Future of Boondocking?

[Cumminsfan]

The future is uncertain and the end is always near.

[cfred]

Originally Posted by CBDunkerson

I'm looking forward to retiring some time in the next seven years and wondering what the 'state of the art' in boondocking might look like by then. Are the advances below feasible?

Electric RVs: Will we see something like the Tesla semi battery (~1000 kWh) in RVs? As that is designed to allow a fully loaded 80,000 lb truck to travel ~500 miles could an RV weighing less than half as much go 1,000? Could a battery like that also be used to run any/all internal appliances for months at a time?

Solar RVs: Toyota is currently testing 34% efficient thin film solar cells on their Prius. Will we see something like that for RVs? Could thin film solar like this be built in to pull-out awnings to increase surface area (and/or angle towards the Sun)? Could a boondocking RV with solar like this stopping for a couple weeks at a time charge enough that it never needs to be plugged in?

Water filters: There are already things like 'water makers' for filtering lake and stream water to drinkable levels. Will those become standard on boondock RVs? What about a system to similarly filter rainwater falling on the RV roof / awnings directly into the clean water tank? Could this prevent the need to hook up to fill water tanks?

Toilets: Will dry flush toilets like Laveo or Loowatt become common? Will larger electric batteries lead to use of incinerating toilets? In short, can we look forward to elimination of black water tanks?

Grey water evaporation: Will something like an evaporation table ever be built onto RVs so that you can slowly evaporate the contents of the grey water tank using sunlight (or electric heat)? Any other way that water dumping could be eliminated?

Would options like the above allow an RV to operate independently except for food coming in and garbage going out? Any way to make the RV self-sufficient on those issues as well?

Autonomous driving: There is a lot of debate about how far away this is. What about just highway autonomy? No stop signs, cross streets, pedestrians, etc... so should be much easier to automate. Could manual driving be reduced to relatively short distances on local streets while the RV could handle the longer trips on highways? Will you be able to go to sleep in Idaho and wake up with the RV having driven itself to New Mexico?

Other thoughts on coming changes?

We went from living on a small 32' sailboat that was essentially self sufficient with solar panels, wind gen & water maker to land bound dry camping on/off a motorcycle to class "A" to "B" RV's and were in awe of the positive shift in lifestyle. With you plethora of questions you're likely best off querying quality RV manfacutrers as they're the best judge of markets' future. Good luck & enjoy.

[danking49]

Quite honestly, the current RV industry doesn't have the basic culture required to build even mediocre products, let alone incorporate new technologies. It will take a new company, perhaps as part of the automotive or marine industry to come up with such a product.

[Diesel-Lover]

Protecting industry from competition gives rise to pure profit taking bigly heck hugely. Look at European and Australian RV markets for nice innovative things like composting toilets, fuel cells yes no clunking generator just a woosh and some steam and warm air yes no fumes either.


Water conservation is very feasible just needs a change in attitude, there is a personal gyzer thingie on its way which in essence heats about a gallon of water to luke warm and pumps through a sponge/wash cloth enclosed sponge. So yes head to toe in 1 gallon! Wow. They tested their product on people who had run the obstacle courses with mud etc. Since we Rv we could use two gallons! But wanting tile or marble floors and tombstone counter tops in a rig well how can we do that efficiently perhaps we can check out the slabs at each campground least we check out when that counter top come flying forward eh.


Sailboats wow what efficient design should be, I tried to get my wife to agree that we could trailer it and use it as our RV but the answer was what are you crazy. We did right size to a Class B though it still has that clunky generator and the usual black and gray tanks etc etc. Alas progress is slow when competition is lax and worse yet the the faithful are accepting of all sins and idiocy even tantrum driven vindictive policy and product design conditions

[Roadyacht1]

Some of this exists now. For 20 yrs we lived on sailboats and were nearly self, sufficient. When in rainy areas we caught most of our water. This was in the tropics. We let the rain beat down a few minuets then opened the deck water fill caps and in one good tropical downpour of 10-20 min we caught enough water to fill our 200 gal tanks. And enough to wash and rinse all our cloths ( by hand). When in desert areas like the Sea Of Cortez we used the water maker. We handled garbage by disposing of everything but plastic, styrofoam and oils in the open sea. (Done to Coast Guard specs). All else was brought to a remote beach at low tide. Dug a hole, lit on fire then what little ash remained was washed away by the tide. Had solar and wind generator. Fridge and freezer were very hi-efficiency (4-6” of insulation, condenser seawater cooled) Took on 140 gal of diesel every 6-8 months. ( mostly for main engine) Got a lot of our protein from the sea. We were about as self sufficient as you could be in modern times. Of course grey and black were taken care of by Mother Nature. At times we were 6 months without civilization. We are now full timing in Dutch Star. Yes, not nearly as self sufficient nor adventurous, but still quite enjoyable. Don’t know why we couldn’t catch water on roof and awning, except that RVing is a much dirtier environment than sailing. Would have to sanitize/filter. And yes our hi-efficiency 12V watermaker would work fine in lakes,streams,rivers, too.

[Jaxon]

Originally Posted by Pyropete

Better Batteries hold more, and easier to charge, and last longer, and internet everywhere (using phone as your hub/router), Better solar panels. They are actually getting better every year. The ones I bought 5 years ago are not even close to being as efficient as the ones out today. I guess thank the [Mod Edit] throwing money at solar energy for that, even though they are useless for everything else.

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Perhaps you should pay attention more?

[pinscio]

You could do much of that now, with an EarthCruiser. But first you have to afford one.

[Charles Tole]

9. - ?s

[jimot]

Last years RV shows showcased some interesting possibilities. Ther is already an incinerating Black tank and a shower that filters and recirculates the same water-as long as you are in it. Wind power is getting smaller and more accessible Water power is getting portable and more accessible. Some new possibilities to think on. (I'm waiting for the shower!)

[Dave the mnw]

100 days, but most experts assume 6 hours of useful charging per day, so more like 167 days. There are other factors that mess that up too. The correct units are kilowatt - hours by the way.
I have 2160 theoretical watts of semi flexible solar panels. I wouldn't even try serious boondocking with that. I have mine configured to charge my plug in Prius up to twice a day though, assuming the sun is shining. I can almost run my residential refrigerator without totally discharging the house batteries, again assuming the sun is shining.

[radar]

Originally Posted by Dave the mnw

100 days, but most experts assume 6 hours of useful charging per day, so more like 167 days. There are other factors that mess that up too. The correct units are kilowatt - hours by the way.
I have 2160 theoretical watts of semi flexible solar panels. I wouldn't even try serious boondocking with that. I have mine configured to charge my plug in Prius up to twice a day though, assuming the sun is shining. I can almost run my residential refrigerator without totally discharging the house batteries, again assuming the sun is shining.

Dave is your Prius a plug in Prius? I would be interested in hearing more on your setup. What EVSE you are using etc. Both our vehicles are straight electric so always interested in this kinda thing.

Cheers.

[MBrant]

Interior Secretary David Bernhard has determined to move the headquarters of Department of the Interior to Grand Junction, Colorado and gives current Washington DC employees 30 days to make the move. There is no building to move into.

Acting Director William Perry Pendley has argued that the federal government should not own most public lands.

The Department of the Interior is in charge of BLM and National Parks.

Boondocking could be in serious trouble.

[LargeMarge]

Here are my predictions for The Future Of Boondocking.
Based on current trends, these are as realistic as I can make them:

a)
Petroleum-based fuels are unavailable.
If some fuels are available, they are rationed.
These include petroleum-based products such as lubricants and tires.

b)
As more businesses shut and jobs become scarcer, bankers foreclose on massive numbers of homes.
Every used RecreationVehicle is occupied by full-time live-aboards... some legit, some taken and held by force.


c)
Every RecreationVehicle is used until it disintegrates, then it is abandoned.
The owner of the property is stuck with the clean-up.
On a foreclosed property, squatters accumulate junk until they cannot stand the mess, then move to another squat.

d)
In fUSA, the southern border is non-existent.
Millions of border-crossers are encouraged by the millions proceeding them.

e)
Travel is risky.
Stopping is riskier.

f)
Common-sense gun laws prevent honest folk from acquiring and practicing with self-defense weapons in defense of their property and loved ones.
Common-sense laws are ignored by everybody else.

g)
Telephone calls for assistance to Law Enforcement Officials are prioritized based on ReturnOnInvestment.
For example, a tramp-camp of dope-fiends and illegals is a very low priority; they have nothing to seize for auction.

h)
Every city is Detroit times Baltimore times Frisco. Or anyplace in California.
Every hospital is a war-zone.

i)
The 99% sees you as the 1%.
In other words, every place is BEL aka BehindEnemyLines.

j)
Traffic is routed through bottle-necks.
Searches of your vehicle always always always turn-up contraband.

K)
WOMEN RETURN TO CHATTEL STATUS.
Frequent swaps between owners blur lineage of off-spring.

This is the future of boondocking.

[followingsea]

If it is not broken do not fix it.

For new ideas to be accepted, it has to be better.

I have a 20 year old MH, 25 year old TOAD, and a 40 year old sailboat. Paid cash when they were just well used. Still gets the job.

Here is my list of new things I am using right now while boondocking to get my power usage down to 1.2 kw per day and an hour of generator run time.

$100 LED TV that uses 30 watts/hr. Bigger TV than in the house.
Replaced a few old 12 v lights with LED. $20.

Did just get a $20 Adirondack chair https://www.acehardware.com/departme...chairs/8279051

I spouse if you are sitting outside enjoying the mountains, water and campfire with the inverter off you are not using power.