Our Top 7 Free Camping Spots and Boondocking Tips

When we pulled out of that driveway in 2017, we had no idea what was ahead of us. But one thing we knew, we wanted to boondock in some amazing places, stay within a small budget, and oh, did I mention we’re towing a 39-foot fifth wheel? We were met with a lot of negativity about how we’d never be able to boondock in a larger rig. I’m here to tell you that’s not true!

For the entire year of 2018, we spent a total of $48 in camping fees. We challenged ourselves to do it for a year and spend less than $100, but the catch was, we wanted to find the most epic, unbelievable, incredible places. Not just a parking lot, or truck stop. Not only did we find amazing spots, but places where we would look at each other and couldn’t believe they were free. I mean seriously, we’d even pay for some of the views we were getting. 

Check out our blog here titled: Boondocking – How we spent $48 in camping fees for the whole year

So we are here to share with you that YES you can boondock in a big rig. And YES you can see some of these views too. 

Our Philosophy

Our philosophy on boondocking is that we “just live”.  We’ve purchased some comfort items. Do you need them? Of course not! But when we started this journey in our life, we wanted to Just Live. We wanted to concentrate on the journey. We didn’t want anything to be frustrating or hard or different. Life, in general, can get challenging on its own, and we wanted to try to alleviate any hardships we could. We wanted to just live our life like we always did, but in a house with wheels. I often say “it just works”, and I am so thankful for Justin’s knowledge in putting our system together safely, and efficiently. Here are a few things we purchased to make our life simple. 

• Water Bladder – We have the 60-gallon one, but they make them smaller (or bigger) depending on your needs. This was a game-changer for us! And it folds up and fits in a box slightly larger than a pie box. We’ve been able to stay in an area longer because we can just go get water and bring it back. Again, allowing us to just live normally. We shower every day, we do dishes when needed and we simply just live. 
• Water Pump – This allows us to pump the water from the bag, into the RV holding tank. 
• Water Thief – This helps us get water out of a spigot that might not have a regular thread for a hose. (Aug 2020 – I realize this is out of stock on Amazon. If you add this to your wishlist, Amazon will notify you when it’s back in stock)
• Speaking of water, I’m a little picky about water. We purchased a fantastic water filter system from Clear Source Again, a game-changer for me. My water is filtered going into the bag, and again our drinking water is filtered through an under the sink ceramic filter. We’ve had it installed now for about 4 years now and couldn’t be happier with it. Check out our blog all about this water filter with comparisons and information: The Best RV Water Filter
• Anderson Levelers – When you’re off-grid and off-road, these have made our life so easy. They are small to store and easy to use. 
• Buddy Heater – Again, we try not to be in places where we would use this often, but being that our daughters live on the East Coast, and we gather with them during the holidays, well … you get the picture! We save so much money on propane used by our furnace by using this little guy. 
• De-Humidifier – We don’t use this often, but when we do, it’s wonderful! We try not to spend too much time in humid weather, but it happens. And when our pictures were falling off the walls in West Virginia, it was time to do something about it. 
• Generators – Thankfully we actually hardly use these! We have 2. I think we went about 8 months without using them. We can go 3-4 days of no sun before we have to pull these out. 
• Making the change to Battle Born Lithium Batteries was the best thing we did. Hands down! Expensive upfront, yes, maybe, depends on how you look at it. But in the long run, we’re saving money because of the life of the batteries, and the fact that we can use 100% of our battery capacity, which you can’t do with typical lead-acid batteries. We often refer to our batteries as “magic”. We love our “Battle Born magic” for sure. Again, they “just work”. 

We had so many more than 7 amazing free boondocking spots during the last few years. These were just a few of our epic finds. You can do this too! Let us show you how! We are happy to help answer questions and make you feel more comfortable getting away from the pedestal. Check out our videos below too. 

We’d love to hear your favorite finds! And what works for you. Remember, your journey is epic, and your story is special!

Here are some more blog posts we think you’ll love!

• Thinking About Solar? Calculating Your Needs
• What To Do With Sentimental Items When Downsizing
• 10 Myths about Boondocking – Debunked!
• Boondocking ~ How We Spent $48 on Camping Fees For the Whole Year
• RV Boondocking vs. RV Campgrounds

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