Boondocking water usage, conservation, storage & sterilization

For a boondocker how long you can stay out before having to pack up and return to a dump site 

to off load and reload with water depends on many factors, some you can change or work 

around and some you cannot.

Water Storage

Lets start with water storage both fresh and provided by nature ie: rain, creek or lake water.

If your water storage tank is not large enough to last the amount of time you want to stay out

Add 5 gal water jugs to your rear bumper or inside the trailer.

Carry a 30 gal drum in the back of your pickup if you have one.

Resupply

For extra water put 5 gal buckets under your rain spouts when it rains.

Or dip a bucket in the creek or lake.

This water is fine for in use toilet or for use with a outdoor shower setup.

Conservation

Save your dish water or water from washing your hands for the toilet.

Use a biodegradable soap so you can dump your hand and face washing water outside.

Sponge Bathe daily, shower every 3 days or as needed.

Use wet wipes for washing up daily.

Sterialization

You can drink or use lake,creek or rain water for drinking or food but you need to run it though

a drinking water filter or boil it first.

Grey & Black water tanks

Some will say to dump your grey or black water tanks in a hole or ditch somewhere, as campers

we should find a better way of doing things then that. Grey water is usable for watering plants 

like a garden but the grease that you may put in it washing dishes may not be good for plants 

but if you are lucky and have separate grey water tanks for the shower then I would not be 

opposed to dumping that. I think dish water should be filtered , so I would prefer to dump that in 

the toilet.

That leaves us just the black water tank, not much you can do here beyond using it as sparing 

as possible only use a little water when you can, when you can't make sure you use enough for 

a good flush you don't want a plug.

So it comes down to your black water tank capacity for how long you can stay out and most are 

not that large. You could use a external storage tank in your pickup bed to gain a few more 

days, by usinga macerator and hose. 

If you are lucky two people may go twelve days before filling the black water tank and for 

full-timmers that would be pretty good and longer then most of use camp in one spot.

Portable fans

Our fifthwheel only came with a power fan in the bathroom and we have not forked over the money yet to have any installed, maybe later. On our last trip out it got into the mid 80's and the breeze coming through the windows was not enough so out came our Fan-Tastic Vent Endless Breeze 12 volt box fan, they are only 14" fans but put out 900 cfm on high and it did the job. It ran on low over night and drained our battery 6% which was acceptable for staying cool.

12V - 3 Speeds
Power consumption: 1.2 amps - 2.6 amps

    Low Fan Speed = 1.18 amps

    Medium Fan Speed = 1.62 amps

    High Fan Speed = 2.58 amps

BLM Wyoming page

I just did a large update of the BLM Wyoming campgrounds page.

Black water tank plugs

Ok here is a stinky, smelly, shitty subject (pun intended) to have to talk about but it is necessary and may save someone from wasting money buying snakes that won't work. Now I have heard boiling water will free a clog or you could buy a chemical and wait for it to clear. What you will need will depend on your drain setup, some drop straight down into the tank some like mine go down the turn and move over a few feet the drop down. If yours drops straight down it should be easier to clear with just something straight an stiff to push through the blockage, if yours is like mine don't waste your money on snakes that are to small like these.

I had one like the one above already and bought one like the bottom one, they are not big enough around to do the job easily which is what you want and are not stiff enough. A shorter 6' snake like below with at least a 1/2" dia snake would do the job better.

I will buy one like this next, I just used a larger 20' version I had at home.
I would try the hot water method first, then I would just go to a larger snake to begin with.

Update on our Furrion rear camera install.

Ok so I have to say the rear view camera has been a very good investment. I can blindside back into our driveway at home with no problems, I can turn the camera downward and back up to our flat bed trailer and hook up without help and repeatedly getting out and going back to check so a time so a time saver there and with the volume turned up you can even hear what is going on back there. I like being able to see the traffic coming up behind us also. If I had to do it over I would have opted for the larger 7" screen model but I didn't want to spend that much then, I may still do it and I will add a camera on the back of the pickup cab for hooking up and at least one on the passenger side to aid in passing.

Back from camping

Well we got rained out on this last trip, it was supposed to rain all day saturday and possibly snow that night and the road in  out turns to mush in 1 area so we packed up in the poring rain and left.

I have updated our season pics and added to the BLM Wyoming page more pics for this campground.

Camping again.

We are off to go camping again tomorrow and I will be giving you a update on the Furrion camera system I installed, adding to the 2019 season with better pictures and more.