1st Trip Boondocking
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- 1st Trip Boondocking
The inverter is an AIMS Power Pure Sine 2000W/4000W
The Two Tired Teachers Sharon and MiLena talk about their first time boondocking or dry camping. They are sharing this so that those who also have no experience will have some encouragement; if we can do it, anyone can.
Day one of boondocking didn't go quite as planned. We had set out the portable solar panels, but there was a glitch. The microwave caused the solar to quit working. We were okay because we still had the generator.
The microwave managed to blew a fuse in the solar. The man who installed the solar did offer to make the 6 hour drive to us to check it out, but we knew we were okay with the generator.
On the second day of boondocking, we saw that we had no propane. We added ice to the refrigerator since it was night, and we had an icebox. When Sharon went to take the tanks off, she found that the connection was loose with the tank the was more or less full.
We spent a day of the time we had at Palmetto State Park looking for the fuse for the solar.
When we first entered the Padre Island National Seashore, there was fresh, potable water. The dump station is also there. We dumped the tanks and filled the fresh water.
Our first morning on the beach, we learned that we weren't comfortable using the camp stove because of the wind. With the generator we were fine.
The view of the beach was wonderful! Because of the waves, no one could possibly hear our generator.
Although the dry camping didn't go at all as we had planned, the trip was a huge success in our books. With the generator we were fine.
Our last stop was at a favorite park Fairfield State Park. It's a gorgeous state park.
Dry camping was successful for us. We plan another trip during which we will be doing nearly 2 weeks straight of dry camping. We are both comfortable with that and are excited about the next trip.
A final word about the solar is the man who installed the solar came to check it, and the microwave was still causing problems. Apparently the problem was with a very inexpensive microwave that came with the trailer. We replaced the microwave and the solar had no problem with it.
Thank you for sharing your trips. My husband and I have learned so much
It is our pleasure.
We have the same Micro Mini that you have and there are two IMPORTANT things you need to know. One is that the tool to remove the lug nuts on the wheels will NOT fit the spare tire lug nut. and, two is to check your wheel bearing grease to make sure your bearings for each wheel are fully lubricated. Mine were almost dry upon delivery. If you have a socket set make sure you have a socket that fits the spare and you are good to go. BTW: we love ours to. Had 40' diesel pusher first and now have a fifth wheel that stays in CO all year permanently at an RV park but use our 2106 FBS for fun.
From a fellow Texan in Cypress, TX
Great information. Thank you very much for sharing.
awesome. loved it.
Even with the problems, it opened the possibility of going longer periods of time without hookups.
This was so interesting! It was great following along with the problem and wonderful to see y'all let it just be a small blip on the screen of a wonderful trip.
We've gotten much better with dispersed camping. The Padre trip let us know we really could do without hookups.
congrads on a very successful adventure!! its great to be able to stay closer to nature and away from mankind. I keep a baggie of O-rings ,fuses, bulbs and other supplies that could put a dampner on my fun. you have a safe healthy and joyful journey ahead. Grace be with you!
It worked out just like it was supposed to. If all had gone as we had planned, we wouldn't have been certain we could have made it with very limited solar and the generator. As it was, we were able to go on the next trip and camp two weeks straight without hookups.
Wonderful video and the experience you had was extremely valuable to us. I mentioned on a previous post my wife and I bought a micro mini (2108DS) at the beginning of this year and took our first trip in April to a Georgia State park for a shakedown. I made every rookie mistake (including forgetting to close the grey water valve before getting on the road. Got a great surprise when I got to the dump station and removed the drain cap) in the book but we had such a great time. We are now both retired and anticipating many great adventures. Thanks for your videos!
I remember your post about the Micro Minnie. If you are in Georgia, we camped at McKinney Campground at Allatoona Lake, an Army Corps of Engineers park. It was one of the prettiest campgrounds we've stayed at, and we've stayed at quite a few.
If you hadn't made mistakes on the first trip, we wouldn't believe you had really been out in the RV. We still make mistakes on almost every trip, but we have a bunch of fun doing it. Keep us posted on your adventures.
its fun watching you learn
Congratulations ladies. You guys are doing just great.
Thank you so very much.
You two are so cool! I love your videos. Keep them coming. Coral, Lubbock, Texas
As long as we're having fun with the videos, we plan to keep them coming.😎
Thank you for sharing the ups and downs of your first boondocking experience!! We're looking forward to starting ourselves!
