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14 Camper Survival Tips For Your Off-Grid Adventures

14 Camper Survival Tips For Your Off-Grid Adventures

More and more people are discovering the joys of RVing. One of those joys is utilizing their RV as a base camp from which to engage in their favorite outdoor activity. Many times these outdoor adventures take place far from a conventional campground requiring the use of off-grid camper survival skills.

Campers who want to immerse themselves in the thousands of acres of natural beauty have learned how to do off-grid camping.” Per blogger Mike Napier

Our top off-grid survival tips

Preparation

1. Before heading off into the wilds, make sure all recommended RV maintenance and service has been performed on your motorhome or tow vehicle. Breaking down coming or going from a remote off-grid campsite can be an expensive proposition and potentially life-threatening.

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2. Make sure your tires are in good shape and properly inflated before hitting the road.

3. Also ensure your house battery bank is healthy and appropriately sized for your needs.

4. Have a method to efficiently recharge your house batteries. Solar, generator, or wind turbine are all good options.

5. Be prepared to be wowed by the scenery when camping off-grid. Invest in a good camera and have plenty of storage space for all the photos you will take.

RV boondocking in the wild - camper survival tips
Be prepared to be wowed by the scenery!

Planning

6. Know where you can legally camp off-grid. Here is a short video where I explain how to determine where you can legally camp off-grid away from campgrounds:

7. Know the rules for where you are camping by visiting the website of the land agency where you plan to camp. An online search for “Dispersed Camping Guidelines” combined with the name of the land agency will typically take you to a page, as shown below, listing the rules.

8. Plan on taking everything you need with you when camping off-grid. This includes potable water, fuel, groceries, clothing, etc. as there is seldom a store nearby if you forget something.

9. Know in advance where you can dump your holding tanks and obtain potable water. A trip planner like RV LIFE Trip Wizard can help with this.

Dispersed Camping Rules
Know The Rules – Screen Shot USFS

Water conservation         

Once you are off grid, staying there is all about conserving precious resources, mainly fresh water and gray water holding tank space.

10. Conserve your potable fresh water. Check out these tips for managing your fresh water supply.

11. Minimize the amount of waste water that flows into your gray tank using these gray water tips.

Safety

12. Know your location if you need to summon help. Since off-grid locations rarely have a street address, reference the nearest milepost to your location or better yet, know the latitude and longitude of your location when you call first responders.

13. Let someone know where you are going and when you plan to return.

14. Remember cell phones don’t work everywhere, especially out west. Consider carrying a device like a Spot or inReach that allows you to communicate via satellite from virtually anywhere in North America.

Satellite Messaging Device
Satellite Messaging Device

Finally, don’t ruin off-grid camping for others. Pick up after yourself, take your garbage with you and leave the site better than you found it.  

Watch this short video for additional survival tips and see how other RVers employ the tips shared above: