RV After Cruising???

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

You aren't limited to one land mass.
- We have on the list to do the PanAmerican Highway.
- We have rented RV's in Europe.
- I know Austraila has RV's
- I've even seen a few in Kenya.

Shipping is much more straight forward as it's similar size to container shipping.

You ARE the same Valhalla I recognize from the RV forums. I had a suspicion.

Good to know there are others who are enthusiastic about both.

[Mike OReilly]

Interesting… clearly my preference in the RV life will be to boondock. So, what is considered a large holding tank in the small RV world?

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Interesting… clearly my preference in the RV life will be to boondock. So, what is considered a large holding tank in the small RV world?

Capacity in my truck camper is as follows.

Fresh water: 55 gals
Gray water: 39 gals
Black water: 43 gals

They are sized perfectly. You rarely fill up the black or gray before you run out of fresh.

And you should always do the tanks at the same time. It can get a little too heavy if you leave some gray water or black water in and then fill the fresh all the way up.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Interesting… clearly my preference in the RV life will be to boondock. So, what is considered a large holding tank in the small RV world?

My Grandvilla, 36 foot diesel pusher,
Fresh water, 88 gallons,
Grey water, 44 gallons,
Black water, 44 Gallons,
Deisel, 150 Gallons,
LPG, 300 gallon tank,
6.5 Kva LPG generator,

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Interesting… clearly my preference in the RV life will be to boondock. So, what is considered a large holding tank in the small RV world?

Water use in an RV is very similar to a boat, except that of course you capture it all.
It all dumps through the same hose, so dump the black water first, then dumping the grey rinses the hose etc out.
I found that several highway rest stops have places to dump black water. I used to travel to road race my little Suzuki in a motorhome.

Vast majority of RV’s are set up to be either plugged in or run a generator, my 5th wheel battery bank was 2, 12v batteries for example.
Many or most Diesel powered RV’s will run their generators on propane, propane is of course used for heating the RV and water, and often the fridge is an “absorption” fridge, which burns propane, or uses electricity to heat the ammonia, so it’s not efficient as an electric fridge, but propane is very widely available.
Fuel, propane etc for an RV is a vastly simpler process than for a boat.

Very few people actually boondock, I still say the opportunities are limited, and you just don’t get the breeze you do on a boat, and biting insects, and security are more of an issue on an RV. All of this tends to push you more towards shore power and an AC in hot weather, and I’m a tropics kind of guy, I and the wife greatly dislike cold weather, so we avoid it.

The heater on an RV will use more electricity than you May think, the motorhome I used, it’s battery bank wouldn’t last over night for heat, that fan must pull a lot of power.


I would just venture as a guess that cruising in the US is slowly headed towards being similar to RVing in that there seems to be a movement towards mooring fields and away from open anchorages.
We did this to ourselves, but I still don’t like it.

I don’t think it will ever completely go there as the general public does not travel the ICW way like they do the city streets etc and therefore just don’t see us when we anchor in our of the way areas, and out of sight is out of mind.


I believe there is a growing community if you will of people living in vans, often older used work vans like the telephone company etc uses. Now I don’t know a lot about it, other than they often get by by being stealthy and don’t draw attention to themselves, because I believe they may be considered vagrants, which the law has never been kind to. But researching van living may be something worth while so that you can read about people actually living the life.

Before you dump the boat though, I think you need to try down South on the ICW, there are literally hundreds or thousands of miles of nothing, and thousands of anchorages with wide open spaces with no evidence of mankind, within just a few miles of a town.
People however seem to want to congregate in busy anchorages, in the middle of town.
Which I guess is good, that leaves the secluded ones wide open for people like me.

One sample, I’m certain there is much better info out there.
https://www.moneyunder30.com/van-living

[Mike OReilly]

Thanks A64, but to be clear, I have no intention of abandoning the cruising life for the RV life. My interest is to see if it makes sense to combine the two. We already cruise roughly 1/2 the year, and then do other things for the other 5 months.

We spent one recent winter motorcycling and camping around Canada and the USA (five provinces and 17 states). I guess this is what opened my eyes to the possibility of RV living. We found many places where it was possible to stay for free, or for a small (~$5-$10/day) price. Some of these were on the water (Oregon coast, Gulf Coast), but of course all these locations were off-grid; boon docking.

The ICW still beckons, although there are challenges to us small-budget Canadians (mainly healthcare). But I do think we will head down that way once we’re done with Newfoundland and the Canadian Maritimes.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Capacity in my truck camper is as follows.

Fresh water: 55 gals
Gray water: 39 gals
Black water: 43 gals

That sounds like some impressive volumes for a truck camper Chotu. Is this typical for these types of campers? I’ve been looking at truck campers. I’m starting to get interested...

Originally Posted by Mr B

My Grandvilla, 36 foot diesel pusher,
Fresh water, 88 gallons,
Grey water, 44 gallons,
Black water, 44 Gallons,
Deisel, 150 Gallons,
LPG, 300 gallon tank,
6.5 Kva LPG generator,

That’s some serious tankage . We could easily live for a month or more at a time with this setup. I’m just not sure I want sometime to large. But really … I don’t know what I want .

[a64pilot]

If you don’t mind bike camping for extended intervals, a van ought to be luxury, just getting off of the ground is a luxury.

As with cruising, there is pretty much two kinds of camping, there is Urban camping if you will which is in or very close to a major population hub, and that I think boondocking is very limited, cause I won’t stay in a Walmart parking lot etc.

