If you’re about to book a beautiful campsite reservation for a few nights but suddenly learn it doesn’t have electric hookups, what do you do? Do you stay anyway (you don’t need electric hookups) or is it a deal-breaker?
There are many variables that will determine your answer, we know that. But please tell us below how important electric hookups are to you. Feel free to leave a comment below the poll and tell us how long you could go without electric hookups.
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I boondock 99.9999% of the time, often for months at a time in one place. I only use a generator after 3 days without sun. To me that’s real RVing.
I admire your style, however real RVing is whatever it means to individual RV’ers. I use a combination of Boondocking, State/Provincial Parks, RV Parks, and RV resorts. It’s not for everyone, but it is real RVing IMHO.
Yes you’re still RV-ing running generator after 3 days. There’s tenters who would say you’re not camping. In the end of the day it’s what makes us all comfortable to be outdoors. My experience so far after rebuilding a 1968 camper is most people I have met are socially inept. Not even simple hello or basic Hi. I am kind of surprised, coming from a big family.
The survey question answers, to me, are inadequate. For me, living in Florida and often traveling through warmer areas to get to cooler areas, electricity is essential if air conditioning is needed to sleep comfortably. The survey answers are black and white, and “gray” answers are not often provided, not only on this particular survey but in others that have been included in RV Travel.
I agree. Whether or not I need electrical hook up is dependent on the time of year and location. We Boondock often without a Hook up but if we are in the southwest in late spring to early fall mama wants the AC.
Can only go 2-3 nights on batteries and we both use CPap machines.
We have a 4000 watt generator on the back of the trailer we use for overnight stops on our way to our destination that supplies A/C, coffee, microwave, etc. so we can survive as long as a gas station is close by, which they are unlike recharging stations. Lol
Only Waldocked once. Never boondock. Never muchdock. Would never, ever dunedock. Only camp at electric sites. Prefer 50 amp. Prefer full hook up. Prefer full shade. We live in our 5th wheel 8 months each year, mostly a month at a time with full hook up. Travelling, we will camp at water and electric only sites. We always appreciate mostly level sites. Right now our sloped site won’t allow Autoleveling, so the front is fully retracted and we are listing to the left side. But it’s a fully shaded site under huge oaks.
Solar + inverter is enough, but I’ll plug in if it’s there. We have rarely needed AC.
It really depends on the weather. We travel with dogs. Cold is one things, but in hot weather we need to keep them, and us, cool. Other than AC, we have the stuff on board to deal with no shore power. We did get a Genturi so we can use our generator safely when parked close together in the dry camping at dog trials. Just added a “family” of Jackery “solar generators” to make life easier in RV & during power outages.
After upgrading to a lithium battery, having an electric hookup is not as necessary for one night stopovers depending on location and time of year. Usually we look for Harvest Host sights on travel days but if overnight temps are in the eighties or higher we opt for an elec connection. Got to have AC. Otherwise, we can live off of battery until we need to empty holding tanks. Much more peace of mind with lithium than with AGM.
If only a few days I’m good but longer I do look for hook up. And there again I want all hook ups. Dump, fill and power.
Here is my analysis:
1) In warm weather areas requiring A/C, 50 Amp electric is necessary with using our diesel generator as secondary/backup system (this is because total cost to run generator exceeds $1/hr!=$25+/day versus $30-69 for full hookups, swimming pool, etc.)
2) Solar power is unreliable due to factors such as weather & shade (in addition to up front expense)
3) Therefore, to obtain maximum benefit at lowest overall long-term cost, I chose to install 810 AHrs of lithium battery capacity. (That is the very most I could cram into the battery storage compartment). This allows us to camp without electric hookup for 4 days. Beyond that it is 8 hrs ($10) to fully charge batteries on generator OR 1 night with hookups ($30-60).
We avoid travel in heat requiring AC, go north instead of AC. Electric hookup is nice, but we can boondock for up to a week (or slightly more with advance notice). We have 340 watts of solar and 4 AGM batteries which are fine for overnight with a couple of hours of generator in the AM (coffee and toast) to get the batteries on the way to 100% with any sun. Harvest Hosts, Boondockers Welcome and any free dry camp spot will do for a night or 3.
Not an issue if it’s not hot and humid. Actually, I prefer the serenity of boondocking.
Nope, not at all important to have a site with an electrical hook-up. The money we save by not staying at crowded, over priced RV parks has paid for our solar and lithium. We just got back from a 7 day boondocking trip camped beside a stream, our only cost was food and fuel, the serenity was magnificent!
Hopefully you never need anything at night that requires electricity like some others of us.
Depending on the weather, we can go a few days without hook ups in our Class A since we have a 5500W APU/Genset. We’ve gone to several NASCAR tracks (dry camping) and just uses the APU for the microwave and to run the AC at the hottest part of the day (though we usually go in spring or fall when it’s cool). The worst time we had was at Sonoma a few years ago, when it was over 100F every day we were at the track, and because we had all our pets in the RV, we had to run the APU for over six hours every day, keeping the ACs going. My next upgrade for the RV will be an inverter and transfer switch, so we can run the TV and microwave without firing up the APU.
This is dependent on the trip. We usually prefer to dry camp, in our 17′ TT, often the places we go have no option for power. However, if it is going to be very hot or cold, or if it just works out that way, we’ll go for FHU or W/E.
For instance, we prefer to stay in Mather CG at Grand Canyon, but when an early season snow storm was on the way early last October, we were happy to be able to get into Trailer Village (there were lots of cancellations!) with power, so we could use an electric radiator to supplement the heat.
I agree with it just depends where you are. However, have you ever seen a electric panel set up this nice! Even with instructions, would be great if they all were like that! Also makes it safer to use!
Snoopy
our dry and powerless RV days are long gone.
Never thought about elect. for decades. The body has gotten older, thank goodness, and elect. is now highly recommended for the occupants of our RV.
Our truck camper has a 3-way fridge, solar, LFP batteries, a DC-DC converter, a small inverter, and LP, so we rarely “need” an electric hookup. However, we often camp at locations with electric- and water hookups if the location is convenient to our route or offers a particular attraction.
I prefer to not carry 36 gallons of water (300 lbs.) while driving. We’re getting better at finding destinations without electricity but with water, typically communal taps.
“a few nights” OK. “or more”. HOW MANY “more”? That makes a HUGE difference. My Super-C has a diesel generator, solar panels and a good amount of propane so, the factor that REALLY limits my “staying power” is tank capacity. The most I’ve gone is 17 days at which time my tank limits were being stretched. 7 to 10 days is no problem for me.
“It all depends” should be an option. If it’s hot weather we need an electrical hook-up for a/c. Otherwise it’s not essential. We can go for weeks with our batteries and small portable generator for re-charging.
I agree completely. I can run my generator with enough power to run everything in the RV, but don’t want to run it 24/7 in extreme heat. We have a large enough battery bank to go for days if AC isn’t needed.
If weather is hot, electric hookup is very important so that AC can be operated. I prefer not to haul my generator just to run AC. Otherwise, our solar keeps us from needing electric hookups.
Few places are sufficiently attractive for us to forego an electric hook-up. If generators cannot be run when electricity is absent, then we’re not interested in staying there. Two campgrounds we discovered in a four-month-long-trip to Alaska were attractive enough to forego electricity and we ran our generator at both.