Installing Solar on Your Rig? Read This First.

Not all solar setups are created equal.

This is the paid follow-up to Boondocking Is an Energy-Use Balancing Act. If you don’t have a paid subscription, don’t worry. The last post was free, and the next one will be too. This post is for the people who help me pay for grad school and adventures with paid subscriptions—and those who have appeared in my blog posts and videos over the years. Thank you!

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Boondocking is one of the most critical skills that every RVer should learn.

The better you are at it, the farther and longer you can escape civilization. If you’re looking for a way to truly get away and relax—or you’re fine-tuning your apocalypse plan!—knowing how to survive without hookups will open up a world of opportunities for you.

Boondocking skills are also excellent for “moochdocking” if your friend has a driveway but no 30-amp or 50-amp plug-ins to support your RV. Or, maybe they’ve invited you to stay on their acreage, but their cabin is off-grid.

No problem. You're all set if you know how to run your rig without plugging in.

What is Boondocking?

If you’ve never heard the term “boondocking” before, it’s camping without directly plugging into amenities. These usually include:

• Electricity

• Water

• Sewer

Doing without phone service or electricity isn’t usually a part of the boondocking requirement. However, the places you might boondock will probably have terrible service and no internet.

The Power Focus

There are many ways to conserve water and handle sewage when boondocking. But this time around, we’ll focus specifically on energy use. Last week, I promised I would discuss:

• How to reduce your power consumption for boondocking

• Why I chose a solar generator over installing solar on the RV

• How to choose a good solar generator for your rig

• How I financed my solar setup and paid nothing in interest

Let’s get into it!

How to Reduce Your Power Consumption when Boondocking

About a month into my RV journey, I went boondocking for the first time. It was Halloween in 2020, and I wanted to see how well my rig would hold up to being completely off-grid. It did not go as planned, and I learned a lot that night. For starters, my battery died within a few hours, causing my power-awning to get stuck.

Nevertheless, I’ve learned a lot about reducing power consumption from these and other adventures during my four years as a full-time RVer: