Hey Howard...will we be "allowed" to run Honda generators at night for A/C? (we have the 2000 series)...also, I was just realizing even though we have like a 110 gallon fresh water tank, our grey tank is way smaller...so where will we "dump" at the end of the rally? You can tell I'm a REAL BOONDOCKING NEWBIE (LIKE IN NEVER DONE IT BEFORE) Super excited to learn! Thanks, Ellen and Mario BTW, we LOVE our new Dually truck!

Good question, Ellen. I'm a total newbie as well and am already getting very anxious about staying somewhere without a full hookup!!! I just hope I learn to back into a spot by then!

In normal boondocking situations there are restricted hours when you can run a generator and they are during the day. Generators are for charging batteries and running big loads during the day. At night you have to live with what your batteries can supply. If you have to run 120 volt electric loads overnight and have no inverter, you might not be able to boondock. If you don't have enough batteries to run your needed loads, inverted or not, overnight, you might not be able to boondock.

People attending last winter's boondocking rally seemed to have enough water and grey tank, plus found a place to dump when it was over. I hope someone who attended will chime in.

We have 105 gallons of water tank, 65 gallons of grey tank and 35 gallons of black tank. We can go 4 to 5 days with little effort, 8 with a bit more effort. Many who boondock have less tanks than we do and can go two weeks. We are whimps and like to shower daily and eat some meals in that require washing dishes.

Diane has a CPAP breathing machine and we have a residential refrigerator. We have enough batteries to last the night with these loads. We do run a generator daily to keep those batteries up and can boondock for as many days as our tanks hold out. Even with 400 watts of solar, we need our generator. We would need 800+ watts to have days we did not need a generator.

We have two 6 volt Ford heavy duty deep discharge batteries, 260 amp hours. What kind of battery power is that? (or wait until we get to the rally to find out?)

cherylbrv: That is enough battery for most overnights. It would run a small inverter overnight for small 120 volt loads, it would run your water pump, some lights and your furnace fans. Some RVs come with one small battery and that is not enough to run a furnace fan overnight or any inverter. But, if you don't need these overnight, you can boondock with one small battery.

I was referring to larger battery drains that cannot be avoided, like medical equipment or a residential refrigerator.

We were there last year. Did not need the AC.