0:00

Have you ever thought about getting into boondocking

0:02

, taking your RV and going off-grid

0:04

for an extended period of time ? Or maybe just rolling

0:07

through a cracker barrel and kind of know how to use

0:10

your power management systems , how to control

0:12

your water usage as well as your sewer

0:14

dumping and all those different things ? Maybe you're just

0:16

struggling to find the right spot to boondock

0:20

All of that information . Coming

0:22

up next , on the RV Shenanigans podcast

0:24

. Welcome

0:35

back to the RV Shenanigans podcast

0:37

. My name is Ryan and along with my wife Lauren

0:40

, we make up Millers in Motion . We

0:46

have been traveling in our RV and other ways now for about two and a half years well , I've been traveling

0:48

longer than that , but on a more full-time

0:50

basis and recording it all to be

0:52

played on the millers in motion youtube

0:54

channel . You are watching this on the rv

0:56

shenanigans podcast channel , as

0:58

well as the audio platforms , whichever

1:01

one you prefer apple's podcast , apple podcast , spotify , google

1:03

, all those fun things . We're pretty much everywhere . Platforms , whichever one you prefer Apple Podcast

1:05

, spotify , google , all those fun things . We're pretty much everywhere

1:08

and we hope you're

1:10

enjoying it . We do have a big favor

1:12

. We have decided to remove the

1:14

podcast from our main Miller's in Motion

1:16

channel , so if you are watching this

1:19

and you're a fan of that , please make sure to check out

1:21

the RV Shenanigans Podcast YouTube channel . That's

1:23

where you're going to find it and if you could do us a

1:25

favor , we are trying to get this out in front of as many

1:27

people as possible , so

1:29

we would love for you to actually share

1:31

it with some friends that kind of thing . If you're listening

1:34

to the podcast , please do us a huge favor

1:36

. Give us a rating and a review . Just

1:41

a couple of little nice words down there would be amazing . Five stars would be great too , depending

1:43

on what podcast platform the most

1:46

of . Whatever the thing is , I'm pretty sure

1:48

it's five and stars on all of them , but just in case

1:50

it's not , that would be amazing

1:52

because that is pretty much the only way we get this pushed

1:54

out to anybody . We greatly appreciate

1:56

that , because it's crazy to think that this is my

1:59

job , but I really do appreciate

2:01

it . There's a lot more work that goes into it

2:03

than most people realize , and I

2:05

wouldn't trade it for the absolute world because I love

2:07

it , mainly because we get to meet people like

2:09

you listening or watching on the other end of this . So

2:12

boondocking . Recently

2:15

we just got done with the 2024 Alliance

2:17

RV National Rally and

2:19

we got to host

2:21

and emcee however , you want to say that

2:23

a boondocking panel with

2:25

some friends and there's a lot

2:27

of really good information . So if you're looking to

2:30

considering to get into boondocking , you

2:32

know , finding the knowledge

2:34

base of what apps do you use ? How do you

2:36

determine whether to you know to get

2:39

you where you need to go ? How do you find some

2:42

of these boondocking places ? How do

2:44

you manage your power ? You

2:49

know , do you have a solar system ? Do you not have a solar system ? We do . If you

2:52

haven't seen any previous podcasts , we just put a very big one on our 2024

2:54

alliance valor . So we do have a pretty robust solar system . But

2:56

you don't have to to go do the things that we're talking

2:58

about doing , especially if you're doing it right and you're chasing

3:01

good weather um , how

3:03

to deal with your sewer water , all that stuff . We're

3:05

actually going to kind of well backtrack

3:08

to me emceeing that event . So

3:10

, without further ado , here is

3:12

me , from like two and a half weeks ago

3:14

with the boondocking panel . Enjoy

3:16

, welcome

3:22

guys . This is the boondocking panel

3:24

and before we get started , I just want to make sure we

3:26

introduce everybody . If you were here

3:28

from the social media panel . I'm still here . My

3:31

name is Ryan Miller , I'm one of the Alliance

3:33

Brand Ambassadors and we've been

3:35

boondocking ever since Todd tortured me in a

3:37

field in Texas for RV Unplugged Season

3:39

1 . And I don't care what

3:41

order whatever , introduce yourselves .

3:48

Good morning everybody , and I don't care what order whatever

3:50

, introduce yourselves . Good morning everybody . I'm Mark page . My lovely

3:52

bride and I have a 370 and we boondock

3:55

over a hundred

3:57

nights a year , sometimes even

3:59

more than that , and we

4:01

don't rough it . We've got a big solar lithium

4:03

system , but we're what

4:06

. You can't hear me , can

4:09

you hear me now ? What

4:12

? Wow , now I sound really

4:14

important . But

4:16

I'll let

4:19

them tell their own story . But we are three

4:21

Oea's for alliance and we help

4:24

answer some social media . So hi

4:26

, I work with alliance and I'm here to help you I'm

4:31

charles tyer can

4:34

you read that upside down ?

4:37

can you read it ?

4:37

upside down . Um

4:40

, good morning . Um , I'm charles

4:42

tyer , my wife's Leslie Tyre

4:44

. We have a Valor 40

4:46

V13 , and we

4:49

absolutely love boondocking . I'd rather

4:51

boondock camping

4:53

than any other way , probably

4:57

even better than mooch docking , but that'd

4:59

be second , but

5:01

boondocking's awesome . So

5:03

I look forward to throughout

5:06

this next hour we'll get into some

5:08

details and answer some questions

5:10

for you .

5:13

Good morning . I'm Steve Jankovicius .

5:17

That's a radio voice right there .

5:19

Sorry about that . My wife Chris

5:21

is here . We have a 310 . My wife Chris is here , we have

5:24

a 310 . And , like Charles and Mark

5:26

said , we really

5:28

enjoy boondocking .

5:36

It puts us in some places that are just

5:38

absolutely gorgeous and away from everybody else , which is nice sometimes . And I didn't

5:41

say we're in a 44V14 , so no small rigs really here

5:43

. A whole lot is there . Of

5:48

course , it's Alliance , so I know that you guys . I'd like to kind of start by talking about

5:50

kind of what , the one thing

5:52

that made you really want to get into boondocking

5:54

initially . What was that ?

5:58

About eight years yeah

6:00

, about eight years ago , maybe

6:02

a little more than that now I came in and that

6:04

was way before Alliance , of

6:06

course , but I came in and told

6:08

Angie I said , hey , I've been reading about

6:11

this thing called boondocking and I want

6:13

to do it . She said , oh , what's that ? And

6:15

I said it's where you go and you camp in a place

6:18

with no hookups , out in the wilderness without

6:20

any connection whatsoever , and

6:23

she said , yeah , we're not doing that . So

6:27

I whined and

6:29

cried and , like the spoiled little

6:31

boy I am in many ways , I got my way . And

6:34

so our first boondocking trip

6:36

we were probably on our second day and she

6:38

said I like this . And

6:41

again , not roughing

6:43

it . The tent days are long

6:45

gone . We never looked back from that point

6:50

. As the solar system has gotten bigger

6:54

, the boondocking has gotten less difficult

6:56

.

7:00

We first just started

7:02

camping and hanging out with friends who

7:06

were boondocking and we learned from

7:08

them and it was just

7:10

amazing to be able to go and

7:14

camp out in the wild

7:16

. Literally

7:19

. You don't have RVs

7:21

all next to you , you don't have the lights

7:23

from the street lights and the night

7:25

lights and the trains and the ambulances

7:28

, and it's so peaceful

7:31

, it's so beautiful . The night sky when

7:33

you're out in the middle of nowhere is

7:35

brighter than you've ever seen before . But

7:38

we didn't set out

7:40

to say we're going to buy an RV

7:42

and boondock . We bought the RV and just

7:44

started traveling . And we ended up traveling with

7:47

people who do boondock and now

7:50

I'm like a boondocking

7:52

junkie , it's like I would rather

7:55

go do that than anything

7:57

else . And

7:59

so we retired

8:01

and started traveling in an RV and

8:03

, probably like many people

8:06

, we were like okay , we're going to find a

8:08

little piece of land on the East Coast

8:10

and a little piece of land on the West Coast

8:12

, you know , here and there , and we'll have places

8:15

to take our RV that

8:17

we own , and we won't have to be in an RV

8:19

park . Well , guess what Lightbulb

8:22

moment when we started boondocking ? We

8:25

already have that land , it's our

8:28

land , it's public land that you can

8:30

take your RV anytime

8:32

and go stay on it . You don't even it's

8:34

already there , so that

8:37

makes it so exciting for me . So we

8:39

gave up the search for all the land because

8:41

we just go to whether it's all

8:46

the names of the different areas where you can go boondock

8:49

.

8:49

But it just makes it very

8:52

enjoyable when

8:56

we bought our camper

8:59

we didn't really think about boondocking . And then

9:01

we figured out , heard about harvest hosts

9:03

and said , okay , we'll , we'll

9:05

do that . You know it's only one night or whatever

9:07

. Um , so we weren't thinking necessarily

9:10

the big boondocking that everybody thinks

9:12

about . There's many ways to boondock . I

9:14

mean whether it's a harvest

9:17

host method , or you're on public land or

9:19

you're in , you know your

9:21

brother's pasture or whatever

9:23

, or you know you're a driveway , somebody's

9:25

driveway You're still boondocking , or

9:28

could be , if you can't plug in . Then

9:32

we ran into these guys and

9:35

like , okay , we need a little bit more , we need to

9:37

do more , started out

9:39

with a small system and figured out it needed

9:42

to be a little bit bigger . Chris

9:44

didn't like the fact that we didn't have much battery

9:46

when we woke up in the morning . So she says you need more

9:48

batteries and I went , yeah , great . So

9:52

and it evolves , you know how much you want

9:54

to do . We weren't quite sure how to do it , but

9:56

we you know hanging out with other people and asking

9:58

questions we kind of figured it out . By

10:01

no means are we experts at it yet

10:03

, but we do pretty good .

