Where to get water when RV boondocking
With better and better power and energy solutions for RVs the bigger challenge now is becoming where to get water when you’re boondocking with your RV. Nowadays RV solar has become so good and so affordable that the issue of where to get power is all but solved. But it’s a bigger problem to run out of water and we have that solution here.
A beautiful boondocking spot we found through Harvest Hosts.
What is boondocking
Boondocking is essentially camping in places where there are no services, or where services may be limited. For example, when we camped in the Prescott National Forest there were no services at the individual sites although the park did have a central water source. But you had to go to that source somehow.
There are also a lot of people who associate boondocking with staying overnight at a WalMart or Cracker Barrel. In those cases if it’s simply a single night, your holding tanks in your RV should be just fine. There are also things that are threatening RVer’s ability to boondock at WalMart and Cracker Barrel.
Particularly in the West Coast there are plenty of public lands where you can boondock very, very inexpensively and even places where you can boondock for free for extended periods of time. Staying more than a few days is where it gets tricky and these tips to help manage your holding tanks are what this story is all about.
Where to get water
There are a number of places where you can get water to replenish your tanks. We’ve often gone to grocery stores where there are water vending machines that filter the city water and dispense it by the gallon. This is usually the cheapest way to get really great water.
Many national parks and other public lands also have central water fills and those are included in any camp fees you pay. If you’re concerned about the quality of that water, you can do as we did and get a Clear20 water filter system. This is how we filter the water that comes into our RVs.
Further, you can just use a faucet in a restroom or kitchen or anywhere else to just get water. Since we’re using smaller bags to do so, it’s pretty easy. If you don’t already have one of these, it’s worth it to get a water thief which is simply a device that attaches to a water faucet and lets you then attach a hose to the other end.
Transporting water
One of the RV gadgets we really like for transporting water are the Wolverine Tough Bottles. These come in a variety of sizes and are really a bag that expands to hold water for transport. They are really well made without sharp edges and, when you’re done with them, they fold up neatly so they don’t take a lot of space. We use these quite a bit.
Filtering your water
Since we got one of these we have become big fans of the Clear20 water filter system for RVs. In our own taste test we found that this system provides very clean water even when the source isn’t the best. These are simple to transport and use and replacement cartridges are easy to get.
Further, the solid charcoal filter in the main unit provides much better filtration than the typical granulated filter in those blue inline water filters that so many RVers are using.
Portable water filtration
We also had the opportunity to test the BKLES battery-powered portable water filtration system. This is great for hiking or camping and can even be a source of clean drinking water while you’re boondocking.
How to transport water
My favorite method to transport water is with collapsable water storage bags. These are perfect for RVers because, when they’re empty, they fold up to be very small. The size of these bags is ideal for transporting when full as water weighs just over eight pounds to the gallon so bags of this size are a real cinch to carry around when full.
When we were at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta there was a single central tap for the entire camping area so we would simply go get water a couple gallons at a time and refill our fresh water tank. We would take the water from the spigot just directly out of the spigot but then, when we were pumping it into the tank, we would run it through our Clear20 water filter.
This was a really easy and effective way to replenish the water in the tanks.
These bags are sold in several sizes but the ones we happened to purchase were the 2.6 gallon bags. It’s easy enough to carry around a couple of gallons of water and it seems like a pretty reasonable way to refill the water you consume in a day.
Alternatively those water vending machines can accommodate up to five gallon bottles and this is certainly an option as well.
Bonus hint
The portable collapsible water bags can also be filled in advance and frozen. This might be a great way to keep a cooler of food cold or even help you to pre-chill the refrigerator in your RV!
Filling your RV
The challenge to overcome is getting the water from whatever container you’ve chosen into your RV. But that’s easy too as we got a water pump powered by an electric drill that makes this process clean and easy.
We alway have our Ryobi electric drill with us when we go RVing as we use that to raise and lower the stabilizer jacks on our travel trailers. Since the drill is already there with us, we can use this to power the water pump.
I bought this water pump on Amazon and mounted it to a block of wood. Honestly, I found that if I tried to simply use it on its own without some sort of mount the torque required to operate it made in unwieldy.
I simply use a shortie hose and dip it into the water bag and then use the same Airstream Store water hose we normally use to fill our tanks on the other end. Between the hose and the pump I place our Clear20 water filter, unless I got the water from one of those vending machines, and turn on the drill.
Honestly I was surprised with how quickly I could empty one of those two gallon water bags. The pump is rated at 750 gallons per hour which means a two gallon bag of water can be pumped in well under a minute. It’s actually pretty fun to do as well.
The bags seem to stand up relatively well so they’re not tipping over and spilling their contents so the process doesn’t result in a lot of swearing and water spilled all over the place.
Our Jackery 1500 solar generator providing power while we camp off the grid
Solar
Since I mentioned that getting the power into the RV isn’t a problem any longer I thought I’d share these resources with you that might be of assistance.
We have a podcast episode with GoPower! about RV solar systems.
We also have a review of the Jackery 1500 solar generator for RVers.
We have a podcast about RV solar systems with Brian Hills from Solar Advantage in Arizona.
One of our more popular articles is about using a solar suitcase to power your RV.
More about boondocking
We also wrote a story about the things that are threatening boondocking at WalMart and Cracker Barrel.
One of our earliest podcast episodes about RV boondocking tips and legends.
In summary
This is a great way to get water into your RV. For us we found that our smallish gray water tank fills in about three days so that’s where the Thetford Titan Tote that we got comes in handy.
As for the black tank we’ve found that even with just 30 gallons of capacity that it takes two people over a week to fill this tank. Obviously the number of trips you make to the local Taco Bell will affect your results but this has worked for us. In fact, we tested the tank’s capacity when we were at an RV park and were able to go nine days before we became concerned about how full the black tank was getting.
As such we don’t use the Thereford Titan Tote for anything other than gray water.
We hope this helps you get off the grid and into the wild a little more. Don’t forget to follow these best practices when you’re out there in nature.
Happy camping!
Thank to the Voice of San Diego for the image of the gent filling water from a vending machine.
