RE: For all you dry campers

[luvtacamp]

 
We ve never dry camped before as we ve always stayed at campsites w/hookups.  I guess that s what dry camping means, no hookups, right?  [&:]  
 
 Questions about dry camping (DC):  I hope these aren t too silly, but I m really wondering what you all do.
 
 What things are useful or needed when DC?
 
 
 Where is a great place to DC?  Area, state, or specific place you know of.  Like in the mountians, where?  By streams, lakes, etc.?
 
 
 What about bathing when there s no bathhouse? We do have toliet/shower, but without hookups, what would we do?
 
 
 Foodstuffs, ice, do you take enough for the entire time?
 
 
 Is there more privacy, isolation where you camp?
 
 
 We just bought our pu, I think the A/C only runs off of elec. how do you keep cool dry camping?
 
 Any comments or suggestions are appreciated very much.  If we do decide to ever dry camp, I would like to know something about what I m doing.[]
 

[Opie431]

 luvtacamp
We try not to camp when the temperature is too high but we do have to fans that run on batteries. We also try to get campsites with total shade in hot weather, it makes a big difference in how comfortable the PU is.
 We were given a sun shower that heats enough water to take two showers  with warm water. It means that you take your showers in the afternoon or evening.  I have taken showers as late as 11 PM. In theory it takes several hours to heat up.  I am not sure because we lay ours out in the morning. If we are somewhere that we can not put up something to work as a shower stall we wear swimming suits if we do not have complets privacy.
 We always take extra blankets to use for cool weather camping.  We like to sleep in a cold room so we turn the furnace as low as it will go and just turn it up ten minutes before we get up.
 You need something to  heat hot water with for doing dishes.  I have used the sunshower for water for doing dishes also.
 We like National Forests for dry camping. The forest service has a web site that lists all of the campgrounds for the various sites.  some states also have dry camping.
 We take milk cartons and water jugs along to refill with water. I do not like the large ones because they are too heavy for me to carry.  They also warm up enough if left in the sun so they can be used for washing.
 

[cb]

 luvtacamp
We much prefer dry camping, and never, never go to a hook-up campground on a weekend.  When we go without kids, we can experience the quiet and solitude we crave.   The stars are brighter, too, and it s very romantic!  When we go with kids, it shows them how to be more self-sufficient, because we are able to allow them to explore and experiment more than where we have to worry about the weirdos who might be there.
 
 Where do you live?  We are more familiar with the west, where there are many, many places to dry camp.  BLM areas are either free or really cheap.  There are lots of Forest Service Campgrounds that offer no improvements and have only a few campsites.  In CA State Deserts, you can camp just about anywhere...no campsite required.  We find the AAA camping books to be an accurate source.
 
 Our method of washing up:  We wash dishes once a day, usually in the morning, and use the heated rinse water to do a GI washup.  There are nice disposable wipes for specific body areas!  Hand sanitizer in a bottle is great for routine hand washes.
 
 You do have to plan a little more carefully for dry camping.  Coleman Xtreme cooler is the best I ve ever run across.  The ice really does last for 5 days in 90 degree weather.  We have a marine battery that we can make last for 4 or 5 days if we re relatively frugal with lights, etc.  Heater is a huge draw on it, and I imagine that you wouldn t be able to use A/C, but I don t know that for a fact.  Bunk end covers from Popupgizmo are wonderful....we go to the mountains and to the beach in the summer with no A/C.
 
 Email me if you have specific questions.

[ForestCreature]

 luvtacamp
ORIGINAL:  luvtacamp
 
 We ve never dry camped before as we ve always stayed at campsites w/hookups.  I guess that s what dry camping means, no hookups, right? Right
 
 Questions about dry camping (DC):  I hope these aren t too silly, but I m really wondering what you all do.
 Nothing s silly, I had to ask how to wet camp[]
 
 What things are useful or needed when DC?
 A fully charged Battery. Everything you normally camp with that dosen t require electricy.
 And a big sense of adventure!
 
 
 Where is a great place to DC?  Area, state, or specific place you know of.  Like in the mountians, where?  By streams, lakes, etc.?
 There are great places all over the country, check the National and State Forests websights for Primitive campgrounds. Here in MI all the Forest CGs are located on a lake or a river. There are just to many good ones throughout the state to list.
 
 
 What about bathing when there s no bathhouse? We do have toliet/shower, but without hookups, what would we do?
 We use the shower in the camper. We fill the water tank before we leave home and bring along an extra 21 gallons for refilling. Just turn on the water like you do anyplace else.(I m assuming you have a water pump)Showering while dry camping is best done wetting down, turn off the water and soap up. the turn water back on and rinse. Its amazing how much water you can use leaving it on all the time.
 
 
 Foodstuffs, ice, do you take enough for the entire time?
 We have a fridge, set on propane. the cooler is full of drinks. the ice lasts about 4 days before we have to refill. We take enough food for about 4 days if we are on vacation.
 
 
 Is there more privacy, isolation where you camp?
 Most definately
 
 
 We just bought our pu, I think the A/C only runs off of elec. how do you keep cool dry camping?Swimming, shade and lack of activity[]
 
 Any comments or suggestions are appreciated very much.  If we do decide to ever dry camp, I would like to know something about what I m doing.
 