Our second trip was much more successful. We were around 2 full weeks without hookups.
Great episode girls. We really enjoyed watching your journey!
Thanks so much. We really appreciate your comment.
Hi Sisters. Enjoyed. Glad you had a great time! I am about to take a trip in my 24 ft motorhome Quachita State Park for a maiden voyage. Thanks for sharing your trip. Take care and safe travels.
The Ouachita National Forest is absolutely gorgeous. We hope your first trip in the motorhome is highly successful. Please let us know how it goes.
What a spot to camp! What a great place to start boondocking! Cannot beat on the beach on Padre Island. Your videos are always so helpful and optimistic. Last year in high winds in Kansas we lost our professionally installed solar panel!
Safe travels and wonderful adventures ladies. Cannot wait to see your travels on the Natchez Trace.
Thanks so much for your kind words. Our Natchez Trace trip videos won't begin until June 20.
Hi ladies great video as always ! I am so excited for you,what a great job you're doing a the boondocking.I just love traveling through your videos!!I'm not sure if you already do this but making meals before you leave and have all prep done can really help and ease the boondocking process.Good luck looking forward to more videos !
Thanks for the tip. We usually try to have a few meals prepared ahead of time. They are great for those days when we have driven quite a distance.
Way to go! Your flexibility will see you through anything
If we weren't at least somewhat flexible, maybe we shouldn't be RVing. 😉
Glad you both had a successful, fun dry camping/boondocking trip. The beach spot looked great! Hope you have many more adventures dry camping/boondocking. 👍
Thank you so much. We had a great trip.
Wow! I'm impressed with your preparedness of having the generator as backup! I'm an electrician, so I thought you might blow the new fuse if you did install it. My husband and I just bought an 18 footer Aliner pop-up trailer and are learning how to camp as almost-retirees. We thought we'd start small, and maybe stay small, so we can got to National Parks, like you mentioned. Indiana just got a new one, by the way. Our first one! I would like to hear the price of the new fuse. Great info on getting things shipped to the next Ace hardware store. Thanks so much for sharing your adventure!
The fuse was relatively cheap. Actually we got three for $9.99. Congratulations on the first national park! By the way, retirement is the best job we've ever had
@@TwoTiredTeachers Thanks!
We have done it a few times. Different, but always enjoyable.
We felt very comfortable with it. It was extremely enjoyable.
Really enjoyed the video ,great job
Thank so much.
How do you find fresh water for your camper and where you can dump your tanks
We usually know roughly where we'll be. We look online to see if dump stations and/or fresh water are listed.
I wished I was as brave as both of you are. Enjoy your journey
It took us four or five years to get here.
That would be heaven to camp on the beach!
Sounds like you have a great dry camping setup, a very successful trip overall. If you have the AIMS model PWRI200012120S Inverter that may explain why your microwave tripped the breaker or fuse. 15 amps x 120 volts = 1800 watts is over 80% duty cycle of the 15amp circuit by 3amps. This is the difference between switching and linear power supplies. If you compared your inverter with AIMS model PICOGLF20W12V120VR you can see the difference in the specs and the physical weight between the two units, switching is lighter with lower duty cycle. The PICOGLF20W12V120VR model also includes a shore power transfer switch, breaker circuit protection for line in and battery, AC hardwire capability as well as a 15amp GFCI outlet and a 70amp battery charger. It's a little more than double the cost of the PWRI200012120S model. I have been using the PICOGLF20W12V120VR model in a cargo trailer conversion for about two years running a 12,000 BTU portable air conditioner without any issues on 2/0 AWG fine stranded copper battery cables between the inverter and 4x 6VDC GC2 battery bank.
I'll have Sharon read this to see if her understanding is better than mine. I know our that both our solar and our generator will run our AC. Sharon will get back to you in a day or two. Even though it's far more advanced than I am, thanks for your comment.
Hey, this is Sharon. What we have learned is that it was the Hot Point? microwave that comes standard in many RVs. Switched with a Hailton Beach & it works GREAT. Here is a link to the specific inverter we have:
theinverterstore.com/product/2000-watt-pure-sine-power-inverter/
You ladies encourage me to move more towards boondocking. I was really impressed with your generator. You described what it was like on Padre Island but seeing the pictures is priceless. I cannot imagine what it was like to stay there and hear the waves all the time. Safe travels.
