Going boondocking for the first time with the new camper next week. We camped a couple weeks ago with electric only and everything went fine except we filled up our grey tank way faster than I had anticipated. I'm bringing a couple 6 gal jugs of water so I can set up a hand/dish wash station outside and will put large Tupperwares in the sink to catch some of the water to try and stem that a bit. I will have a generator with me.

Any other tips?

Where to (roughly)?  I travel for work in SW and W Colorado in a sprinter van, but normally just for one night.  I might have some good dispersed camping sites for you.

We are going to he up on the grand mesa. Just for the weekend

Bring bug spray and maybe even a face net.  I stopped one time at dusk on the Grand Mesa.  Cast out a lure, and was swarmed before the lure hit the water!  

Otherwise, what a great place.  Nice and cool!

When you find a good spot make it work.  I have done some crazy stuff to make the camper level because it was a great spot.

I just heard all the gates were open up top.

Bug spray.  Lots of that.

And don’t be like me, I found a great, but not very level spot once.
Tried to use the stabilization jacks as leveling jacks.  Broke one clean off.   I ended up digging a small trench to put the high side wheels in and damn if I didn’t get it perfect.

Use a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol and paper towels for handwashing & general disinfection - can also be used for cleaning kitchen utensils.

No-rinse shampoo is also good for conserving water.

Some folks like to use baby wipes for freshening up - but they trend to leave sticky, perfume-laden residue on your skin. For this reason, I prefer distilled water in a spray bottle, followed by a wipe-down with paper towels.

You picked up on the first lesson.... water discipline    

use hand sanitizer  don't run the water when you do wash your hands, brush your teeth

Washing dishes, use a basin so you can dump your water, wash everything, then rinse everything

next is power discipline, limiting the use of your batteries.  

all in all it is like spending a weekend on a sailboat.

Be armed “to the teeth” A NH friend’s parents were murdered while they boondocked their away cross country…happened on a Texas beach…some kind of state park. Perps (white, tattooed couple) buried them in shallow graves, stole their rig and sold it in Mexico. They were apprehended and charged with the murders.

First tip:
Put a bucket under the condensate drain from your AC. (if it's humid enough there...) Don't use the sink unless you have to, fill up a couple empty water bottles (hopefully with AC condensate), mark them with an X, pop a hole in the lid of a water bottle and use them to wash your hands and pots/pans.

Second tip:
Always make sure the generator's tank is full before you start it, and fill up your 5gal gas can as often as you can.

Third:
Experiment with different angles/locations of your generator to get less noise inside at night.

I've never camped with hookups. I'm too cheap and my 19 foot trailer fits in tent spots if we are at a park and is stupid easy to level when boondocking. My trailer has 390 watts of solar on the roof and 2 100ah LiFePO4 batteries so even on cloudy days in mostly shaded campsites we get more than enough power to run lights, 12v fridge, and furnace on cold nights. Solar is awesome and something you can easily do if you decide you like boondocking. No need to go full stupid like me and get LiFePO4 batteries either. I don't have a generator and so far have not needed one. I may end up getting one just for AC when we have those super hot 100+ days on the river.

Your trailer may be different but on mine I can control the gray water flow enough to empty the tank with a bucket 2 gallons at a time. I use a baby wipe to get any food particles off food before we wash it though most of the time we wash outdoors. Gray water is usually just shower and hand washing. I've dumped gray water in pit toilets and sink sumps when in a designated campground. If not in a designated campground I pack it a ways from where we camp and use it to water the bushes.

Black water lasts a long time, especially if the boys go outside.

I'm boondocked right now - been here for 3 days.

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I didn't bring along the portable solar panel on this trip, because nothing I'm using discharges the single trolling motor battery enough to need it in that short a time period.

The fridge works great on propane (plus a couple AH per day of battery power), and the Maxx Air roof vent fan draws another half-dozen AH per day.

The high temperature yesterday was 102, with a lot of humidity camped just a few feet from a river. However, it's very comfortable over night and in the mornings, so no particular need for A/C. Good shade, the roof vent fan and occasional showers help a lot.

The lack of electrical hookups means that I have the entire camping area pretty much to myself - there's just one other camper here. Everyone else is over in the section with electrical hookups, so they can run some A/C!

I don't plan on adding any RV upgrades. What I currently have is simple, inexpensive, reliable, and works very well.

