Boondocking comfort level

[HVSkeptic]

Scenario: You've been boondocking in a new (to you) remote location for a week, and love it so much you want to stay for another week, but food and/or water are getting low.

Do you and your DW lock up the RV, pack up the dog, and head into town together to get some supplies? Does just one of you go and one stay behind to keep an eye on things? How much do you pack away before you leave? Do people steal stuff while you're gone?

Just wondering how you manage if you're short on supplies but love your trailer's location.

Thanks for any and all replies.

[Solo_RV_Guy]

Originally Posted by HVSkeptic

Scenario: You've been boondocking in a new (to you) remote location for a week, and love it so much you want to stay for another week, but food and/or water are getting low.

Do you and your DW lock up the RV, pack up the dog, and head into town together to get some supplies? Does just one of you go and one stay behind to keep an eye on things? How much do you pack away before you leave? Do people steal stuff while you're gone?

Just wondering how you manage if you're short on supplies but love your trailer's location.

Thanks for any and all replies.

It seems you have a specific threshold level for comfort and security and are experiencing 'paralysis by analysis.'

What's a *real* threat assessment look like? RVers in general tend to be reasonable and honest folks, often it's the locals that seem more sketchy.

If you pack up tight, it says "we're going away for an extended time" but if you have the patio mat, chairs and fire pit tools sitting out it says "we're coming back". You have to decide what message you want to send, and in what manner. Personally I just lock the doors. So far I've not had anything stolen by humans (raccoons are another story).

Splitting up has its downsides and upsides, but only you can decide which is better, based on a current threat assessment. Speculating in advance on a forum is probably not helpful in specific ways that can only be determined in situ.

If you're seriously concerned about the personal safety of yourself or family, or your rig, you need to find a safer location. That why our rigs have wheels...

[profdan]

We boondock a lot -- 30 nights a year -- and have had zero theft issues. Each weekend, we have to take the trailer to a dump station. If we want to keep the site and come back to it, we leave camp chairs in the site with a big "site occupied" sign. That has always worked for us. We are gone several hours and then re-position the trailer in the site.

But there are folks who take this to a rude extreme -- they pitch a small tent, for example, and seemingly "occupy" the site for days (during the week) so that they can really occupy it on the weekends.

Really, those of us who are active boondockers should stop advertising how great it is and instead make it seem like a risky and difficult struggle.

But it's not.

[John Hilley]

In most cases we've had boondocking neighbors. Even if we haven't met they will keep an eye on your site while you are gone. We usually establish some kind of relationship with neighbors and learn of any problems in the area. We've never had a problem and usually leave the dog in the RV while we go for supplies or looking around.

[Chuck Q]

18 years full timing, much of it boondocking, have only one issue with a camp chair missing. And I think that it disappeared while we were there.

[Old-Biscuit]

We lock trailer door....put dog in 'her' backseat...hop in truck and go



Chairs, table, BBQ etc still sitting outside.


Not going to worry about 'what ifs'


If it was 'sketchy' we wouldn't be boondocking there in first place.

[twogypsies]

We're serious boondockers on public lands - approx. 90% of our 16 years of full-timing in every state, including Alaska.

We've never had anything stolen. We don't stay in camp. We take the car and go siteseeing & many times gone for the day. We typically leave out the patio mat; fold the chairs & lay them on the mat so they don't blow away; and leave our BBQ grill.

We wouldn't leave a bike or generator out.

Go enjoy yourself!

[memilanuk]

What about if you need to move the RV to go dump, get fresh water, etc.? Do a couple camp chairs and/or a sign saying 'Back soon!' hold your site in most areas, or are you likely to come back to find your spot taken?

Most of our experience with 'dry camping' / boondocking has been in USFS / state park land, where there are somewhat dedicated camp sites - and they tend to fill up in a hurry. We've typically only done one or two nights, so the tanks haven't been an issue (yet) for us.

[profdan]

We have never had a site taken away from us, as long as we leave some evidence of occupation. This is in about 500 nights of boondocking over the last 15 years -- a pretty good sample size.

Once, though, we did have some folks pitch tents within a hundred yards of us. This was in Colorado -- there was some kind of a festival in Crested Butte that attracted young folks from miles around, and they ran out of space. It was only for one night, but it was unusual to look out the window of the trailer and see someone's tent.

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by memilanuk

What about if you need to move the RV to go dump, get fresh water, etc.? Do a couple camp chairs and/or a sign saying 'Back soon!' hold your site in most areas, or are you likely to come back to find your spot taken?

Most of our experience with 'dry camping' / boondocking has been in USFS / state park land, where there are somewhat dedicated camp sites - and they tend to fill up in a hurry. We've typically only done one or two nights, so the tanks haven't been an issue (yet) for us.

It sounds like you're 'dry camping' in campgrounds if they have dedicated sites. That's different from boondocking.

In that case, talk to the park host. Sometimes they can give you an 'occupied' sign for the post or an orange cone to set in the driveway. If not, and you have paid for the site, no one can move in on your site. Well.... they can but they would be kicked off by the management.

If you're just moving to the dump station in the park leave your campsite set up. People will know it's occupied and you're not going to be gone long. If you have a neighbor sitting outside let him know what you're doing and he could let folks know that you're coming right back. Or let the host know.

People do it all the time and RVers know, for the most part, not to try to move in if it's occupied.

[snxwmxn]

Our experience is much the same as others. We boondock 90% of the time and sometimes gone all day hiking, biking, etc. We lock the trailer and stow anything we think might get wet or blow away. Lock up bikes. Nothing has ever gone missing. My wife and I are most always together when we leave. Have fun!

[HVSkeptic]

Originally Posted by Solo_RV_Guy

It seems you have a specific threshold level for comfort and security and are experiencing 'paralysis by analysis.'

<snip>

If you're seriously concerned about the personal safety of yourself or family, or your rig, you need to find a safer location. That why our rigs have wheels...

Thanks Solo_RV_Guy. I did indicate that the boondocking site I might be in would have been 'new to me' so I wouldn't have established any form of comfort level about the area (site or town).

The safety of my wife (and just as important 'how safe she feels') are where my concerns are coming from. We're planning on full-timing this year and would like to do a lot of boondocking...initially every area will be new to us. So yes, I am doing some research on how boondockers manage things.

Cheers!

[profdan]

HV, all kidding aside, you are right to be concerned about boondocking in an unsafe place. As they say, "you don't know what you don't know."

That is why we choose to boondock in remote areas of the national forests, not near towns and cities. There are criminals in the world, but they tend to congregate near population centers, because that's where the money is. They don't waste their time prowling around the wilderness.

Having said that, we all know that anything can happen anytime, no matter where you are. So, for example, those folks in Texas who were boondocking on the beach were the victims of a couple of crazed criminals. A very unusual story -- that's why it got so much press coverage. (That's why you don't see too many stories about "yet another car was burglarized in Los Angeles yesterday" -- same old same old.)

And I know that the plural of anecdote is not evidence. But really, so few of us avid boondockers have run into any trouble at all. There is a pattern here, and it should be somewhat reassuring to newbie boondockers.

[Dan McMartin]

Depends on where we are but for the most part, we lock up and leave. Chairs, grill, fairy lights, etc. all left out.

Then again, if we're in an area with a lot of people, near a highway or in a populated area, that's not boondocking to us.