Remember that it took us 4 and a half years or so to get to the dry camping stage. The beach was wonderful. We'll have a video up sometime in early June, I think, that will show much more of the beach.
Woo Hoo! Even with the challenges that you faced I enjoyed your enthusiasm that 'We got this'
How can you not be enthusiastic when you open your door literally on the beach? Thanks so much for your comment.
It would be great to show us how your generator is hooked up… might be common sense to most… but I am intrigued that they don’t offer generators for travel trailers (probably for weight) but all Class C’s have GREAT STUFF!
I think you later said we showed how the generator is hooked up.
Great job 👍 You are right boondocking really does open up so many possibilities.
An upcoming video ( late June) will show our two weeks straight without hookups. We camped on the Natchez Trace Parkway and at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was one of the best trips ever.
Two Tired Teachers Awesome, smokey mountains is on our family wish list, but it is a long drive from DFW.
Great job! Really enjoy your videos.
Thank you so very much.
I found had to use generator with microwave or air conditioner. Also. You cannot have two high needed units on at same time. Another words air conditioner and microwave.
We discovered that after several problems. Thanks for letting us know, though.
Great video. Good job.
Thank you.
Great times! Always watch for storm high tides and full moon tides! Many people get stuck on that beach. Peachy B 👍👍🍑🍑❤️❤️.
Great video, you 2 gals sound like professional boondockers already, way to roll with the punches
Sometime, we're going to have a video about stuff happens. If we don't roll with the punches, we need to hand over the trailer to someone else. Stuff happens on almost every trip. We learn stuff and move on. Thanks for your comment.
Would you mind sharing with us for how much water, dumping the black and gray tanks and electric cost for a Micro Minnie at most campgrounds. I've looked everywhere and I can't find out how much on average this cost. I'm trying to convince my husband for us to get a Micro Minnie and I know that this is part of owning a camper and my husband wants this information. Thank you.
At our Texas State Parks, the average cost for water and electric is $25. We have a park pass, so the second night at a park is half off. Also, the park pass waives the entrance fees to the park. When you are camping at a park, you can use the dump station anytime and as many times as you want. My best advice is to see how much state parks run in your area. Those can vary greatly.
I love your videos especially the devotional ones and thanks to Marlena’s video on Christian authors I have enjoyed exploring books by new authors she mentioned. We had our first boondock experience last December however ours was not good at all. So bad that my 12-year old son said “never again Mom!” My generator muffler came disconnected the second morning of our trip on I10 near Hammond, Louisiana so we couldn’t use our generator the rest of the trip. You’re going to love the Natchez Trace! If you get on the Trace in Natchez, Mississippi at the visitors center there’s free RV spots with hookups and if they’re all taken you can still overnight for free there. Also Mississippi has free RV dump stations at some of their comfort stations (rest stops) not all but some do. Y’all have fun!
Someime this summer, I'm planning on doing another inspiration on Christian authors. I'm so glad you enjoyed the last one.
Our first boondocking trip wasn't exactly what we had planned, but we knew we wanted to go to Padre Island and then later on the Natchez trace, so we were determined not to give up. We stayed at the Natchez visitors center, and that's the last electricity we had for about 2 weeks.
We mostly have dry camped for 7 years in a 21 ft. The longest was for 1 week in one spot. We don’t have solar but use a generator at times. We are getting a 26 ft travel trailer to live in for a year staring this fall. Hubby will be installing solar.
On our latest adventure we went two straight weeks without hookups. We didn't really miss anything.
Good luck with the 26'. Please let up know how it's going. Sharon and I have no desire to go full time, but we love hearing about others' adventures.
So glade one cliche didn’t ruin the trip 👍❤️
If we let one problem ruin our trip, I think we would have quit RVing after our first trip in the fifth wheel.
When we really want to do something we can make it happen. “A great attitude becomes a great day which becomes a great month which becomes a great year which becomes a great life. - Mandy Hale
Livin the DREAM, ladies 👏
Absolutely love the quote. We both try for an attitude of gratitude, but yours says it so much more beautifully.
The smokies are great.
We loved being there. We stayed in Cades Cove, drove the loop every evening, and were rewarded with seeing bear every night.