10:05

I was going to say , I think one of the biggest

10:08

things too and I'm going to move over here just so that I can

10:10

see a little better what's

10:13

y'all's definition of boondocking . I think

10:15

that's a great kind of place to start , now

10:17

that people have a little insight to what you guys do

10:19

and hide a little bit .

10:21

So great

10:24

question , because you could describe boondocking

10:26

in many ways , but in a nutshell

10:28

it's being able to camp

10:30

without plugging

10:32

your rig in to any kind of power . I

10:35

don't want to say that Any

10:38

to the grid , to electric , you know you

10:40

could plug your rig in to your generator

10:42

. That's boondocking . Finding

10:47

ways to plug your rig into your generator , that's

10:50

boondocking . Finding ways to power your rig and camp without

10:52

plugging into a pedestal

10:54

, like

10:57

Steve was saying , that may be one night in

10:59

a Walmart parking lot or that may be

11:02

90 days across the

11:04

Midwest .

11:06

Anybody else got another . We're just going with Charles'

11:09

answer . So we do want to answer

11:11

as many questions as we possibly can . So if you formulate

11:13

them , I did take the mic away from out there so we

11:15

could have one . So if you have a question , just kind of get my

11:17

attention , raise your hand , I'll come over to you . But

11:20

what's one thing you guys wish

11:22

you'd know before you

11:24

started boondocking , that you know now

11:26

, like if there's a first-timer

11:29

out there that's thinking about diving into

11:31

this lifestyle .

11:34

Do it . I

11:36

mean seriously . It's

11:39

a little unnerving . I

11:42

guess everybody knows Charles and I do

11:44

solar installs and so we

11:47

have had so many

11:49

different levels

11:51

of install . We

11:53

know of people , we know of friends that

11:55

they boondock yes

11:58

, sir . Oh

12:00

, dave , boondock . Yeah , finish your thought . No , go ahead . I

12:02

was like you can say it better than I can . Mr

12:04

Caldwell here is a boondocking champion

12:07

too . He's got some amazing spots

12:09

up his repertoire . But

12:12

just do it . I mean you

12:14

do have to understand your limitations

12:16

. We strongly

12:18

encourage , you know , if you say , well , I've

12:21

got a good camper and

12:25

I've got one really good , one lead acid battery and I'm going to bone dock , it's probably

12:28

not enough . Now , if you temper

12:30

your expectations and you understand

12:32

that that one battery is

12:37

not going to completely power your coach , you

12:39

have to save enough to get your jacks up

12:41

in the morning and your slides back in

12:44

. So it's that level

12:46

. But but again , seriously , do

12:48

it , try it .

12:50

I mean I think

12:52

the one thing to do for first timers

12:54

or new newbies , like ryan said , is do

12:57

it while you're plugged in . You

13:00

know , sitting in rv park , unplug

13:02

the thing , fill up your water tank and

13:04

live off of your rig . Don't hook up to anything

13:06

while you're sitting on the pad . You've

13:08

got a great backup plan . If you wake

13:10

up in the morning and batteries are dead , or

13:12

you know tanks are full or whatever

13:15

, start over

13:17

. You know , plug in , dump your tanks

13:19

, fill your water tank and start over and

13:21

learn how to ration your water , how

13:25

to control your power usage , whether it's one lead acid battery which

13:27

is fine I mean , people have done it for forever

13:30

on one battery or

13:32

you do it in a tent that you know didn't have anything

13:35

. So practice it when you can and

13:37

have that safety net of being able to plug back in .

13:42

Have y'all ever been to a place

13:44

where you got there and you

13:46

thought , uh-oh , we shouldn't be here because of turn

13:49

radius of your trailer , or

13:52

something like that . Yes

13:55

, you have , mr Caldwell .

13:58

Are you talking about the guy that we thought

14:00

maybe he had bodies in the barrels in the back

14:02

?

14:03

No , I'm talking about the place in Nebraska

14:06

and then up in the Tetons

14:08

where you and I went up someplace where

14:10

we shouldn't have been

14:12

. Well , as I went through the gate

14:14

I read the sign that said no

14:16

big rigs . Well

14:19

, I only have a 310 . That's only 35

14:21

foot long , that's not a big rig . So

14:24

Jim and I went up and I said I'm going to go

14:26

. He said , if you're going to go , I'm going to go . And

14:29

we rounded the first corner and I said into

14:31

the microphone . I said oh , and

14:34

we got up and it got scary really fast

14:36

. Um , we , we had to back

14:39

in . And that's when I discovered that I had

14:41

to perform the rear wall fix on

14:43

my coach , as the rear

14:45

wall almost fell off . But

14:48

anyways , yeah , it was . That's

14:50

probably the biggest thing and

14:53

we know it from we travel with

14:55

a group . Drop your rig

14:57

somewhere safe and take

14:59

your truck . And the second part of that question is how

15:01

do you circumvent that ? And the second part

15:04

of that question is how do you circumvent that ? That

15:06

right there and we have , it's

15:08

a whole lot easier to turn around that dually

15:11

, or even in some areas , your

15:13

e-bike , if you've got one .

15:14

I was going to say , lauren and I started

15:16

doing that when we do go further off-grid is

15:29

we'll drop one of the e-bikes and typically I'll go , because I have a better understanding of what the rig can and can't do or

15:31

should or shouldn't do more or less . And so we'll . I'll go out ahead and see , because sometimes it's potholes in a dirt road

15:34

, sometimes it's a turn radius , sometimes what they call them Arizona pinstripes . I'd rather not

15:36

scratch up the side of my coach trying to squeeze in

15:38

so so

15:42

I'm Cash Foley

15:45

.

15:45

I was blessed by spending

15:47

the first 90

15:49

, maybe two months with

15:52

an experienced boondock buddy

15:54

. I think that was a huge

15:56

benefit . We traveled around , he helped

15:58

me learn how to pick sites , how to do

16:01

the thing , and at the end of

16:03

that time we kept going and we

16:05

had 200 days unplugged the first year

16:07

. But

16:09

it's hard to get that confidence . They

16:11

say it takes about two months

16:13

of it before you quit

16:15

being paranoid . So find

16:18

a good boondocking buddy , hopefully

16:20

that has more experience than you , or

16:22

just have someone with you . That's a backup

16:24

.

16:26

So I'm just going to ask this question because

16:29

it's a good opportunity to kind of talk about it . But when

16:31

, if you let's say you don't have

16:33

that boondocking buddy , or maybe you do , or maybe , like

16:35

us it was Howard and Caitlin Newstate who are in a tiny

16:37

little Class C and we're in a 64-foot

16:40

fifth wheel what do you

16:42

guys use to kind of find some of those sites

16:44

where you can fit , because we all have slightly larger

16:46

rigs than some people , but

16:52

now you've got to go sit up there .

16:55

Angie Page , and we learned

16:57

this from Jim and Debbie Caldwell

17:00

. They taught us to

17:02

visit the ranger stations or

17:04

the forest stations and then flat

17:06

out ask them , where

17:08

would you camp with your family ?

17:11

and going off of recommendations

17:14

yeah

17:17

, so I use , uh , google earth

17:20

a lot , so I'll first . There's

17:23

two parts to the question . One is how do

17:25

you even where do you go to find a boondocking

17:27

spot Like ? There's apps

17:29

and websites . The main one's called

17:31

Campendium , there's also

17:33

freecampsitesnet , there's

17:35

some others and there's Facebook groups and

17:38

there's word of mouth . There

17:41

are plenty of people at this rally

17:43

that have spreadsheets that are

17:45

multiple pages long of

17:47

GPS coordinates for boondocking locations

17:49

across this country . They'll

17:52

share their experience

17:54

with you if you get to sit down with them and

17:57

get to know them . But

18:01

back to your first question . Once you

18:03

know you're going to a spot , what's

18:06

another way of viewing the spot to make

18:08

sure you will fit there ? And I do

18:10

go into Google Earth a lot

18:12

and look at images there to see

18:15

what's around .

18:20

Yeah , pretty much the same thing . Google Earth

18:22

, even the Google camera

18:26

guy that drives down the roads , street

18:30

View , read

18:32

reviews , look

18:38

up the state natural

18:40

resource board , like

18:43

Texas Parks and or or whatever

18:45

it is , and try to find what they say

18:47

or places you can go and then

18:49

hunt it down as much as you can find any

18:51

reviews for that area . Sometimes

18:55

you get lucky and just kind of fall

18:57

into one it's what I was gonna say .

18:59

I think a lot of us too . We're talking about going a little further

19:01

out in the middle of nowhere for some of these things

19:03

, and sometimes it's as easy

19:05

as just pulling off the side of the road in Alaska and you're

19:07

not really searching for anything in that front , but paying

19:10

attention to what you think you can and can't do , like we

19:12

were talking about the e-bike , like just understanding

19:14

your rig and don't necessarily like take reviews

19:17

and make sure you read through it , but like

19:19

if you've got a standard Dexter axle on your

19:21

suspension and you're gonna to some of those heaves in Alaska

19:23

, when you pull off of them they can drop you know

19:25

, feet in some case , and that's if

19:28

your rig hasn't shifted on about a 40 degree

19:30

angle . You haven't lived quite yet , especially

19:32

if you live in it . Um , so , understanding what

19:34

your rig can and can't do in some of those scenarios

19:36

and not necessarily , I

19:38

mean trust other people , but take it with a grain

19:40

of salt too . And if you don't feel comfortable , then just don't do

19:43

it , because at the end of the day , if you're nervous it's probably

19:45

not going to go real well in that process

19:47

.

19:48

Yeah , and the other is , you know , the reviews are great and

19:50

Street View or whatever , but

19:52

conditions change . You know , a big

19:54

rainstorm will come through and wash out a road . We

19:57

did one last year that was , you know , a gravel

20:00

road . We're

20:05

pulling up the hill and I don't think I think charles was in the lead or whatever and he goes

20:07

watch out for the ditch because there was a big old you know washout , or through the middle of the

20:09

road that we got through it but

20:11

it wasn't you know . It was kind of like okay , how's

20:14

you know , everything started tipping and twisting

20:16

and if you're following a 40

20:18

v13 . Going around some twisty roads

20:20

you get to see lots of tail swing I

20:24

feel like I'm in a sports car compared to him .

20:28

I would just add , especially

20:30

for first-time boondockers

20:33

or people

20:35

who are just starting if

20:38

you take your rigs off

20:41

the beaten path and go where

20:43

, it's just beautiful to wake up . We

20:45

woke up morning after morning and

20:47

the Grand Teton Mountains are right there

20:50

and it's free . But when you go

20:52

to these places , your

20:55

rig's going to get scratched

20:58

, you're

21:01

going to run into a pothole and

21:03

bend something . This is not

21:05

a you've

21:08

got to be comfortable with . That is where I'm going . If

21:10

you're going to go out and truly

21:12

truly boondock like we're doing

21:14

, just expect

21:16

that you're going to have some not

21:18

damage , but I guess it is

21:20

damage right .

21:21

A higher percentage of it . Like

21:23

, the likelihood of damage is just higher because

21:25

you're pushing your rig to a further limit than , say

21:27

, driving down well I'd say a road in America . But let's

21:29

be honest , they're getting bad enough that it's

21:32

getting similar . At this point Just

21:34

out of curiosity , because I should have done this at the beginning how many

21:36

people have never boondocked before in this room

21:38

? Yeah , okay , so

21:40

spotty . How many people have dabbed their

21:42

foot in it and they're looking to expand ? And

21:46

how many are like these guys and are hardcore ? Okay

21:49

, so decent little mix . I'm just curious

21:51

because it's one of those interesting things because there's always

21:53

different levels of it . Like , you guys go pretty extreme

21:56

and we're those people that

21:58

we like to travel kind of hard because we're

22:00

special , and so a 10-hour drive day for

22:02

us is nothing , and

22:08

having a nice solar system and a little bit of water on board and being able to just slide in somewhere

22:10

and everything work normal is a big deal for us because we can function a little better

22:12

and get some decent sleep . And so even

22:14

for us , like , so crack , cracker , docking right

22:16

at a cracker barrel , you can stay overnight for free . Please

22:18

buy something . So they keep letting us do it . I

22:21

know exactly how many parallel sites I need to

22:23

maneuver and how many I need to park , and that's a

22:25

crazy thing you didn't think you needed to know

22:28

. But I need 12 spots to

22:30

maneuver and 10 to park In

22:32

the right scenario if there's a truck or something in my way

22:34

more . And so learning some of those

22:36

things . And then the Google Earth

22:39

slash maps trick does

22:43

everybody know how to use the measure function in that ? That's one of those things and

22:45

if you're not new to it , it's crazy Like I use it for sites

22:47

too , just because we're so big . I'm sure you guys have where

22:49

it's like it's a 40-foot site . Well , my rig's

22:51

46 feet long . How can

22:53

I overhang ? And then the dirt is

22:55

another website that actually is starting to do a lot

22:57

of campground views , kind of like the Google Street View

22:59

, but you'll actually be able to see in so you can see if there's something

23:01

, an incline that you might not be able to see

23:03

vertically , or branches

23:05

and stuff , and hopefully it's still not there by the time you

23:07

get there .

23:10

Charles talked about scratches . So

23:12

last summer in our brand

23:15

new 370 , two and a

23:17

half week old , maybe

23:19

three weeks old it was probably pretty

23:21

old by this time , weeks old , it was probably pretty old by this time With

23:23

full body paint and independent suspension

23:25

, I

23:30

looked at the pine tree limb that was hanging over the side of the road and I thought , as I was pulling

23:32

in , I thought , well , that's just pine needles , that's not a problem . What

23:34

I didn't see was the four-inch limb in the

23:36

middle of the pine needles and I put

23:38

it through my window in one of my slide

23:40

outs . You can fix

23:42

things , so

23:45

don't let that stop you , but be

23:48

. Yeah

23:52

, I said shoot a couple of times

23:54

. I'm going to point out .

23:55

In addition to being able to fix things , you can also avoid

23:58

things Well .

23:59

I pulled in , put the limb

24:01

through the window , didn't know it . Angie

24:04

and all my friends did know it , but

24:07

they knew what my reaction was going to be so

24:09

they didn't tell me until we went to the next spot

24:11

and Angie says we

24:13

need to talk . And

24:16

I went back and then I melted down

24:18

but I found out you can change one of those

24:20

little side windows in the 370 vanity

24:22

. Slide in . What did we do , jim

24:24

? 30 minutes , maybe 15 ?

24:26

Nobody filmed this . Yeah , oh

24:30

so there's a blackmail footage out there somewhere is what

24:32

I just heard R-rated .

24:35

But anyways , you

24:37

are going to the more adventure that you

24:39

have . You are going to . Charlie

24:42

was 100% right , you are going to get some

24:44

little nicks and scratches , but

24:47

man , the adventure . We could

24:49

talk the rest of the day about the amazing

24:51

things that we've seen . I

24:54

would love to spend an hour on Island Park , idaho .

24:58

One other point if you want to get

25:00

really , really good

25:02

at leveling your coach , if you want to know all

25:04

really good at leveling your coach , if you want to know all about that crazy

25:06

leveling system , go boondocking

25:08

for the whole summer . There's not

25:11

a level spot anywhere when you boondock

25:13

. If you think it is , it's still

25:15

not . But you will learn how to the

25:17

manual mode . You'll learn

25:19

auto , what helps , what doesn't

25:21

, how to get it level before you even

25:23

unhook , because

25:26

it's such a challenge when

25:28

you're camping in a field somewhere

25:30

.

25:32

Susan Eshelman and I just wanted

25:34

to share that . My particular

25:36

strategy is to pick an area

25:39

that has three or four

25:41

boondocking areas

25:43

and make

25:45

reservations at an RV

25:48

park for two nights , drop

25:50

the trailer and go scout . I'm

25:55

really afraid of scouting

25:57

with the trailer , but

25:59

there's great sites and

26:01

great roads that happen to be

26:03

one vehicle

26:05

wide and you go wait

26:08

a second . I would have to back up

26:10

for two miles if somebody was going

26:12

the opposite direction . We cross

26:14

those off the list . So

26:16

you know , everybody's got their own set

26:19

of things that they're comfortable

26:21

with or not comfortable with , but

26:24

but doing the scouting thing , you

26:26

know just , it's better off without

26:28

your trailer .

26:31

We found the most wonderful places

26:33

that were 20 miles away from that town . We would

26:35

never have just drove out there with our RV

26:37

, but amazing .

26:40

Yeah , I think Susan made a good

26:42

point as to you know it's

26:44

okay to go to an RV park

26:47

and go scout , or

26:50

when we're looking , I try to have a backup plan

26:52

. You know in my pocket that . Hey

26:54

, if we don't find something or if it's all

26:56

full or we can't get there . There's

26:59

an RV park over here and we'll just stay the night there

27:01

. And the other is you know

27:03

weather changes over here

27:05

and we'll just stay the night there . And the other is you know weather changes . You know we wanted

27:07

to go somewhere last year and we looked at the weather and it was going to be 90

27:09

something degrees during the day and not

27:11

cool at night . Well , the

27:14

dogs won't survive during the day . We're

27:17

not going to sleep at night if it's still 80 degrees

27:19

in the rig and not running air conditioners

27:21

or anything . So we said to heck

27:23

with , we'll just go plug in somewhere for a couple

27:25

days .

27:26

I was going to say . The hard part about doing an hour-long

27:28

panel about boondocking is we really need about

27:30

seven hours ? Because I'm already

27:33

like we've talked about just finding a spot and

27:35

I want to get into power , I want to get into water . We're going to get into

27:37

some other stuff right after this question

27:41

.

27:41

So , talking about repairs , we're

27:43

still sticks and bricks , so we have tons

27:45

of tools .

27:55

What kind of tools did you guys take that you are

27:57

happy you took , not happy you took or should have taken ? Yeah , that's a bad

27:59

question to ask us . We are all doing

28:01

RV tech work and solar installs

28:03

, so we've got more tools than we really probably

28:06

should have or have . You

28:08

need your basic . You know basic screw

28:11

guns , something to cut

28:13

things with some kind of saw drill

28:16

. You know just

28:18

some basic tools . It's nothing crazy

28:21

.

28:22

So one that I wish I had had , that I now

28:24

own is a one-inch driver

28:29

, so that you can get your tires off

28:31

and something a little easier , and then still the torque wrench .

28:34

Yeah , a nice impact gun is good

28:36

. I bought

28:38

or got for Christmas a

28:40

six-inch chainsaw . It's a little

28:42

itty-bitty handheld chainsaw . There's

28:46

always a limb sticking out somewhere . You

28:50

know Mark carries a little

28:52

weed eater to clean out spots

28:54

, so you add to

28:57

it . But the same stuff that you need to

28:59

get here and

29:02

fix things is the same stuff . You need

29:04

boondocking and then you need a couple

29:06

other things , maybe a

29:08

little saw or something to get

29:10

some limbs back , or some clippers . I

29:14

carry those anyway because we back into a spot and the limb's dangling

29:17

over my air conditioner and I don't want it

29:19

to fall into it . So

29:21

I hope that answers your question A

29:24

voltmeter .

29:26

If you own a rig and

29:28

you do not have a voltmeter , order

29:30

one from Amazon . That's

29:33

probably the number one diagnosis tool

29:36

, especially when we

29:39

have our OEA calls and we'll

29:41

contact the owner and

29:44

they're having electrical issues . The very first

29:46

question do you have a voltmeter

29:49

? And most of the time , if they

29:51

say no , it's going to be very difficult

29:53

to track down . Yep , it is

29:55

.

29:57

Just wonder if any of you have upgraded

29:59

your suspension at all .

30:03

Yes , mark has .

30:04

I have not . I have not .

30:07

I have not and I have . So we have two ISs and two

30:09

. Do you just have your standard 7K , 8k

30:12

leaf springs , all that good stuff .

30:14

But we're

30:16

enjoying immensely

30:18

the full independent . However

30:22

, my 310 did not have it had

30:24

the very stock . However my 310 did not have it had the very

30:26

stock . And that was again at one point two years ago . We went almost

30:29

100 days without plugging in . I'll

30:38

guarantee you we have pulled our rigs in places Alliance had

30:40

never intended these rigs to be and

30:51

in retrospect , some of them .

30:52

We probably shouldn't have been

30:55

, so it adds a lot to it , but it doesn't prevent you from still seeing this

30:57

beautiful country , hi , so we are both retired

30:59

and we're both full-time together , not separate . I thought I'd

31:02

clarify . And we boondock every once in a while , but we do the

31:04

easy boondocking just one night here and there

31:06

. But we're interested in doing more

31:08

. But we're watching . Battery technology

31:10

is changing so fast

31:13

right now . Do

31:19

any of you have any ?

31:20

insight into

31:22

kind of where you think that direction is going and what that

31:24

looks like . So lithium batteries that

31:27

we're using today , that come

31:29

in every Valor from Alliance , that

31:31

come with lithium or the lithium you

31:33

can buy , that

31:35

technology is awesome and

31:37

it's here for a long

31:39

, long time . So if you bought

31:42

into lithium batteries today , you're

31:47

making a great purchase . You're not buying something

31:49

that's going to be out , that can't be used

31:51

next year or five years from now . That

31:54

is a very good energy

31:56

storage solution . Will

31:59

there be new chemicals

32:02

? There

32:04

are some upcoming

32:06

soon , probably Different

32:09

kind of lithium , but it's still going to

32:11

be a lithium battery .

32:13

It's technology . It's always moving forward , right ? It's

32:16

just a matter of when the next thing's going to come out .

32:19

What's great about the lithium batteries is

32:21

the technology

32:24

is the same as it has been . What's

32:26

getting better is they're just putting it into smaller

32:28

packages . So instead of having a battery

32:30

the size of this table , it's a battery

32:33

the size of the phone . It's still

32:35

your lithium battery . They're just

32:37

getting

32:39

them down in size .

32:41

So , since we're kind of getting into power , if you guys don't mind

32:43

, what kind of solar lithium setups

32:45

do you guys each have ?

32:47

This would be interesting for you all to hear , because

32:49

you now know how much boondocking

32:51

we do .

32:53

We all travel together .

32:54

We travel together and we have totally

32:56

different systems . Mark

32:59

can go first .

33:00

None of you know mine , which is fun .

33:02

We have a dual inverter

33:05

3,000 watts of solar , the equivalency

33:07

of 1,900-amp

33:10

batteries . We have a 24-volt

33:12

system and

33:15

I do not carry a generator . I actually

33:17

sold it last month because I

33:19

didn't use it .

33:21

So he has all of that solar and all

33:23

of those batteries it . So he has all

33:25

of that solar and all of those batteries . Well , I

33:28

go the same place as he does and

33:35

I have six batteries . I've only ever had six

33:37

. I have a single one inverter . It's a 12-volt system , not a 24-volt , but I have

33:39

a built-in Onan 5,500-watt

33:42

generator . If , if we have

33:45

a week of storms and the sun

33:47

doesn't recharge my batteries , I

33:50

hit a button and the generator comes on . I'm

33:52

still boondocking .

33:54

I have to have gasoline for my generator , but he's

33:57

still boondocking too , just a little less comfortably if

33:59

there's cloud cover for a long period of time right so

34:01

you can .

34:03

You can as long as you're able to produce

34:06

energy for your RV . It

34:08

doesn't matter if it's coming from the

34:10

sun or a generator

34:13

or whatever other source .

34:17

Yeah , our system's probably in the middle

34:19

of this pack . We

34:21

have a single inverter , 800

34:24

amperes of batteries and 1700

34:26

watts of solar . We

34:28

started with 400 ampere

34:30

batteries and half of that in

34:32

solar , so 800 or so and

34:36

it worked fine . But

34:38

it was kind of on the

34:40

edge a little bit sometimes , and

34:43

so we got a little bit bigger , and

34:46

so we got a little bit bigger . And then we have a small generator

34:48

where I carry with me .

34:50

And then we have a dual inverter system as well . It's

34:52

dual Victron Quattro . So 8,000

34:55

watts , constant 10,000 watts on a cranking

34:57

for a little bit of time and then for

35:00

1,200 amp hours of 24

35:02

volt and then we have just under 3,000

35:04

watts on our roof . So actually we had installed two

35:06

weeks ago now , and the

35:08

first time I plugged in and this was a little bit in Texas

35:11

too , where it's 92 degrees the first

35:13

time I plugged in was actually here post

35:15

the install . So

35:17

that kind of gives you some insight . But what I was told early on

35:19

in that is you might

35:22

as well like drugs a little bit more , because if you

35:24

get in a solar , next thing you know you're just going a little

35:26

bit more . A little bit of that . Change it to this

35:28

.

35:28

there's a new cool technology which you guys have developed

35:30

, new cool technology too it

35:33

is also really nice when you have the

35:35

solar capability

35:38

on your rig , even if you're not boondocking

35:41

, even if you're just going on a camping

35:43

trip , two hours or maybe

35:46

three hours before you get to

35:48

your destination , when

35:50

you stop for a bathroom break or

35:52

lunch , you flip on the air conditioner

35:55

. So when

35:57

you get where you're going , your rig's already cooled

35:59

down because you have

36:01

solar panels and you have batteries and

36:04

you have the inverter running the air conditioner

36:07

. So that's a bonus that we use

36:09

a lot .

36:10

I don't even turn mine off , man . I just leave them on . That

36:12

way it's always like 74 in there , Just for

36:14

especially the new people getting into boondocking between

36:17

your systems . What can you tangibly run

36:19

, just so that we kind of simplify it ? Just a hair for

36:22

those people .

36:23

Start with Mark yeah

36:26

, everything . But

36:28

let me back up just very , very , very briefly

36:30

to the technology question , the biggest

36:33

thing for me on the lithium batteries . Two

36:37

years ago a person would ask me

36:39

what battery should I get ? Immediately

36:41

I said Battle Born , end of story

36:43

, king of the Hill , amazing

36:46

technology . That's no

36:48

longer the case . There are

36:50

so many wonderful companies out there and now

36:52

instead of $1,000 to $1,100

36:56

per 100-amp battery , you

36:58

can get a great battery for

37:00

around $300 per 100

37:03

amps battery

37:09

for around $300 per 100 amps Tremendous difference . So that price point

37:11

, victron is what we sell and use and believe in and I wouldn't install anything . But

37:13

we always tell people when your Renogy

37:16

goes out , keep using it and enjoy

37:18

it . When it goes out , replace it with Victron

37:20

. They have dropped prices

37:23

30% in the

37:25

last year and it's continuing

37:28

to come down . What can we

37:30

run ? Honestly , I

37:32

gave an example just the other day to someone

37:34

. When I first bought my Ram

37:37

Dually , it had a 32-gallon

37:39

diesel tank in it . I

37:42

didn't go very far diesel

37:47

tank in it and so I didn't go very far . All of our stops and bathroom breaks

37:49

were scheduled around diesel stations , so I added a

37:51

60 gallon auxiliary . Now we've got 92

37:53

gallons of diesel . It's the same

37:55

thing with your batteries . What can you run

37:58

? How much solar do you have and how many

38:00

batteries do you have ? Nothing runs on

38:02

solar . It runs on batteries

38:04

powered by solar and recharged by solar

38:06

. So with the big system

38:09

, if we've got good sun , I can run two

38:11

ACs and

38:13

the batteries are replenished immediately . I

38:16

don't see it drop below

38:18

100 , so not a lot . I

38:21

still don't do a lot of electric heat sources

38:24

. It's unnecessary . You have a water

38:26

heater that has propane and electric . 15

38:28

minutes before your shower , flip the propane water

38:31

heater on and you've got hot water and then turn

38:33

it off .

38:35

Yeah , I have a single inverter , single

38:37

3,000 watt inverter , and I

38:39

comfortably run one AC . The

38:43

truth is , we can run anything

38:46

in our RV at

38:48

any single given time . We can't run

38:50

everything in our RV

38:53

all at the same time . So I can turn on any

38:55

AC I want , but not

38:57

all three of them . I can turn on the

38:59

electric water heater , but

39:01

not with the microwave and an AC

39:03

. So

39:05

it's the

39:07

way we use our coach . We

39:11

live like we're plugged in . We turn whatever

39:13

we want on , but

39:16

I go back to also my generator

39:18

. If I need three ACs

39:20

, I can do it . I just also have the generator

39:23

to do that .

39:25

Yeah , mine's the same as Charles . I

39:27

can run everything in my rig if I

39:29

want to but not at the same time . I

39:31

don't have enough capacity for that . And

39:34

we tend to go places where we don't need

39:36

an AC . You know that's

39:39

our plan , is , you know , chase ? 70

39:41

degrees at night .

39:43

Well and I think that's the big portion like we get stuck

39:45

in places sometimes where it's 95 degrees

39:47

, so being able to run multiple acs for lauren

39:50

and I was a really big deal because

39:52

of that . So what you're trying to do

39:54

dictates what you're going to end up putting in

39:56

at the end of the day and also how

39:59

much you want to spend . That's a factor , because

40:01

they can get up there in price as well .

40:03

Yeah , I mean we're talking running ACs . You're

40:05

burning one battery , 100 amp hour battery

40:07

every hour , so to

40:09

go over per AC , so to go

40:11

overnight . You're gonna go eat a lot of batteries

40:13

. We have a lot of people asking questions .

40:15

I'm gonna get right behind you because you had it up first and I'll come back to you

40:17

.

40:19

So thinking about starting small , moving to

40:22

the 12-volt fridge . That's obviously going to pull

40:24

off your batteries , so one

40:26

lead acid is not going to get you overnight

40:28

at all , so

40:31

would like a single 300 get you overnight

40:33

with your default solar . I

40:35

think we get 320 on most of the

40:37

paradigms so I'm still

40:39

trying to figure this out right . Can I go with

40:41

to start small , to start ? You know , start

40:43

with like a solar generator , maybe

40:45

have a generator backup and not

40:48

have to put you know , twenty thousand dollars of

40:50

solar in yeah , you're .

40:52

The dc fridges will go through

40:54

about a battery overnight and

40:57

then your lights and whatever else you got

40:59

going on might eat a little bit more . So

41:02

200 , 300

41:04

, it is pretty safe to make it through the

41:06

night and have enough charge to get

41:08

your jacks up and do whatever you got to do in the morning

41:10

, where you're gonna get

41:12

well , as you get a bigger battery and

41:14

you deplete it further than , and then

41:16

you get into the chase of how many panels

41:19

do I need on this the roof to recharge

41:21

it ? On a halfway cloudy

41:23

day like today , we're great , but

41:25

earlier in the week , when it was sort of raining , not

41:28

raining , the solar is not going

41:30

to make it back .

41:33

And I think this is a good point to insert . When I

41:35

knew I was going to be kind of up here with you guys doing this

41:37

, I cornered Bill and I asked

41:39

what's the biggest question they get on

41:42

kind of the Renergy solar stuff that comes with

41:44

, whether you have the solar or the solar plus option , is the

41:46

number one question the customer service team gets is

41:48

why can't I turn my AC on with

41:50

what Alliance sent me ? And

41:53

so it's just a misunderstanding of

41:55

the information . Alliance uses a lot of 12-volt

41:57

components like fridges , TVs , those

41:59

types of things , and those can all run on that battery

42:01

without the use of inverters .

42:11

But an AC requires an inverter , and alliance doesn't put inverters on yet yet . And

42:13

for those doing the math or are trying to figure

42:16

this out , this question has been asked a lot too , which

42:18

is when you're considering running your air conditioner , the air conditioners in

42:20

our rigs . When you're considering running your air conditioner

42:22

, the air conditioners in our rigs

42:24

use one . When

42:26

you're running the AC on high , it

42:29

uses one battery , meaning a

42:31

12-volt , 100-amp-hour battery uses

42:36

one battery every hour . If you wanted to run your

42:38

air conditioner for eight hours , you need

42:40

eight batteries . And then

42:42

I say you need eight batteries without

42:45

any way of recharging them . That it's . It

42:47

would use on average one

42:50

battery per hour then . Then you need some

42:53

way to recharge your batteries when the Sun comes back

42:55

up the next morning , or a generator

42:57

. But the air conditioner

42:59

is a energy hog

43:01

. If you , if you take the air conditioner out of the equation

43:03

and chase 70 degrees , life

43:09

is great .

43:10

Back to yours just a minute . In the solar generators

43:13

, that technology has really grown

43:15

a lot and it is a good

43:17

option . We've had people call and

43:19

say man , I want

43:21

the biggest thing you sell

43:24

. Our first question is well , what are you

43:26

going to do On occasional overnight

43:28

stay ? Well , you don't need the biggest thing we sell

43:30

. So , however

43:32

, if you're looking at it as a starting

43:35

point , it's not really

43:37

upgradable . Oh , yes , it is . You can get four or

43:39

five . I'm not hauling around four

43:41

or five . I'm not hauling around four or five

43:43

. But with the Victron systems you

43:46

can start relatively small

43:48

and inexpensively and add two

43:50

. You

43:54

have to get the right equipment and you have to have the right

43:56

installer and not just plopping

43:58

the solar panels right in the middle of everything

44:00

. But so you have

44:03

to look at the end game . What are you trying

44:05

to end up with ?

44:07

I think one of the biggest obstacles too in solar

44:09

is the price tag . Right , it kind of gets to that point

44:11

and you can phase a system in . You don't

44:13

have to drop 20 or $30,000

44:15

on a huge system right out of the gates . You can

44:17

just put batteries and inverter on and

44:19

use an off-board generator or pedestals . If it's once

44:22

a night to replenish and not have to put the solar on

44:24

. That's the more expensive

44:26

and first , unfortunately , but you

44:28

can phase it just a little bit .

44:33

I just wanted to give hope to some people

44:35

out there . Now our system is very

44:37

similar to theirs . But our boondocking

44:40

buddy , luke Wertz . He

44:42

did a lot of boondocking

44:44

with his family , homeschooled

44:47

two kids and they

44:49

had an auto start

44:51

on their own generator and

44:54

I believe their batteries were still lead

44:56

acid . He just had it

44:58

set to where the generator would

45:00

come on and recharge

45:03

the batteries . It had minimal

45:05

solar and so

45:07

you

45:09

can do it with a stock

45:11

system if you go

45:13

ahead and spring for the auto start

45:15

on your generator to take care

45:18

of the batteries and not let them drop too low

45:20

. I

45:22

love solar , I love lithium , but

45:25

it's just an alternate

45:27

way of doing it .

45:30

Was there a question back here somewhere ? I thought I saw somebody . Nope

45:34

, okay , back there All

45:36

the way in this other room . If I toss it , can you catch it ?

45:49

I'm just wondering , steve , you have the smaller

45:51

generator . You said there

45:53

you go , you have the smaller generator

45:55

.

45:56

Yeah , I have a 2,000 watt .

45:58

How does that work ?

46:02

It works great .

46:03

I mean as opposed to the one that

46:05

will come on automatically and

46:07

all that .

46:07

So I haven't . I've

46:10

had to use it once . Wow

46:12

, I was parked under some

46:14

trees and wasn't

46:16

getting great sun and it was kind of cloudy anyway

46:18

, so I plugged

46:21

it in and you know , with our

46:23

system , I can turn down

46:25

the system to

46:27

adjust what kind of power flow

46:29

it'll take in . So I just turn it

46:31

down to take in 10 amps from the generator

46:33

, which 10 amps from the generator is

46:35

100 amps going into my battery . It

46:39

doesn't take long to charge . You

46:41

know , charge it back up a little bit

46:43

and so that that's enough . It's enough to

46:45

charge it up . You know

46:47

, run a coffee picker if you need it . Just

46:49

, you know , as a backup , um

46:51

, you don't need a giant

46:54

generator if that's all you're trying to do is

46:56

top off your battery . If you're

46:58

like ryan , that's , you know

47:00

, running all over the south , you

47:03

know , and it's hot and he

47:05

may need his air conditioners on

47:07

, then he needs a bigger generator

47:09

.

47:09

Some of us call it RVing the wrong way .

47:13

Yeah , yeah . I would just add that in

47:15

the boondocking world

47:17

, the people that have the generators

47:19

, they're not using them

47:21

. They're

47:24

not starting the generator to run their RV and turn on all kind of stuff in the RV

47:26

. They're just using the generator to run their RV and turn on all kind of stuff in the RV . They're just using the generator

47:29

to recharge their batteries . Because

47:31

it's been storming for

47:33

four days and there's no sun

47:36

, it will also run things in the RV

47:38

. I don't mean to take away from

47:40

that . The generator will still allow

47:43

you to run the microwave , but the

47:46

main purpose for the boondockers

47:48

are to recharge your batteries and that's

47:51

why they carry a small generator for

47:53

that .

47:54

That's the main purpose I

47:56

was gonna say , for us it's a backup system . Now it's

47:58

what it is . It's not a primary system anymore

48:00

, it's a backup , and or it's

48:02

slightly cloudy and I need to get going

48:05

somewhere and I want to pull in a little bit more

48:07

before I stop for the night , just to have enough capacity

48:09

to get through the night , kind of a situation , yeah , and

48:11

like Susan said , you know , if

48:14

you just have a small set of batteries or

48:16

you really need to run air

48:18

conditioners or whatever , then you need a bigger

48:20

generator .

48:22

I'm going to avoid being hot

48:24

at night whether I go

48:26

pay for a spot to plug in or I just

48:28

move . It's got wheels . Get the heck out of

48:30

here , let's go Okay .

48:34

So because I know we're on , but was

48:36

there a question that I just missed ? Was there another question

48:38

?

48:38

back there somewhere .

48:39

I just watched you do that . That's why .

48:41

I was Thought I saw one

48:43

.

48:43

I wanted to bring up , if I could , for just

48:45

a minute , mr

48:47

Caldwell back there , my good buddy

48:50

Jim . He texted me

48:52

and said talk about apps a little

48:54

bit , and probably

48:56

our most common question is what app do you

48:58

use to boondock ? And my answer

49:00

again is yes . All of

49:03

them . Campendium

49:05

the dirt freecampsitesnet

49:07

. Rely on reviews

49:09

. Rv Life

49:12

campground reviews .

49:14

I overlander .

49:15

You can filter .

49:16

Very good .

49:17

You can go into Campendium , for

49:19

instance , and filter free sites , but

49:22

read those reviews . You

49:24

have to kind of logically look

49:26

at it . Throw out the nightmares and

49:28

throw out the best ones and look at the meat in

49:31

the middle and you know if you've got

49:33

60 foot of rig going down the road and

49:35

it says you know

49:37

horrible switchbacks to get

49:39

to it .

49:40

Don't go there and

49:42

stop , but challenge accepted

49:44

yes , oh yeah , not anymore oh

49:47

, I'll wait for it at the bottom I'm

49:49

sorry , leslie , that you have to deal with that but

49:52

but it , it .

49:54

You know , look at them and and ask

49:56

, um , there , there is not

49:58

. Oh , I only use you're

50:01

missing out on a lot of stuff . I

50:03

mean , you know , know , use all

50:05

of them . So Jim suggested

50:07

the DIRT . It's got some really good

50:09

filters that will narrow

50:12

it down to what it is that you're looking for

50:14

.

50:14

D-Y-R-T .

50:17

Yes , the DIRT .

50:23

Yeah , both .

50:25

Yeah , I think both is the answer .

50:27

He asked do we use the paid

50:29

version of that or the free version ? When

50:32

you travel with the whole group

50:34

, someone usually has the paid

50:37

version and I'm still using the free version

50:39

.

50:40

I'm a sucker on paying for apps

50:42

. My AccuWeather app , I think it's

50:44

the best . I pay $20 a year to get wind

50:47

forecast and you know

50:49

that's cheap Campendium

50:51

pro pro level , I think they

50:53

call it . I think it's 20 bucks a year . Well

50:57

, it wasn't this morning , okay .

50:58

So hang on , hang on , hang on . I

51:00

was going to address that , so that actually just made a switch

51:02

. So Campendium and Road Trippers

51:04

is a big company , kind of like RV Life , that

51:06

owns a bunch of different little things

51:09

. Campendium is being absorbed

51:11

now by Road Trippers . So if you're looking

51:13

for the Campendium app , you actually are looking for

51:15

the Road Trippers app . All of that information

51:17

is in there . The only thing you're going to find you

51:20

can nod your head . No , but the company told me that , and

51:23

so whether or not it's actively good

51:25

right at the moment , I have no idea . I haven't gone on it

51:27

myself , but

51:30

it is being they're restructuring the apps . I'm just like right now and

51:32

it will redirect you to the right

51:35

service app . Okay , so there . So you may need to update your app potentially

51:37

. There's always that option too . So , oh

51:41

gotcha . So yeah

51:43

, there might be a little bit of a glitchy moment there while they

51:46

do that integration stuff , all right

51:48

. Let's

51:52

chat water , because nothing goes with electricity like water . That's just what I was going

51:54

to say . So you guys travel down

51:56

the road with full tanks all the time . Right , don't

51:59

actually nod . Yes , please Do

52:01

you really . Yes

52:03

, sir , Did you okay . So I asked if , because he's got

52:05

a mic and didn't use it , he said he actually does travel

52:08

down the road with full tanks Did you do anything to reinforce

52:10

it or did you just roll with what Alliance did ?

52:11

Nope , the 310

52:14

and the 370 , both . I see how they're

52:16

installed . There

52:22

are some rigs . Early build avenues did

52:24

have a bit of an issue with reinforcement . Now

52:29

generally we have great water at our house . We haven't been inside and slept

52:31

in our house in four years but grandson

52:34

lives in the area . We'll fill

52:36

up and use Now

52:40

if we're going through Shreveport or Baton Rouge

52:42

in southern Louisiana . I don't

52:44

fill it up , but I don't hesitate , but

52:47

do so carefully . Alliance doesn't recommend

52:49

that you always fill it up and bounce down the road

52:51

. But

52:53

, yeah , and we carry a 60-gallon

52:56

water bladder with

52:58

us that's easy to fill and easy

53:00

to transfer to your coach .

53:02

Yeah , I think I have traveled

53:04

with it full , for you know

53:07

large distances . We

53:10

try to plan to not do

53:12

that . You know , if

53:14

we can find a place to fill up somewhere

53:16

closer to where we are , and that's the recommendation

53:19

that Alliance will give you and

53:21

most people will . I mean , yes

53:23

, it's great to have all the water in there , but it's

53:25

a lot of weight and it does bounce around a lot . So

53:29

when you're planning your trip , you've got to find

53:31

a place to dump , you've got to find a place to fill with water . If

53:34

you can fill up right before you get there

53:36

, that's a better way to do it .

53:39

Yep . So traveling

53:41

across the country , boondocking , we

53:44

have always found water . Country

53:51

boondocking , we , we have always found water um , and we have found some water . That's amazing

53:53

and it's coming literally flowing out of the side of the mountain , on the side of the road

53:55

. And we do , we , we

53:57

do carry with us on these boondocking

53:59

trips of 50 or 60 gallon

54:02

water bladder . So our rig is

54:04

parked um and we're

54:06

there for weeks and as

54:08

we , as we go out and explore

54:10

, like we'll go to a nearby national park , we'll

54:13

take the water bladder with us . And while we're inside

54:15

the national park , they always

54:17

have little camping areas , usually

54:19

too small for my big rig and

54:22

but it's a tent camping area . Well , every one of

54:24

those has a water spigot . So we just asked

54:26

the nice folks there do you mind if

54:28

we fill up our water bladder while we're

54:30

here ? And they've always said yes .

54:33

So we bring water back to our camp

54:35

campers and fill

54:37

, refill our tanks from using this water

54:40

bladder I know we have a couple of different versions

54:42

of alliance rvs here , but does everybody have the same

54:44

size freshwater tank or is one smaller than

54:46

the other between the three of you guys ?

54:49

The Deltas definitely have smaller , but

54:51

the fifth wheels , I think , are all the same

54:53

Right around 100 gallons 100 gallons .

54:55

How long can each of you guys make 100 gallons

54:57

last for you out there In boondocking

55:00

mode ? Let me rephrase that not just full bore , using

55:02

.

55:03

If we expand it a little bit , freshwater

55:06

tanks and waste tanks , it

55:10

is a 98-gallon tank . However

55:16

, 12 of that is considered to be water heater . Most I've ever gotten in my

55:18

freshwater tank from Dead Empty is about 86

55:20

gallons . I've

55:25

got a little meter that I put on , but

55:31

a lot of it is just your usage . We have a friend that wants to go boondocking . He

55:33

said the only problem is I take 30 minute showers . I said well

55:35

, it's going to be an issue . But with

55:38

53 gallon kitchen

55:41

, 53 gallon shower , 53 gallon

55:43

waste , we have a bidet on

55:46

our master bathroom toilet and

55:48

we can go 13 days on

55:50

the black tank , about a week

55:52

. The hard

55:55

thing is for a lot of wonderful

55:57

, beautiful people is you can't leave a dirty

55:59

dish in the sink . So you

56:02

know you wait a little bit , you can

56:04

dump that water outside . But my

56:06

experience has been we run out of fresh water

56:08

long before we run out of storage capacity

56:10

.

56:11

So just do the man a week

56:13

we on

56:15

fresh water like bullet point version there at the end

56:17

. Yeah , we're about the same . We were

56:20

about a week if we are in the conservation mode

56:22

. But obviously what goes in , like we're just talking about , must

56:24

come out . So you , I

56:26

was gonna say , say we also carry around about a 60-gallon

56:29

water bladder . It's just the just in case , and

56:31

if you have , you can either get an external

56:33

pump to pump it in . But if you have a winterization feature

56:35

on your coach , which I think all alliances should , you

56:38

can siphon it in , and so you just have to have

56:40

a hose that doesn't have a connector on the one side . As

56:43

far as if you guys want to stay out for , let's say , three

56:45

weeks to a month straight out there

56:47

and you're not going to move the RV , there's the caveat

56:49

.

56:55

How do you get rid of the out version

56:57

of water ? You have to . There

57:03

are some of these bladders water bladders that are black tank bladders

57:05

. You can transfer your waste into the bladder and

57:07

take it into a town to a

57:09

dump station .

57:10

Macerator pump .

57:11

And we use a macerator

57:13

pump to fill

57:15

that bladder . You can also just

57:18

use your Blue Boy tote

57:20

. You know , you've

57:22

got to get it into the bed of your truck and take

57:25

it into town and it's heavy when it's full of crap

57:27

, but sorry

57:30

, but yeah , I

57:32

mean you can't just

57:34

dump it on the ground out there , so you've got to get

57:37

it .

57:37

So would you guys prefer to , just when your black

57:39

tank's full , it's time to just move and go ahead and do

57:41

a dump and then find a new place . Is that kind of your line ?

57:49

Most of the time we we will have moved on in in two weeks . In

57:51

fact , most of the public lands . There are a set number of days you're allowed

57:53

to stay there and you must move on . Not

57:56

all of them are enforced , because

57:58

we see people that have been there for years

58:00

. But um , but really

58:02

when you come in there's a sign that says you

58:05

know , 14 days max stay . So

58:08

you're going to be moving on anyway , gotcha

58:10

.

58:11

So we have time for a handful of questions

58:13

before we have to wrap up and they kick us out of the building

58:15

. Does anybody have any questions ? All

58:19

right , then I'm going to ask one what's your favorite boondocking

58:21

site you've found so far ?

58:23

And I'm saying this because I want to know for myself and

58:29

we're going to tell all these people yeah , we're all thinking

58:31

of the same , some of us at least

58:33

thinking of the exact same place .

58:34

So now you all have to answer with a separate location

58:37

, so good luck with that . Whoever's not talking first ?

58:39

The favorite location

58:41

of them all and we have had some amazing

58:44

places , but the favorite place

58:46

for us is a little place

58:48

called Island Park , idaho . Just

58:54

an amazing

58:56

scenery . We were camped right along

58:58

a small

59:01

river or creek . It

59:04

was a branch off of a river but just

59:06

literally the campers . When

59:10

you open your door , the water's right there , everything

59:13

was scenic and beautiful and we literally had

59:15

moose female

59:17

and bull moose walking down

59:20

the water , like

59:22

for me to that table . It

59:25

was just a

59:28

great location . About

59:30

15 minutes from yellowstone yeah , oh sorry

59:32

. Yeah , right outside of yellowstone . We

59:34

we would go into yellowstone every day and enjoy

59:37

the park and we had our

59:39

. Our campsite was free and

59:41

it was amazing views . Um

59:43

so , and I

59:45

I have the GPS coordinates . Anybody that's

59:47

going there I'll share .

59:50

it's not the faint of heart getting

59:53

to the site we were in , though . Yeah , it's

59:55

a little spooky .

59:56

She said it's not the faint of heart getting to the site if you didn't hear

59:58

her back over here we did one

1:00:00

of my favorite spots and it wasn't as much

1:00:03

Island Park

1:00:05

is mine too .

1:00:07

There really aren't words and the pictures are just

1:00:09

. You know you show them

1:00:11

they're like no , that's not real . But

1:00:14

one of my favorite spots was in north

1:00:16

of Jackson Hole , wyoming , near

1:00:19

the little town I believe it was Moran . It

1:00:21

was a highway department gravel

1:00:24

storage yard that they have

1:00:26

open for boondockers

1:00:28

, built in security for all their mounds

1:00:30

of gravel . But when you open

1:00:33

your big beautiful windows in your

1:00:35

Alliance you're looking at the Grand Tetons

1:00:37

. It's free that

1:00:40

that if it's free , it's for

1:00:42

me , but

1:00:45

it was we . We

1:00:47

tend to travel as a group and we'll have

1:00:49

other allies , will see us and will

1:00:51

join and kind of circle

1:00:53

the wagon type thing . But that's one

1:00:55

of my favorite spots .

1:00:59

You're not getting out of this , Steve .

1:01:03

I think it's hard to

1:01:05

pick , but there's a spot we found

1:01:07

, kind of by accident , in

1:01:09

Beulah , wyoming . It was

1:01:11

on some state land . It's

1:01:13

a little parking , public access to

1:01:15

the river People float the river Little

1:01:18

tiny parking lot that we circled

1:01:20

around and got our stuff all situated in

1:01:23

there and then , I don't know , two

1:01:25

other rigs somehow squeezed in there too , situated

1:01:29

in there , and then I don't know , two other rigs somehow squeezed in there too . But from

1:01:31

here to you know , the wall over there there was a beautiful 10-foot

1:01:33

waterfall and you know the

1:01:35

river was running through about knee deep

1:01:38

and if you stayed in it for more than about 10

1:01:40

minutes your ankles froze . Um

1:01:42

, trout were swimming right past us . I

1:01:44

mean , it was . It was a pretty cool spot , but

1:01:46

it was .

1:01:47

You know it's what you find so

1:01:50

are there any spots on the bucket list that you haven't made it

1:01:52

to yet , but you definitely want to try and get to , like , say

1:01:54

, this year or next year yeah

1:01:58

, we're trying to head west , northwest

1:02:00

this year , so we don't know what

1:02:02

we're looking for yet . We'll figure it out

1:02:04

as we go . That's next week's problem . Yeah , gotcha

1:02:07

, uh , so oh , perfect .

1:02:08

One more question so

1:02:15

two of you have kind of mentioned this already . But proximity

1:02:18

to other campers that are boondocking what are

1:02:20

kind of the rules on that ? And then also

1:02:22

, what are the same like think about that

1:02:24

. What are your rules like when you run your generator ? What are the same

1:02:26

like think about that . What are your rules Like when you run

1:02:28

your generator ? What is the general like unwritten expectations of

1:02:30

not running at certain hours or so

1:02:35

boondocking etiquette kind of a question .

1:02:37

So some of the places you go have designated

1:02:39

sites . You know you can

1:02:41

see them , the pullout , and it's probably

1:02:43

got a marker or a fire pit

1:02:45

or something with it . So you need to stay

1:02:47

within those and those are generally spaced out pretty

1:02:50

far . It's when you get to just some random

1:02:52

like this place

1:02:54

, we were

1:02:56

kind of tight in there with our . The three of

1:02:58

us were tight , we were okay with that . The

1:03:01

other people came in and they were tight

1:03:04

too , but everybody was pretty respectful of each other

1:03:06

. I think if you

1:03:08

just be respectful and you

1:03:10

know during the day , run your generator if you need to

1:03:12

or talk to them and say , hey , you know I'm getting

1:03:14

low on battery or I need to do

1:03:16

something tonight , is it okay ?

1:03:20

I'm sorry , Steve .

1:03:21

No , I don't know of any hard and fast rules

1:03:23

.

1:03:24

The one good thing too and it

1:03:26

sounds like a flippant answer and I don't mean it this way

1:03:29

but if you're in a situation , if

1:03:31

you boondock a lot , you are going to have somebody

1:03:33

pull within feet of your RV . The

1:03:36

great thing about Alliance RVs

1:03:38

they have wheels , we

1:03:41

do . There's generally

1:03:44

a whole gaggle of us that are together and

1:03:46

so we kind

1:03:48

of park in a way to kind of prevent

1:03:50

somebody from being around on top of us . But

1:03:53

yeah , that was what Steve said

1:03:55

, respectful .

1:03:57

I was going to say too , and I've shifted over here but

1:03:59

my general rule of thumb too

1:04:01

and we're out there if we're by ourselves is do

1:04:03

as we would want to do . So

1:04:11

if I didn't want to be right next to somebody , like what , if I was in their position , where

1:04:14

would I prefer me to be , kind of a thing . And then I generally take the rule of thumb is first come , first

1:04:16

serve , kind of a thing . If there's like one really cool spot and I have to

1:04:18

get within feet of somebody else that I have no idea who they

1:04:20

are , haven't talked to them , nothing , then

1:04:22

they got the spot good for them . And then I shift

1:04:24

down somewhere else that I would feel comfortable

1:04:26

if I were them being at . So that's just

1:04:28

kind of something we do .

1:04:32

Up until now , everybody's been sort of talking

1:04:34

about the western United States

1:04:36

, but I'm from the east coast , I'm from Pennsylvania

1:04:38

. Have you ever boondocked

1:04:40

on the east coast , any

1:04:43

places there ?

1:04:45

With the size of rigs that we have , it's kind

1:04:47

of difficult . We

1:04:49

did our first big trip two

1:04:52

years ago to the east coast , all the way to Maine

1:04:54

and back , and we planned

1:04:58

it to stay in parks because

1:05:00

we weren't really experienced yet at

1:05:02

boondocking or weren't comfortable . We

1:05:05

did harvest hosts , we did several

1:05:07

of those and that worked out great because there's enough

1:05:09

room for us . But everywhere we

1:05:11

drove we were looking at campsites

1:05:13

or trying to find places in the national forest

1:05:15

and they're just not made for

1:05:17

for what we're hauling around . You

1:05:21

can find them . There's places out there . You just you

1:05:23

really have to hunt around . Even

1:05:27

like state parks are kind of tight . They're

1:05:29

not made . They were built in the you know

1:05:31

20s and

1:05:33

they haven't fixed them yet .

1:05:34

So it's tough I

1:05:37

was gonna say the east coast is just for rvers

1:05:40

as a whole . It's a slightly more difficult area to

1:05:42

be in , how west everything's kind of more wide , open

1:05:44

bridges seem to be taller , all that stuff because

1:05:46

the routes out east are a lot more prohibitive as well

1:05:48

, especially if you have a 13 foot six inch

1:05:50

rig , which we all pretty much do here .

