BIG RIG BOONDOCKING- IS IT BETTER? | Motorhome Lifestyle

This week we explore why big rig boondocking is better than a smaller RV setup. We're back out West camping off-grid and feeling super grateful for all the ways our motorhome makes our RV boondocking lifestyle so much better. Motorhomes and other big rig RVs have more tank space, roof space for solar, storage for batteries, and so much more.

0:00- 1:10- Intro
1:11- 1:40- 100 Gallon Fresh Water Tank
1:41- 3:17- 75 Gallon Grey & Black Tanks
3:18- 4:02- Lots of Room for Solar
4:03- 4:41- Storage Options for Batteries
4:42- 5:58- 43 Gal Propane Tank
5:59- 6:47- Fridge Space!
6:48- 7:31- Fun Daily Driver
7:32- 8:39- So Much Storage
8:40- 9:40- Entertainment Space

[RVwithTito]

I'm sold. Let's do it :) Looking forward to some boondocking time in the desert very soon with the Class A.

[timothyallbritton]

We have a Prevost Royal that's 45 feet long and after we returned from a 5-month trip through Canada into Alaska and back to Georgia it was starting to feel a little small, hahaha! We had a regular class A motorhome and then we moved up to the Prevost and it was like moving from a tent into a mansion. We hated spending so much on the Prevost, but they are so much safer being made out of steel and will stand a roll over at highway speeds and not be crushed. Great videos, be safe out here :)

[SuperSushidog]

I just found your channel and subscribed. That's a sweet boondocking rig, for sure, just a tad heavy for some of the sandy washes, and muddy, rutted forest service roads we go down in our 35ft., 26, 000 lb. tag axled gasser. How much does it weigh? One boondocking trick that we use to extend our time between dumps is we transfer some gray water into our black tank, to stretch our gray tank capacity. Like your coach, our gray tank is the same size as our black tank, but only 50 gallons ea. though we have the same size fresh tank you do. Since our gray tank always fills first, transferring say 20-25 gallons to the black tank not only allows us to stay the full 2 weeks in one location, but the soapy gray water helps the black tank to empty better when we dump. To facilitate this transfer, we added a Valterra twist-on waste valve. You've got plenty of roof space to expand your solar system - we're envious! Man, that's a huge propane tank. We only have a 25-gallon tank so added an Extend-a-stay kit too. We use a buddy heater plumbed into our gas line to reduce the need to run our furnace, saving lots of propane as they are 100% efficient. We love our propane fridge since we upgraded it with an Amish cooling unit. It works so well that the freezer stays in single digits, and we need to run the fridge on the middle setting to prevent it from freezing.

Five years ago, we retired, sold everything and went FT. It was the best decision we ever made. We discovered we love boondocking and quickly learned the advantages of solar. We decided to build our solar/battery system in 2 phases, a 12v system for our basic 12v DC needs and a 48v system for our 110v A/C needs. We started by building a 620-watt liftable solar array on the side of our motorhome. We lift it to the optimal angle to boost its output 20-30% vs flat mounted panels, especially in the winter. It makes a nice bedroom window awning too, practically lifting itself with a couple gas struts, and it's easy to clean with a windshield squeegee, standing safely on the ground.

We finished the 12v part of our build last January, with the addition of a 560ah LiFePo-4 battery that we built with 8, 280ah "A" grade prismatic cells. We use a Heltec 330amp BMS, and a 5a active balancer to keep the cells synched up. It cost us less than $1, 500 to build this 560ah 12v, 7.1Kwh battery, (the equivalent of 2 Battleborn Game Changers) including the high amp BMS and balancer. We chose these cells rather than a pre-built battery because they fit perfectly under the steps of our MH where our old pair of GC-2 golf cart batteries used to reside. We insulated the battery compartment, cut a 1" hole in our step risers and installed a tiny computer CPU fan to keep this space at close to room temperature, so we don't have to worry about the BMS shutting down charging if they get too cold - or their life reduced from getting too hot. We use an 80A Progressive Dynamics LFP converter/charger, a 1, 000w Renogy inverter, an Epever 50a MPPT charge controller and a Lnex battery monitor. This entire 12v system cost us under $3, 500 to build and takes care of all of our basic off-grid needs except for air conditioning and microwave use.

By mounting our solar array on the side of our coach, we left the roof free to rack 8, 550W Sungold Power solar panels (4, 400 watts) down the length of our 35ft Class A, 15" off our roof, above our AC, fan shrouds, etc. You guys could easily fit 9 of these monsters on your longer roof. They will cover our entire roof, providing some nice shade with plenty of cooling air underneath, further increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners too. We bought them for only 51 cents/watt shipped to our door. We're in the middle of this build now. We bought our aluminum racking material in Yuma, where we're wintering over this year, for around $400. Our solar panels, wiring, breakers and our Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5, 000W Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger etc. arrived a few weeks ago, but we're taking our time to get everything installed over the winter. At 67 yrs old, we're moving much slower these days. Our 48v battery bank will use 16, (real) 320ah grade A prismatic cells which only cost us $1, 726 from EEL batteries. We'll be keeping them under our bed, as you plan on doing. The 200amp Heltec 16s BMS we're using just arrived a few days ago. Together with our 560ah 12v bank, we will have a total of 23.5 Kwh of batteries onboard (the equivalent of over 18, 100ah Battleborns) - kept charged by over 5, 000 watts of solar. We removed the 13.5k btu rooftop Dometic AC in the bedroom and filled the hole with a second powered roof vent. We are installing an EG4 28.5 seer-2, 12k btu mini-split heat pump on the upper rear of our motorhome, with the head unit mounted in the bedroom, blowing down the hall. This second phase will provide 24/7 off-grid air conditioning, supplemental heat from the heat pump and allow occasional usage of our rooftop mounted, soft start equipped Furrion AC in the front of our MH during peak afternoon hours, as well as give us whole house 120v ac power. We'll soon have total off-grid electrical independence for a total budget of around $11, 500, reserving our onboard generator for back-up use only. Take care, we hope to see you down the road!

[bobmoto]

The advantages of the big RV. Room for options. 👍

[LivedayWanderland]

Found you guys on Adventure Endeavour! Awesome to find smaller channels going through the struggle to grow on here lol. Love that you guys are not afraid to boondock with a big RV

[stanf]

I agree I Boondock in a 40 foot diesel pusher I tow a 30 foot trailer behind it with my toys

[ericlee]

We agree with you for all of your reasons. Hope to see you on the road.

[itsonthelist]

Hoping our bigger tanks help us with boondocking. We've stayed places without sewer for a week at a time before with no issues so there's hope for longer stays.

[timaz]

I agree Boondocking and RV no matter how you do it it’s better in a big rig.

[jpennington]

Do you use your generator much or just soler for charging batteries? 43' Monaco here and afraid its too much for extended boondocking.

[madmaxsmotorcycles]

I want to get a school bus and flatbed it to haul a fifth wheel and my truck on the back of it. I've only seen one example of this on the internet