This is great for dishwashing in a camper.  After wiping off your dishes, spray this on, work with wet sponge, rinse.  You use quite a bit less water.  Also, a faucet that has a "spray" mode will disperse the water and let you rinse faster with less waste.  We can boondock for a whole week with 50gal fresh, 30gal grey and 30 gal black tanks.  Just the 2 of us, though.  For handwashing, pump the soap first, then drizzle the water and wash quick.  For the toilet, pee outside if you can, but you still need enough liquid to avoid the "pyramid".  We've never had an issue with that, first time TT owners, this is our 3rd season.  For showers, make sure you pause the water while soaping up.  We can each take a couple showers in a week of camping and not fill the grey tank.  We also have a shower miser, which recirculates the water back to the fresh tank while you're waiting for hot water.  Camper is a 2020 Apex Nano 18RB with the Off-grid and outfitter packages.

We'll be boondocking this weekend.  Just Friday evening thru Tuesday.  We have 100W solar on the roof, with the cheapo charge controller that came with the trailer.  Generally don't have an issue going a week on the two batteries we have.  We might bring the little generator with us, just in case we get stuck inside in the rain and it's humid as hell.  With the easy start in the A/C we can run it on the 1800W Firman genny.

Using latex or nitrile gloves when possible can cut down on your hand washing a lot.

We do all of our dish washing outside. I have a big aluminum pot that we use for washing which can be placed on the fire/burner and heated. Also have a plastic collapsible bucket that is used for rinsing. Each day the wash water gets dumped out and the rinse water is placed in pot to become that day's wash water. Fresh clean water then goes in plastic bucket for rinsing. We only use about 1 gallon of water per day for dishes doing this.

If we have access to water, such as a pond or creek, we will use that water for washing and rinsing after boiling it over the fire.

We boondock 95% of our trips, so here are my oberservations:

With a family of 4 and good water discipline, we consume 10 gallons per day.  Last trip was 5 days and we averaged less than 10gal/day.

Casette toilets use less water than convential toilets.  Also, teach your kids to do their buisness in the woods if possible.  It saves water and teaches them a useful skill.

Replace your stock group 34 battery with 2, 6V GC2 golf cart batteries.  This roughly triples your battery capacity.

You didnt mention camper size, but big campers eat more power and propane, especially in the mountains with cool overnight temps.   With our 16ft hardside, batteries will last 6 days and a 20lb propane will last 10+ days with overnight temps in the 40s.  Adding 100-200 watts of solar will keep the batteries topped off indefinitely.

Capture you grey water and use it for putting out camp fires at night.

Practice filling your main tank from your portable containers before you leave the house.  I found a weakness in the transfer method that caused considerable spillage.

If you must run a generator at night, only use an inverter style.  Sound carries a long ways and we have had many inconsiderate neighbors run their POS HF gen all night for no reason.  (Idiots also emptied their black tank onto the road when they pulled out. )  Avoid running your gen as much as possible.  People boondock to avoid the habits of city campers and enjoy the peace and quiet.


Bring a great camera or telescope.  The sky is amazing after 11pm.  We lost count of the satelites we saw.  Shooting star count was around 10 on one night alone.

Bring a shovel, water, bow saw and splitting ax for firewood.  Most sites have ample downed trees.  On group trips, we bring chain saws and spilt and stack enough wood that tbe next campers usually have firewood for a couple of nights.
Also on that note,  be aware of dead/dying trees near tbe campers.  In some areas of CO, it is not uncommon for beetle kill pines to fall in high wind.  Seasoned vets consider chain saw mandatory in some regions to avoid getting trapped.

Bring a tow strap, chain, winch, etc.  Heavy rains create big mud holes fast.

Bring excellent flash lights and lanterns, its dark in the woods.

Ironically, a lot of flashlights (and interior RV lights) are too bright for comfortable use in near total darkness - They kill your night vision, scare away the wildlife, and annoy your neighbors.

For this reason, I bring along a couple really dim LED flashlights, and use LED "tea lights" for indoor lighting.

If it's yellow, let it mellow.

Don't flush the toilet every time you pee in it. Doing so will fill your black tank quickly.

As far as the gray tank, let your dishes pile up and use your water sparingly. Use hand wipes instead of washing your hands.

Speaking of gray water, it's taboo to dump your gray tank, yet it's acceptable for tent campers to dump their tupperware tubs full of gray water. Why is that???

Good point.  Our RV has a bright LED strip and a separate dime orange exterior light.  Its nice having the option.

Same with flash lights.  My main light can vary from 20ish Lumens on low up to 1100 lumens on high.