I’ve not done a lot of cold-weather boondocking or dry camping, so six nights of winter camping in New Mexico was definitely an experiment for me. If you’re not a battery freak or a camper or survivalist, this post might not be your cup of tea, though!
What is Dry Camping?
For those wondering about terminology, I use dry camping to mean that I’m at an “organized” campground like a state park offers reserved sites but that doesn’t have any services like electric hookups or water at each site. Boondocking, for me, means camping “in the wild” usually on BLM land where there might be a flat space with a fire ring made of rocks, but there aren’t any formal sites or reservations taken.
In state parks, you usually have access to water from a shared spigot and a toilet facility. At City or Rocks, there were two spigots where I could fill up containers and then use a funnel to fill up my water tank, which I did only once, since I arrived with a full tank of fresh water. The toilets were vault toilets and a fair walk in cold weather, so I used my own toilet and was careful about keeping an eye on the level indicator. Very careful, since the nearest dump station is about 25 miles down the road! There were no shower facilities at this park, so I used my own shower twice, and sponge-bathed as needed.
One of the big advantages of trailers like the Alto is that you are “self-contained” meaning that you can drink, cook, pee, and poop in your own RV without needing any support services. During the early months of the pandemic, many campgrounds required you to be self-contained because bathrooms were not open for use.
My Power Setup
I’ve written about it before, so here’s the brief summary of my setup: a 100-hour lithium ion battery and 2 solar panels on the roof, producing a max of 180 watts. I rarely get that much, especially in winter when the sun in lower in the sky. I have a Victron battery monitor and a Victron solar controller, both of which are designed and settings optimized to work with the lithium-ion battery.
A significant factor in the efficiency of the solar panels is the orientation of the Alto, so whenever possible, I align the panels to maximize their exposure to the sun. This means pointing the trailer south/north rather than east/west if the campsite allows it. My site at City of Rocks did, so that’s how I set up. I got good views and decent solar, so win/win!
Power
When I’m not on electric hookups, I depend on my trailer battery to power up all my devices, from trailer lights and heater to charging my phone and laptop. 100 amp-hours in this kind of battery means I can get down to 20% before I really have to start worrying about recharging the battery.
As I found out in December, several days of cold/foggy weather where my solar doesn’t produce much power can bring the battery down to below 25% and then there isn’t enough voltage to start up the 12-volt fridge or the Truma (which was running on propane but needed enough juice to start up and run the fan). Yikes. But as soon as the sun came out and the panels got some rays, the battery voltage went up enough that everything could start up. This time, at City of Rocks, with lots of sun and only one predicted cloudy/rainy day, I figured I would be fine. (tl;dr I was fine.)
Daily Readings
Using the Victron iPhone app, I checked the status of my battery (SOC = State of Charge) and how many watt-hours the panels produced in a day. I could also see that the solar panels worked for only 8-9 hours out of the 12 hours that the sun was up. Just because the sun is shining doesn’t mean the solar panels are able to get anything if the angle between sun and solar panels is too low.
My data table shows the stats from last five days of my stay:
- The AM SOC column on the far right shows the battery level when I woke up and after I’d turned the heater and fridge up. So the morning after my first night at City of Rocks, the battery was at 72%.
- The PM SOC column shows the battery level later that same day, after a full day of charging. My system generated a fairly consistent amount of watt-hours, despite one day being cloudy off and on.
- The Watt Hours column shows how much energy the solar panels generated and fed to the battery. For a 12-volt system like mine, 100 watt-hours converts to roughly 8 amp-hours. Doing that math, you might wonder why 350 watt-hours didn’t stuff the battery completely full the first few nights. That’s because some of those amp-hours are used during the day to run that 12-volt fridge and to charge all my electronics (I also use a bluetooth speaker and and iPad). If I’m doing a lot of writing, the MacBook Pro will need a daily charge, for example.
Comfort Level
With decent amounts of sunshine (thanks, weather gods), I didn’t worry at all about my power situation. I ran the lights at night, I charged my toys when I wanted to, and kept myself warm and cozy at night. On the last morning, the battery was at 58% so I still had a lot of amp-hours left in case the weather had turned overcast for a few days. I have a propane-fueled generator but obviously didn’t need it this trip. Since I got the bigger battery, I have used the generator exactly twice in a year, and both times, I didn’t need it so much as I wanted to make sure it still worked in case of a real emergency.
Even though the overnight temps dropped down to the 25-30F (-4 to -1C) range, the good news is that the Alto’s aluminum shell means it heats up quite nicely after the sun comes up. And that sun streaming through the windows also helps, so I didn’t use the heater at all once the trailer had gotten an initial blast from the Truma heater. At night, the heater in propane mode was a rock star, keeping me warm and cozy. With a fleecy-lined Rumpl blanket, I slept very well with the indoor thermostat set to 55F (13F).
Related Link: City of Rocks 2022
Solar power is cool. When you put panels on your roof, people notice, and they’ll be nicer to you. Well, maybe …
I’d love to boondock, if for nothing else but finding a great place to do night sky photography. But I’m still in a tent and there’s no camper in my near future…so the closest I come to that is staying at State Forests, which are kind of like BLM land, you get a site first come first service, you can stay a certain # of days, there’s no power, but they do have commual pit toilets. And usually a source of drinking water. Some of them are too scary for me to stay alone though, they are filled with single guys hunting or fishing. If I find one that is used by families I’m OK. So far not comfortable wandering around at night though!
Great post! How wonderful that the weather gods were in your favor. I’m getting more confident with our solar, and understand the Truma start/fan draw better. It’s nice to read about your experience to verify what happened to us.
Oooh the Rumpl sounds perfect. Had to google that. Love all the details you so carefully spelled out and shared with your readers. Stay warm.
Rumpls are great – Rhea Lowell first told me about them! So warm and cozy and yet they don’t get dirty!
We were at Quartzsite freezing while you were at City of Rocks. Go figure! Glad it all worked out. We have a new rig (please laugh) and are upgrading our batteries to AGM or Lithium. Enjoy your trip east.
Wait, a newer rig than when I saw you late last year?! Get the lithium, that extra power is so nice to have along with the whole “don’t have to remember check the water level” thing. Glad you survived Q even in the cold.
Great post! I looove all the power usage stats. Our LiFePO4 battery arrives this Saturday (YAY!) and I’m so excited to squash my battery anxiety!!!
Also, isn’t it just wonderful when the optimal trailer orientation for solar matches up with the best view? 🙂
I am so missing camping. I use a tent, so no winter camping for me.
Thanks for the great information! I’m having 2 lithium batteries installed in my 1713 right now. From your experience it looks like I should be in good shape for boondocking! I really enjoy reading your posts.
Thanks for the review of the tech stuff. I enjoyed it. You have a very nice solar/battery set up. We have a 2017 NuCamp 320 Tab without an inside toilet/shower and have only dry camped. The previous TAB owners removed the air conditioning unit and replaced it with a storage cabinet where we house a portable toilet. We do have a fresh water tank, absorption (3 way) fridge and grey water tank, so it does have some luxuries.
We recently replaced our lead acid battery with a Battleborn 100 ah LiFePO4 battery last summer and purchased another one on sale, hoping eventually to have both working in parallel. However, the second one may simply serve as an emergency back up or be used to run a “dometic type” fridge in the back of my HIghlander. I do have about 135 total watts of portable solar panels.
I’ve noted that the whole battery/solar thing can lead to excessive (obsessive?) monitoring but it does put one in touch with the reality of the elements and our dependence on fuel sources. Going solar makes so much sense.
Your adventures, writing and photography are inspiring. Thanks Again.
One thing to keep in mind is how much energy your panels can produce vs. how much storage you have. My 180 watts of panel is well-balanced to the 100 amp hours of battery. To get the most of 2 batteries, I’d think you would need more solar, honestly. See how it goes with the one battery before going to the trouble of wiring the two together, maybe?