1:05:52

So it's the one thing that

1:05:54

I've found free . Campsitesnet has

1:05:57

a tendency to kind of list a

1:05:59

variety of you

1:06:02

know we're . I'm all about blM land

1:06:04

, our land . It's generally wide open , the

1:06:06

dispersed camping In

1:06:09

Florida . There's the

1:06:11

water management districts that

1:06:13

you have to make reservations but

1:06:16

in that reservation they give you the

1:06:18

code to the gate and you go in

1:06:20

and it's just beautiful and again

1:06:23

free

1:06:25

. But that's where a lot of the apps come

1:06:27

in to find different kinds

1:06:30

.

1:06:33

So we've talked power , we've talked water

1:06:35

, and

1:06:38

one question was brought up earlier about

1:06:40

you know what's one thing that you've learned

1:06:42

boondocking . That you

1:06:44

didn't know but you

1:06:46

do now . So I'll

1:06:48

throw this out there to say it was a surprise

1:06:51

to me . But the hardest

1:06:53

part

1:06:56

of the boondocking especially when you do it all

1:06:58

summer and when you're doing it out Midwest

1:07:00

and West the

1:07:03

hardest thing to do is to get rid of your trash

1:07:05

. It sounds

1:07:07

crazy , but it's easier to get water

1:07:10

, it's easier to dump your tanks , it's easier

1:07:12

to do everything except your

1:07:14

trash . They won't allow

1:07:16

you to use any dumpsters out

1:07:18

there to put your trash

1:07:20

in . So my tip for

1:07:22

those that are either

1:07:25

experiencing or going to experience the

1:07:28

problem of getting rid of your trash is save

1:07:31

your walmart bags . You know

1:07:33

your little plastic bags from when you get groceries

1:07:35

. If you put your trash

1:07:38

in one of those every

1:07:40

time you make a trip to town or trip to

1:07:42

a national park , that that

1:07:45

little bag will fit in a normal

1:07:47

trash can , even at a gas pump

1:07:49

you can put your trip . But if you

1:07:51

carry a trash bag , man

1:07:53

, people will tell you get out of here . You

1:07:55

know Anyway , just sharing

1:07:58

that with you all that if you're

1:08:00

just starting , you're going to have a problem getting

1:08:02

rid of your trash .

1:08:03

And a combination of what

1:08:06

Charles said with with the little bags . Don't

1:08:08

throw stinky stuff in your big trash

1:08:11

bags , because you may have that trash

1:08:13

bag for two weeks and it gets

1:08:15

worse . So you put

1:08:17

your stinky stuff in the little bag and

1:08:19

whatever stinky stuff is to you I'm not

1:08:21

, we have dogs , so you just whatever

1:08:24

and but the big stuff . If

1:08:26

it's just paper products and no food products

1:08:28

, it'll ride good for two , three

1:08:30

weeks .

1:08:32

Recycle or recycle

1:08:34

.

1:08:35

Yep , well , recycle spots are hard to find

1:08:37

too . It's

1:08:39

amazing that you're

1:08:41

in Colorado and you know

1:08:43

it's all tree hugger type things and

1:08:46

you can't find a place to put aluminum cans

1:08:48

.

1:08:49

it's kind of one

1:08:52

more question then we're gonna start wrapping her up

1:08:54

you

1:08:58

guys are obviously out in the wild .

1:09:00

What do you guys do when for self-protection

1:09:03

, whether it's animals or unwanted

1:09:05

visitors ?

1:09:11

Great question . That

1:09:14

question is asked almost every year

1:09:16

. When you travel in a group , it's a lot easier

1:09:18

, even if you're just traveling with one

1:09:21

other camper . It's easier because , for

1:09:23

safety-wise , when the whole group

1:09:26

leaves and goes to the park and hikes

1:09:28

on a 10-hour hike well

1:09:30

one vehicle is always left

1:09:32

back with the camper , so it does look

1:09:35

like there's somebody home

1:09:37

. If

1:09:49

you're by yourself and

1:09:51

you're taking your vehicles away , it's just . I would at that point advise

1:09:53

to invest in security cameras and things like

1:09:55

that . But we carry a shotgun or some protection

1:09:58

from wild animals , should it

1:10:00

occur , and we take

1:10:02

it serious . We have that stuff available . It's

1:10:04

not like packed away where

1:10:07

if we need it , we can't get to it . I mean it's uh

1:10:09

, it's there and available . We've never had an issue

1:10:12

uh , no , no

1:10:14

, no even stories to tell about . Almost

1:10:16

you know it . Just we have . We've

1:10:19

always found that the areas we've been in have been

1:10:21

uh , safe , uh

1:10:23

, we've never had things stolen or

1:10:25

broken into .

1:10:28

Bear spray in the door of my truck .

1:10:32

I've had more closer

1:10:35

encounters of wildlife while

1:10:37

hiking in the national parks than I do back

1:10:39

at the campsite .

1:10:41

And just to expand it from our point of view too

1:10:43

. This came up in the full-timer panel yesterday . If

1:10:46

you go full-time , if you're're in a spot you don't feel comfortable

1:10:48

or something's going on , the best security system

1:10:50

I've ever found is right here in my gut . And

1:10:53

if you you get there and you feel a little meh

1:10:55

about it , just like anything else that happens at RV

1:10:57

parks sometimes it can happen the nicest places just

1:10:59

move , go . That we've said it multiple times

1:11:01

now . The , your rig has wheels , just shift

1:11:04

to somewhere you're more comfortable . I mean , it might not be

1:11:06

the most easy option . And

1:11:08

then just to piggyback on that a little

1:11:11

bit is Internet , because if you do have

1:11:13

like being able to have whether it's a Starlink

1:11:15

, because you're out west of Illinois , or T-Mobile 5G

1:11:18

, whatever it is like we still work

1:11:20

full-time and these guys all work a little bit in

1:11:22

some capacity . And so why

1:11:24

are you laughing , steve ? And so why are you laughing

1:11:26

, steve ? Just trying not to , and so

1:11:28

you know having that internet

1:11:30

and our security system to be able to , so

1:11:33

that if Lauren and I are just off by ourselves

1:11:35

, knowing

1:11:39

that I can pop a camera up and I can kind of see around my rig because we're gone and it's

1:11:41

just us , so our rig's sitting there by itself is comforting in a way . Or I'll get

1:11:44

a motion notification if there's something going on by

1:11:46

it . Comforting

1:11:56

in a way , or I'll get a motion notification if there's something going on

1:11:58

by it . So

1:12:00

essentially the question just so everybody hears it was Charles said that he had a firearm

1:12:02

on board and she's asking about kind of I'm going to add state to state in addition , because

1:12:04

that's a fun thing too , as

1:12:07

well as crossing borders like in Canada

1:12:09

.

1:12:10

So I have not been through Canada

1:12:12

. I know there are specific

1:12:15

rules about what type of firearm

1:12:17

you can carry through there and they're extremely

1:12:19

strict . From what I understand , mark

1:12:23

has gone through Canada so he could

1:12:25

expand on that . Mark

1:12:28

has gone through Canada so he could expand on that

1:12:30

. As far as state to state

1:12:32

, so I'm retired from 30 years

1:12:34

of law enforcement and

1:12:38

so I still carry law enforcement credentials and I'm probably the worst one to ask because

1:12:40

I can just tell you I'm going to have my firearm

1:12:42

in whatever state I am , whatever

1:12:47

state I'm in . But

1:12:49

it

1:12:52

would be best to , you know , look up the

1:12:54

state's rules about

1:12:56

what you can carry in and out of their

1:12:58

state .

1:12:59

That's what I was going to say is just don't put yourself in a bad situation

1:13:01

, and that goes for the like whether it's a security

1:13:03

issue , where you know you can be okay , versus

1:13:06

the other side is just understand the laws and regulations

1:13:08

of the state country , whatever you

1:13:10

happen to be going to before , and I'm sure those laws

1:13:13

, just like in the States , change constantly

1:13:15

, especially with Canada . There's

1:13:17

a whole new dog thing . If you haven't seen that , apparently we have

1:13:19

to have our dogs microchip now if you're going to go into Canada

1:13:21

or back into the U S from other countries

1:13:23

, like going up to . Oh yeah , that's a whole new thing . Leslie

1:13:25

, I just saw your face go Yep

1:13:28

, and that's who knows , I mean , when it's going to go into effect

1:13:30

, but it's been passed , so there's

1:13:32

always constant laws changing with crossing

1:13:35

borders , states or countries . Alright

1:13:39

, well , I know these guys would probably be happy to

1:13:41

chat more , but I know whoever's next in here

1:13:43

is probably going to start wandering in . But do any of

1:13:45

you guys have social media that they

1:13:47

can follow ? Learn more , do all those things ? Steve's

1:13:49

really nodding his head , no hard there

1:13:51

. And then , what's the name of the

1:13:53

install company ? Just so

1:13:55

you guys have the solar install stuff .

1:13:57

Yeah . So Mark and I own a solar install

1:13:59

company . It's called Unplugged RV Solar

1:14:01

, Unplugged RV Solar . And

1:14:04

more and more

1:14:06

we learned . If you add and

1:14:08

more , you could just do anything .

1:14:10

Tank cleanings .

1:14:11

But we have a Facebook page . You could

1:14:13

look us up there and you could Facebook

1:14:16

messages .

1:14:22

We'll answer any questions anytime Awesome . Well

1:14:25

, thank you guys so much for being on the panel and thank you guys for coming in . If you have

1:14:27

any questions , I'm sure we'll linger for just a little bit

1:14:29

until they officially kick us all the way out . So

1:14:31

thank you guys for coming . Thank you

1:14:43

.