Share tips and learn from each other — maybe over a few glasses of that wine you’re drinking to conserve water.

 

And now: The Complete Playlist

My fine editorial team at Heartland put together this YouTube playlist of all 12 songs, in order. Everybody grab a shower head, hair brush, or spatula — and sing!

(Author’s note:  a version of this post appears at Heartland RVs. It is printed here with permission.)

A Creative Outlet for More Comfort

We are all about living more comfortably with less, which means we are in the process of making some modifications that will allow us to boondock (camp without benefit of hookups) more comfortably in The Toad, and for longer periods of time than just a weekend.

First, we invested in a set of generators, to keep us up and running while dry camping or during power outages, based on this recommendation from our friends, Lisa and Dan, of Always On Liberty.

Second, Tim took on an electrical system upgrade process that involved adding four 6-volt deep-cycle batteries, inverter, battery monitoring system and electrical monitoring system. Don’t worry, he’ll soon be writing a feature on how he got that job done, as I don’t understand enough about it to write it myself.

Third, because I hate shivering at night, one of Tim’s Christmas gifts to me was a heated blanket that runs off the RV’s 12-volt system, so that I can remain comfortably toasty in cold temps, even while we’re using battery power instead of shore power. (Before you buy: read photo caption below. It starts with SHIT, which should be a big clue.)

SHIT! Although the blanket was a great idea in theory, and our outlets do in fact work, the blanket itself did not. We even tried it in the previously existing 12V outlet where Tim keeps his desk lamp plugged in. Nothing. Back to Amazon it goes, and our search resumes.

One problem: No 12-volt outlets near the bed.

Handy husband to the rescue! He ordered two wall-mount outlets (one for each side of the bed), and bonus: they have dual USB ports, so we can charge our electronics on them too!

As you might expect, we had to take the bedding, mattress, and plywood cover off the bed platform and temporarily relocate them, which made for a great physical work-out but a very messy living room.

Tim then drilled holes in the floor, and ran a properly gauged wire from the 12-volt fuse panel in the kitchen, through the basement, and back up underneath the bed, where the wire splits to feed each outlet.

Running wire through the basement means crawling into the basement.
He knows the end of that wire is under there somewhere.

This project took about half a day, and both of us played a part. Tim did most of the work himself, as usual, but my assistance was needed to spot and feed the wire through the floor holes, and to holler “YES, THE LIGHT CAME ON!” when he flipped the switch to activate the outlets after the wiring was done. And both of us worked together to restore the bed to slumber-ready condition.

Connecting the wires at the 12-volt fuse panel
Drilling hole in the side of the bed platform, for feeding wire to outlet.
(This was an oops. See first lesson below.)

Lessons Learned

  • Take the time to cut the openings on the platform to fit the outlets, rather than just the wire, i.e. a full rectangle instead of a tiny circle. Tim waited until a few days after we’d put the bed back together to do this part, which meant double the work in getting all the tools out again and cleaning up the mess.

    Connected, functioning (The light is on!), and ready to mount into the bed platform.
  • Identify and purchase the wall plates you want to use to surround the outlets and make things look finished. You’ll see from my photos that we’ve got some rough spots showing next to the outlets, but only until our plates arrive to cover them up.

    Done! Well, almost. Wall plates are on the list.
  • Electrical supplies like wire, terminals, and screw caps tend to come in lengths and quantities larger than any single RV DIY’er will need.  Therefore we invite anyone who plans to tackle a project like this to shop first at Tim’s Discount House of Unused Electrical Parts. We’ve got lots!

(Author’s note: a version of this post appears at Heartland RVs. It is printed here with permission.)