When I did boat deliveries from Florida down to the Virgin Islands we had one gallon per person per day, no refrigeration, and we made it work for weeks. 25 miles off the Florida coast the VHF was worthless and no way to communicate with anyone until we reached our final destination.
Now with only the two of us in a truck and camper tooling down the highway and a 30 gal. fresh water tank it is hard to see this as roughing it. There is something to be said for not taking your city lifestyle and all the comforts of home out into the boondocks.
why do you keep the water pump on continuously? Turn it on only when yo use it. It works for us. Also, get a second battery. We can go almost a week without needing a generator. We run the radio most of the time (most of the time we're in the boat on the lake though).
We find we use very little power. It just takes practice.
2011 Adventurer 910FBS,Torklift tie downs,Fastguns & Wobbl-stopprs
2012 Dodge 3500 DRW 6.7L CTD, 4x4, LB,CC,6 speed auto,3.73 axle, General 17" on/off road
2008 Lund 1825 Explorer Sport,115 Merc,9.9 kicker,Torklift Super Hitch,42" Supertruss
USAF ret E-9&E-7
1L243 wrote: Your going to need a second battery. Set your thermostat to 52 degrees and take extra blankets.
30 gallons a day...WOW! If you run your water pump dry it will not last very long...
52 degrees? Seriously? My furnace doesn't work at the moment and last October and this April I found that anything below 55 inside was pretty damn uncomfortable to the point of making it difficult to sleep. I was considering either an electric blanket (I don't dry camp) or a sleeping bag if the furnace was too costly to fix. Unfortunately, the furnace worked very nicely at the repair shop when I took it in, as it does every now and then (not at night, of course). But now I can ignore the problem for another couple months.
cm11599ps wrote: My parents bought plastic plated and cups. They are not the disposable kind. That means they have to clean them. I think that's where the gray water tank got filled up. They left the water running, albeit trickling out. I think that's one of their mistakes. That may work if you have a sewer but without one you should probably use disposable stuff. It's the first time dry camping so I assume they'll learn their lesson. Who wants to dump a tote everyday? Not me!
Yes. I can use 30 gallons a day easily and I shower in the bath house, it's the dish/pot/pan washing. I don't RV without sewer hook-up for this reason. I'm there to relax, and toting water or washing the fry pan in a cup of water is not my idea of fun. To each his own.
jassrnj wrote: If you are going to dry camp, you will need at least two batteries. 12 volt is ok, 6 volt is better.
I don't necesarily agree with this jassrnj - as I said before - in our old Casita we could do a 4 day weekend on a single group 27 battery. We couldn't do that if we needed more than lights and water pump - but really, in warm weather what more do you need?
-Chak
EDIT: PS: The Casita's fridge had a pilot lite and didn't use any electricty. It was a 2003 model....
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