I’ve always enjoyed dry camping in the Airstream. Pull out somewhere that power and water aren’t available and see how long you can go. When I first purchased the Airstream I had a favorite park in Northern NH that didn’t offer power and water. And I would set little goals while out.
– How many days can two batteries run the Airstream before I needed to break out the generator?
– How can I minimize water usage to increase the time I can stay somewhere?
– How many days before the black water tank is full….Eww.
You get the idea. I will say, dry camping stats change based on the number of people you have with you. The more people the faster water goes and black and gray tanks fill. The more little electronic doo-dads you have, the sooner you’ve got to run the little Honda generator. The colder it is, the quicker you drain the batteries running heat. And so on.
When it comes to your batteries there’s a simple solution. Solar panels on your rig. Bert and Janie have panels, and after talking to Bert last night it sounds like their recharge time is pretty minimal. The generator is rarely used.
Bert’s Airstream top. Shot with the GoPro and the DJI Phantom.
Currently I have no panels on the Airstream. I’ve always been interested in getting some, it’s just a matter of disposable income on hand. So, for the moment I just fire up my little Honda 1000 whenever the batteries get low. Fortunately it’s a very quiet generator, so you don’t really cut into the quiet of boon docking.
Today, 7 days into dry camping in Borrego things are looking like we need a trip into town. The gray tank is almost 50% full. The black tank….yeah at 18 gallons we’re needing to dump soon. And the Fresh water tank is under 50%. We won’t be pulling into town today, as we’re leaving tomorrow. That means we’ll “off load” tanks tomorrow.
Comments 1
I use to worry about batteries until I got solar power. Now that is a thing of the past unless you loose power over night but that would be from TV or lights. When the sun comes up you are back in action. I can agree with the water reduction that is a game changer. I have a small Class B Van so water is hard to come by in large quantities. A compositing toilet would do the trick for the black tank and help with water. 🙂