Glad you had fun.
Fyi south padre island is not at the national seashore.
You are a out 90 miles from there at padre island seashore.
Love them both and dry camping.
There is not a ferry or bridge to get to south padre there.
You have to go to Port Isabel to get to the causeway.
There is Cameron county parks there to camp and also koa.
@@deborahmullis2221 Thanks so much for clearing up our misunderstanding. There is a south beach at the National Seashore, but it isn't South Padre Island.
Great video. Did you use the water in your fresh water tank for all your water needs, such as drinking, dishes etc? Is there any residue in the bottom of your fresh water tank when it is low? I’m concerned with the cleanliness of a water tank. Our RV is a 2002 which we bought used and as far as I know the tank has never been cleaned. Thanks for sharing your boondocking experience.
Jean, we did use the water from the fresh water tank. There was no residue, but we sanitized it before we left. If you aren't comfortable drinking from the fresh water tank, can you carry gallon bottles of water? We did that for years with the fifth wheel. It was used and we had enough to learn without trying to sanitize the tank.
I’m starting out in June. At first I’ll be depending on generator only but may add solar later. My RV guy actually suggested I do that. He seemed to think solar isn’t necessary. Thoughts?
Know that we are newbies when it comes to dry camping. Having said that, we like both. One reason is because in most state parks where we've stayed, you can't run the generator at night. Another reason is because the solar is silent. It's sometimes really nice not to be able to hear anything but nature. Finally, as sisters traveling together, we would rather have more than enough power. I imagine the generator would carry us through okay, but with the solar too, we are confident we have more than enough power.
where you girls from?
At the time we made this video, we were living in the Fort Worth area. Currently we are in Central Texas.
What's the adapter between your gen and shore power plug? I'm thinking 120 at the gen and is that a 30 amp shore power? Sorry to bother. I'm just learning and trying to understand what I might need. You are so helpful to those of us about to attempt the same thing. Thanks. By the way, you two just looked pleased as punch at what you accomplished. (My eyes glaze over when someone quotes ohm's law to me.)
The adapter is a 30 amp to 110. Hope this helps. I'm the one who knows nothing about solar, MiLena. I'm learning with you.
The typical household current in the USA is between 110 - 120 volts (that's the 120 number you mentioned). The shore power is 110 - 120 volts and the generator output is 110 - 120 volts. The 30 amp number is how much of that 110 - 120 volts is allowed to be consumed at the same time.
Your question is really about what shape the connectors are on each side of an adapter and that will vary with the trailer/generator combination being used. Different amp ratings have different shaped plugs to handle the current without melting and to keep you from accidental making a wrong connection. Your 30 amp or 50 amp plug from your trailer can be adapted down to a 15 amp shaped plug but now you will only be able to draw 15 amps before melting the wiring behind the plug even though your trailer wiring can handle 30 or 50 amps.
So again, it is always 110 to 120 volts, you are adapting 30 amps to 20 amps and not 30 amps to 110 volts (mathematically that doesn't make sense; kind-of like converting 30 miles per hour to 110 pounds of payload capacity doesn't make sense???)
For their Westinghouse iGen2200 (20 amp receptacles [NEMA 5-20]) and Winnebago Micro Minnie 2106FBS (30 amp RV plug [NEMA TT-30]), something like these from Amazon would work nicely:
www.amazon.com/dp/B01LVVD2IM/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_i3E3CbM615BE2
www.amazon.com/dp/B003I2RZRS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_j7E3CbB807P8J
Thank you for your response. Everything having to do with power is far over my head. Thanks again.
@@TwoTiredTeachers But you have a lot of common sense, and the first thing to do is not get hurt! Great job!
Hi
Did you run the AC?
No, but we were there in March and didn't need the AC.
Betting, Pure sine vs modified sine issues.
I'm not sure. All I know is that when we switched microwaves, the problem was solved.
shit happens when you rv ..just keep going
We agree totally. We have a video called, "Stuff Happens."
Teaching us to be Hidin' from Biden
LOL 🤣
I should mention that we are going to try boondocking again soon (I’m not telling Charlie until we get there ).
Good for you.
I also live in the Dallas area. Could you recommend a good RV solar guy/gal?
I'm sorry, but we we blessed to have a friend do ours. One of the things we looked at was a Kodiak. It is basically a plug and play.