However in the Wilderness type of camping where you don’t care if the nearest place to go out to eat is 20 miles away, the ability to boondock should go way up.
Then there are a few places like the Blue Springs recreational area in Mariana Fl. I used to cave Dive there a lot, and cave divers had access to the area in the off season, and I’d just set up the fifth wheel for a few days, and nobody seemed to mind.
I’m sure it wasn’t legit, but I caused no problem and the Sheriff etc were friends of the guy who owned the cave diving shop.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

That sounds like some impressive volumes for a truck camper Chotu. Is this typical for these types of campers? I’ve been looking at truck campers. I’m starting to get interested...



That’s some serious tankage . We could easily live for a month or more at a time with this setup. I’m just not sure I want sometime to large. But really … I don’t know what I want .

These Foretravels are built for Minus 40 Farenheit and stuck in the snow for a week, Ive seen them with foot long icicles hanging off the sides of them,
They are serious live aboard RV's,
They have more stuff in them than my Gemini Cat has and its got all the bells and whistles,
Its a mansion on wheels,

[CHAZ]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Interesting… clearly my preference in the RV life will be to boondock. So, what is considered a large holding tank in the small RV world?

"Natures Head" or the one you already have on your yacht.


Happy land-and sea cruising


Small and slow is smart


Martin


p.s.
We have an old passenger Dodge Van outfitted for traveling and boondocking. Even our "porta bote" (12') is always with us (inside).

Perfect for stealth camping.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by CHAZ

"Natures Head" or the one you already have on your yacht.… We have an old passenger Dodge Van outfitted for traveling and boondocking. Even our "porta bote" (12') is always with us (inside).

Funny you should mention the NH. I’ve been thinking this is what will define the right size RV for us. I want something large enough to use our composter in. Carrying our 10’ portabote also sounds like a good idea .

[danleach]

Interesting conversation. I'm with those who say do both. Not everything you want to see is near water.

My wife and I live on our Passport 40 sailboat in the Pacific NW but this winter picked up a truck and 30 foot travel trailer. We just did a shakedown cruise down the West Coast of the US, across to see family in Texas, then to New Orleans. And, of course, back to the NW. We're back on the boat now cruising NW waters in the US and Canada.

What's clear from this discussion is that the correct rig for land travel will be different for everyone....just as the correct boat is different for everyone. But its all great fun, and the only mistake is not going.

Oh, one more tip for boaters looking to make RV more like anchoring out; Harvest Host. Staying overnight in vineyards, farms, breweries...it's awesome.

[thataway41]

We have been both cruising sailors/trawlers/trailerable pilot house boas since 1962, as well as RV owners this entire time. Even when we were cruising Europe, we bought a VW Van and converted it into a mini camper for 2 adults and 2 kids.

There are many similar systems, and techniques. Marinas vs RV parks, anchor out vs boondocks. More recently we went to LifePO4 batteries in our boat, but found much more information in the RV world.

We have owned everything from our first Corvair Greenbriar conversion (like VW Westphalia--which we also owned one of), to a plain van, Diesel pusher 1992--probably one of the first by Winnebago. Smaller ones until 2010, a Holiday Rambler Ambassador 42' with 4 slides (first time we had slide outs). That was purchased to take our grandkids and daughters traveling to National Parks and see all of the USA during the summers. Now that the grandkids are college age, we no longer needed the large RV (plus the park closed to become condos, where were using in Marathon for 4 months during the winter and taking a center console boat behind the RV for our fishing fix..). My wife wanted a 30 foot class A, I wanted another Road Trek (19 to 22'). We ended up getting a Winnebago Via 25T (T for twin beds) on a Mercedes chassis. We wanted a fiberglass roof (no rubber roofs) and a diesel main plus diesel generator. Negative about this unit is quality is not up to Monaco or Tiffin standards, fuel tank is only 25 gallons (but we get 14 to 15 mpg, even towing a small SUV). It has one slide, and enough space to be comfortable for months at at time.

It is said that all hobbies are similar: dog people smell differently than horse people. Blue water sailors, have different goals than full time in the park, RVers--but we all have the same goals: Enjoyment of the out of doors and nature at its best.

We use the same philosophy in RVing we used in Boating: Buy the right tool for the voyage you want to make. For crossing oceans we choose full keel pilot house sailboat boats, for coastal cruising a trawler, for exploration of inland waters, and lakes--with an occasional foray into Alaska a C Dory pilot house outboard. The RV which fits your plans best...Now it is something which fits in my daughter's driveway in S. Calif....as well as just enough space and tankage.

[Mahayana]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Funny you should ask… I’ve just been looking at camper vans.

Our cruising life continues to be ~ 1/2-year on the water, and 1/2 on land. This is mainly b/c we’re still cruising the cold areas of Canada, so it’s hard to be on the boat year round. This means we do ‘something else’ for the cold months.

So far that ‘something else’ has mostly included house sitting around the country. But we spent one winter motorcycling around Canada/USA, living mostly out of our tent. In that time we got to see the luxury life of a camper, so I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

I can very easily see us acquire a small camper of some sort. In our case though it wouldn’t be a move away from the boat. It would be part of the cycle of our annual life.

+1
We have a small 22’ “toy hauler” which we live out of when commissioning and provisioning our boat in spring. This works well for us when we leave the boat in November, provided it happens to be in continental NA port. It won’t when we head across to Europe next year for a three year round trip.

[Sea-TechSystems]

We're totally doing that this summer! But, one thing I've run into is how to find places to stay. Is there such thing as a cruising guide for RVs?!