One of the benefits that attracted me to the Motorhome life is the independence it provides. The ability to stay in a different beautiful area is also great. Most of the time we take advantage of the hook-ups at a campground/resort. I'm curious as to how my fellow RV'ers actually enjoy total independence from hook-ups and how you accomplish that....ie. generator/battery/solar ,water/waste disposal etc. and for how long?
I ask because even though I'm not a water enthusiast I am intrigued as to how these sailing yachts can go for weeks without "support services" by using a desalinater, solar, generator etc.
The wife & I can go a week easily without adding or dumping water. We use the generator if we aren't able to plug in.
Haven't been able to go extended boon docking . . . . . yet, I'm looking forward to seeing what others have done so that I can learn.
My ability to stay "unhooked" (that's different than being unhinged - at least slightly) is without running the gen depends on air conditioning. I have 240 watts of solar and pretty much everyday stuff can run on that with the occasional boost from the gen. I can go 10 days, for two people, on the 100+ gallons of water we can carry. That means doing laundry out and judiciously using water for cleaning. Stinking and boondocking are not synonymous.
I sailed 41 days across the Atlantic with one crew and used less than 50 gallons of fresh water. Upon arrival in New York we were sticky from salt and a bit stinky. We bathed in salt water and then wiped down with fresh, OK but not ideal. The point is that you can use saltwater for lots of uses on a boat to minimize fresh water use. If fresh water is available outside the coach you could use that for bathing, cooking and cleaning almost to the point of using your on board supply strictly for the toilet. Then you could stay for a looooong time.
As many here know we have 620 watts of solar panels on our roof. That combined with our 160 gallons of fresh water capacity enables us to go up to 16 days (our longest so far) without using services. The biggest thing we have to manage is our black water.....we put no toilet paper in our toilet when dry camping, which helps keep the volume going into our black tank down. Since we have a separate gray water tank we are able to dispose of that easily by running a hose out into the desert and letting it drain out via gravity......we boondock during the winter in remote areas where that is allowed. We are able to tilt our solar panels which comes in handy during the winter when the sun is lower in the horizon. On most days our batteries (two 8D batteries) get back to 100% by 11 am, or Noon at the latest. Of course our 1982 Newell is pretty low tech.....our biggest electrical draw is our TV. Since we have a propane water heater, fridge and stove we can really economize on our electrical use, plus all our interior lights are LED.
As you alluded to, the independence we gain by being off the grid is wonderful. It takes a completely different mindset to dry camp, or boondock as we call it, and takes a day, or two for us to adjust from being hooked up all summer like we are now.