Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Location : Darby Wells Road BLM, Ajo, AZ
Today is a cold, rainy day. I’m staying in the RV but I’m so restless!! I planned on staying in the location I’m at for about 2 nights then heading down to Organ Pipe National Monument yet the winds have kept me from moving. The stronger the wind and gusts the more difficult it is to drive a rolling box. I’ve been stuck in high winds, it’s exhausting to drive in.
I can’t complain, this is much needed rain for the Southwest AND rain means the desert will soon have flowers!! Plus, rain is so rare for me to encounter since I follow the sun and warmth, today feels so relaxing. (If I wasn’t so restless for a hike.)
RV Boondocking in Cold Weather
Pretty much all of my travel involves staying in free public lands that are generally National Forests and Beaurea of Land Management (BLM). This means I need to be fully self-contained; I don’t hook up electicity, water or sewer where I stay.
Self-contained means I’m limited to what Minnie Rambles (my RV) can carry, this is, at most – 40 gallons of fresh water, 9 gallons of propane and 2 marine batteries. Propane is my biggest worry since my refrigerator runs on propane. I’d hate to run out.
Why did I mention this? Because RVs notoriously have bad insulation. On cold days my heater is constantly running, which involves using electricity to start the pilot and lots of propane to run the heater.
To avoid running out of propane I am buddle up in a long sleeve shirt, my goose down jacket, sweats, socks and my crocs (to insulate my feet from the cold floor). This all sounds glum but I don’t mind, I feel cozy.
To be sure all systems are good, every couple of hours I check my battery life. I have a small panel in my kitchen area that indicates my battery life. Four dots is fully charged. One dot is bad, at this level I may run my batteries down too far and damage them. Once I get down to two dots I’ll need to start my generator to recharge the batteries.
I’m not one to run my generator much since it’s noisy and it uses the gasoline from the cab. I’m fortunate, with this newer generation of Class C from Winnebago the generator will not run if my gas tank gets below 1/4 tank to avoid running out of full. Great move Winnebago. I always head out to camp with 1/2 to full tank of gas depending on how isolated I’ll be.
When I first started boondocking all this confused and scared me. What if I run out of gas, water or propane? It took me about 3 months to understand all the RV systems and how long I can boondock in each season.
Twenty months and 30,000 miles of RV travel and boondocking I can say I know Minnie Rambles pretty good.
Questions and Concerns About Boondocking in Cold Weather
What about nighttime when I sleep?
I turn the heater all the way down to 55 degrees or off completely. Being a backpacker prepared me for frigid temps. I have a wonderful goose down sleeping bag that I used my first winter full time RVing. Then mom got me this amazing goose down alternative comforter!! It’s so warm sometimes I sweat at night!! I prefer to sleep in a colder environment and cuddling up with my pillows and blankets, I don’t need the heater … until morning. Burrr!!
What about freezing temps?
I rarely encounter them. Minnie Rambles is not set up for all 4 seasons. I learned that she can’t really be in freezing weather for longer than maybe 3-4 hours (my guesstimate), my holding tanks and water hoses may freeze. Freeze is bad for the pipes, they expand and burst. I do have a tank heater, just in case, I believe I’ve used it once.