 

[Tim5055]

 luvtacamp
Well, the easiest way for me to answer this is to direct you to several of my web pages.
 
 First of all, dry camping is our favorite camping - [link=http://www.title-3.com/DryCamping.htm]Check It Out[/link]
 
 Also check out:
 
 [link=http://www.title-3.com/Shower.htm]Our Outside Shower[/link]
 
 [link=http://www.title-3.com/potti.htm]Our Porta Potti[/link]
 
 [link=http://www.title-3.com/Battery.htm]Adding a battery[/link]
 
 The only thing I may not be clear on is keeping cool.  As out dry camping is usually at elevation, it is usually cool even on summer evenings.  We do have the [link=http://www.popupgizmos.com/]PopUpGizmos Bunk End Covers [/link] should we have to set up in a location that will allow direct sun during the day.
 
 You don t show your location in your profile, so I can t make specific recomendations based on your location.

[tlhdoc]

 luvtacamp

 

ORIGINAL:  luvtacamp
 
 What things are useful or needed when DC?
 
 A good deep cycle battery
 Water containers to refill your water tank-I take 2 or 3 six gallon water cans to refill our tank
 
 
 
 
 
 What about bathing when there s no bathhouse? We do have toliet/shower, but without hookups, what would we do?
 
 We take marine showers-water on to get we, water off, soap up, water on to rinse, water off, we get 3 showers out of 5 gallons of water
 
 
 
 
 
 Foodstuffs, ice, do you take enough for the entire time?
 
 We run our fridge on propane and take one or two coolers depending on how long the trip is.  We keep drinks in one cooler and food in the other (if we need it)
 Is there more privacy, isolation where you camp?  If it is only for a few days we take enough with us.
 
 
 
 
 
 We just bought our pu, I think the A/C only runs off of elec. how do you keep cool dry camping?
 
 Open all the windows and try to camp in the shade.  We have 2 of the bunkend lights/fans.  The fans help.  We try to camp in cooler locations in the hot weather.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Any comments or suggestions are appreciated very much.  If we do decide to ever dry camp, I would like to know something about what I m doing.[]
 
 Give it a try it is nice.  You get a little more privacy, even if you are camping in a state park.
 
 

[degroot]

 luvtacamp
A portable generator to recharge the battery is almost a must for trips longer than a day or two. Try to get a ultra quiet one if possible( your neighbors will appreciate it), or try to use it during the day at say 2:00 in the afternoon for an hour or so. We dry camped in Missouri for a week, loved it, but needed to run the generator daily no matter how much we conserved.

[garym053]

 luvtacamp
Sorry after camping in Mass. and listening to generators running all day and ALL night, I don t believe generators belong in campgrounds either!!!
 We almost always Dry Camp by choice. However most of the State CG s have bathrooms and showers. We take along several different ice chests, one packed with stuff we need once or twice a day, another packed with drinks and stuff needed more often. Most State CG s around here sell ice. Our battery lasts 3 to 4 days if we run the furnace occasionally, otherwise it runs the lights for a week easily!
 We re in Northern New England it rarely gets hot enough at night to be a problem, but if it does we have a 12v fan that does a fine job of cooling things off.

[Ab Diver]

 luvtacamp
luvtacamp, you don t say where you are located. Here in Ca., the state park campgrounds are really pretty, but don t have hook-ups. So you are effectively dry camping. But that is not the same thing as camping out in the wilds of BLM land. Your requirements will depend a lot on where you are camping, the weather you ll experience, the length of your stay, and how simple (or luxurious) you like to camp. If you are camping so far out in the sticks that a trip to the store isn t practical, you ll need to take everything you ll need for the whole trip with you. That could prove fairly daunting if you re trying it for the first time and expect to stay out a week.
 
 You might want to try camping a couple times without hookups at regular campgrounds, and just see how it works out. But almost anybody can do a dry weekend and live to tell about it.[] After that, you can try longer trips, building on the confidence and experience from your previous adventures.
 
 In the summer, we like to camp near water, for both recreational and environmental (keeping cool) needs. If you don t have 110V electrical power, you ain t gunna have any A/C, so water, shade, and a nice breeze will be your best friends.
 
 Your pop-up fridge will work quite well on propane, but bring a good cooler (read: Coleman Extreme) or two full of ice and frozen stuff, and practice safe cooler accountability (read: don t open the cooler more than necessary).
 
 Be judicious with your electrical usage, and prolong your battery s life on that single charge available to you. Lanterns don t use amp/hours, and neither does a Mr. Heater " Buddy"  propane heater.
 
 Bring all the water you can. Better to have 5 gallons too much, than 1 gallon too little. Use it sparingly, until you get a feel for your daily usage.
 
 Bathing... ever been told to " go jump in the lake" ? Here s a great time to do it. Daily swims help keep the body clean and odor free. Otherwise-- now you know why I told you to bring LOTS of water.[]
 
 Most of the time, dry camping affords you with an experience that cannot be duplicated at a crowded campground. To some, it s a must, and the closest thing to paradise. To others, it s a dreaded trip away from room service, and to be avoided at all costs. Your call. Just remember to have fun. If you re not having fun, change your camping style until you are. Cuz THAT S what its all about anyway, right?[]
 
 

[raven339]

 luvtacamp
Air conditioners will not run off battery power. And if you want to DC with one you will need a decent sized genset, depending on the altitude at which you camp, anywhere from 2.5Kw - 5Kw. I researched this for months and came to the conclusion that I would need a 4-4.5Kw genset to run a Carrier Air V at 7.5K ft at 95F.
 
 I dry camp all the time and choose instead the MaxxAir/TurboMaxx vent fan with thermostatic controls to cool the camper. Granted, it won t cool the camper to 65F, but it will drop the temp. ~10-15F, or enough to take an afternoon nap...
 
 At close to $300...It s not cheap...But then, how much are afternoon naps worth to you!!![][][]
 
 Skol...

[kminton]

 luvtacamp
First of all, I am no expert (we just got back from our first experience with dry camping).  But here is what I learned:
 A fully charged group 27 battery is a must.  We don t have a generator so we had to do with the battery.  We found we spent most of our time outdoors anyway.  We used an oil-burning lamp at night instead of the popup s lights.  The guy across the street from us (nicknamed Generator Joe) constantly ran his generator - when he finally turned it off one morning, he was greeted with a round of thank yous from our group).  We also had a neighbor behind us that had a very quiet Honda generator -didn t even know it was running.  He used it very sparingly - probably only to charge his battery (1500 watts).
 
 Dry camping makes you become creative.  I have to have my hair dryed so I learned the furnace makes a pretty good hair dryer (even though I looked sort of silly crawling around in the floor trying to get each side of my hair dryed[]).  They make butane powered curling irons and 12 volt hair dryers (I couldn t justify spending it for just one trip).  Otherwise a good cap and pony tail holders, if you have long hair, are indispsensible).
 
 We were able to use our shower in the Niagara - just took a quick shower (wet, turn water off, soap, rinse quickly about 2 .5 gallons of water for each shower).  The holding tank on the camper was full when we set up and then we toted water from the bathroom facilities to re-fill as needed.
 
 As for food, the refrigerator will run on propane (actually cools a lot better in our camper).  We had one cooler in the back of the Tahoe for drinks.
 
 We were visiting the Great Smokies National Park (Cades Cove); it is a very nice place (mountains, streams, no cell phone service though).  National Park Sevice campgrounds and Corp of Engineers campgrounds are a place to start looking.
 
 good luck,
 Kerri

[jawilson]

 luvtacamp
Ab Diver said it just about perfectly. The SP s we go to, in PA and NY, have very nice flush facilities, most with showers. The " dry"  in those sites only means no hookups, and for a few days just about anyone can camp that way. AAMOF, it s the best way to do it (for short trips -- if I was going for a week then I d be looking for hookups).
 
 If nothing else try it in your driveway one weekend. I think you ll be surprised how well you do.

[tlhdoc]

 degroot

 

ORIGINAL:  degroot
 
 A portable generator to recharge the battery is almost a must for trips longer than a day or two. Try to get a ultra quiet one if possible( your neighbors will appreciate it), or try to use it during the day at say 2:00 in the afternoon for an hour or so. We dry camped in Missouri for a week, loved it, but needed to run the generator daily no matter how much we conserved.
 

 
 What size battery do you have?  It sounds like it is not holding a proper charge.  I have had a group 31 last 12 to 13 days with out recharging.  We used our shower (water pump) 24 times and used lights and fans.  We did conserve where we could, but the battery was still usable when we came home.

[luvtacamp]

 luvtacamp
I m not sure yet if I m going to like dry camping but it s worth a try if we can find a good place to go.  
 
 Kminton, you mentioned Cades Cove.  We are thinking about making a trip to the Smokies and I was wondering where to stay.  I know there are several campgrounds with hookups, but I thought about something more scenic further in the mountians.  I found some with no hookups, just bathrooms but no showers. I was wondering if the campgrounds there have central water sources to hook up to even if we would have to carry it back to our camp site.  
 
 Thanks to everyone for your tips and how to s. I ll have to check on our battery to see if it works, we ve never used it.

[degroot]

 tlhdoc

 

ORIGINAL:  tlhdoc
 
 What size battery do you have?  It sounds like it is not holding a proper charge.  I have had a group 31 last 12 to 13 days with out recharging.  We used our shower (water pump) 24 times and used lights and fans.  We did conserve where we could, but the battery was still usable when we came home.
 

 Whatever came stock with my Coleman Niagara. We dry camped for a week, and after two days my voltage was under 10VDC as measured with a digital volt meter at the 12V connection. The generator I had was very small, but after running it for about an hour or so, I would get my battery back up to around 13VDC. I would still need to recharge daily to keep it from getting to the danger zone of draining. We camped with 2 adults and 4 kids - 17,15,12,9. We did try to conserve power, but we dry camped in Missouri in June and HAD to run two 12V fans all night long to get any sleep as it was hot and muggy.