I looked at caravan park prices in a recent post. The alternatives are becoming ever more popular, in particular those that don't cost a brass razoo. Let's take a look at what's required to set up a caravan, camper trailer or motorhome for free camping.
"Free Camping" sounds very attractive and "Free Camps" indeed provide the ideal
opportunity for an overnight stop, short break, or even a couple of week's holiday. For those who don't free camp regularly, a very basic existence for a limited time, adds to the charm. As for us permanent road warriors and long term travellers, free camps are an essential part of low income survival. I meet the odd gypsy who's still quite satisfied with the warm glow of an oil lamp and a shower courtesy of a bucket, but most of us are pretty soft and require some basic home comforts that in turn require certain amount of investment.
I forever celebrate the fact that I'll never pay another electricity bill. Even if by some unforeseen set of circumstances we gave up life on the road, we'd still choose to live off grid. Solar power is a very political subject. It became even more political in 2009 when the Rudd government offered subsidies on solar power as part of an economic stimulus. I don't want to delve into governmental economic policy, other than to say that the solar rebate was in my opinion an effective means of both stimulating the economy and increasing our reliance on renewables. The problem lay in the fact that too many businesses saw it as a source of fast cash. One of the knock on effects of the scramble for cash, was the evolution of a culture in the solar industry that pushed the most expensive equipment. It's an industry that still relies heavily on a customer base with limited technical knowledge. Operators use that very much to their advantage.
Home solar set ups go into tens of thousands of dollars. Many people approach solar power with the intention of generating enough power to maintain their existing usage levels. There really should be a culture of reducing energy usage and installing more cost effective systems. There's very much a belief that people can continue using energy in the frivolous manner that in part created an energy crisis in the first place. In part, this is perpetuated by a solar industry that wants to sell more panels and bigger batteries. A banking system that encourrages debt, props up expenditure on incredibly expensive systems, which home owners often borrow for against mortgages they can barely afford. Off grid solar power is a wonderful thing for the planet, but in financial terms it has become about taking the money that was once spent on electricity bills and giving it to someone else. This doesn't need to be the case.
Those of us who have scaled back by living on the road, are well aware that all the home comforts one needs, can easily be powered by small relatively inexpensive solar power setups. With a similar approach, home owners could do much the same thing. Unfortunately, homeowners so often get tied into arrangements with solar contractors whose mission is to convince them that basic systems are less reliable and less efficient. Whilst this is indeed the case to some extent, it very often doesn't warrant expenditure on systems that are often past their use by dates before the financial outlay has been justified by the savings afforded by not paying for electricity.
I'm often asked what a free camping set up should include. It's a good question and despite each setup depending on individual needs, there are some basic essentials. The most
important consideration when planning an "off grid" system, is how you can make your energy use more efficient. I often see examples of people who don't get the concept of energy efficiency. They're often people who find it difficult to downscale. It might make economic sense to have a small energy efficient, lightweight road friendly washing machine, but not a front loader and tumble dryer. Some people also find small microwave ovens very convenient for re-heating on the road, but shouldn't expect to cook meals in them. There are all sorts of appliances that can make life on the road easier, but you really do have to draw a line, unless you have an endless source of income.
I have to be brutally honest in saying that people with inordinately "big rigs," do get my back up somewhat. Domestic washing machines, tumble driers, big reverse cycle air conditioners and bloody dishwashers are just some of the appliances that I've seen people running on the road. it's all very well if people can deck out a 60 seater bus with ten grand's worth of off grid power generation. Go for your life. What really annoys me is that many people who are challenged by downscaling, pull into showgrounds or budget camps, plug into power and expect to pay for a single site, at the same rate as someone in a tent.
Budget camping costs are steadily rising. I don't think anyone can deny that there's somewhat of an inequity and those of us who maintain modest setups are paying for the excesses of others. I refer to one recent stay at a favourite showground. The standard fee was $20 per night with power for 2 people. $15 for singles. We were charged $25 because our daughter was with us. In the site next to us was a gentleman on his own in a converted 60ft motor coach. He actually told me that he thought showgrounds were getting expensive and he resented paying $15 a night. He opened up the cargo hold to reveal a full laundry with a front loader and tumble drier. He jumped at the opportunity to show me around his bus, which housed more appliances that the average Harvey Norman store, including a bloody dishwasher. We had to pay an extra $5 per night for our daughter to have a shower, yet this bloke was using up enough water and power to supply a small village.
There is a way to escape this kind of inequity and that's to eliminate the need to pay even budget camp fees, by free camping. For those of us who can cope with scaling down, a fairly modest investment will provide for all necessary creature comforts as well as opening up a world of freedom that's simply not possible without making certain sacrifices.
The four main areas to consider when setting up to free camp are: Power, cooking, temperature control and water / waste. Let's look at those categories individually.
Power - As previously mentioned, the most important power consideration is how you manage consumption. Let's look as fridges as an example. Compressor fridge / freezers for instance, are very efficient if you're on the move every day and thus charging from your vehicle's alternator, but they can be quite a drain on your batteries when you're stationary. A 75L compressor fridge can draw up to 70 amps in a day. Since most batteries should only be discharged to 50%, by running such a fridge, you would be required to add approximately 140 amp hours to your battery bank. That's not an unreasonable amount, but it does represent a cost of around $300 and approximately 35kg extra weight. The bigger your battery bank, the bigger your solar array needs to be, so there are weight and cost considerations there too.
In my experience, the best way to live off-grid as far as refrigeration is concerned, is with a 2-way or 3-way fridge. A fridge that runs off LPG whilst free camping and 240v electricity when on a powered site. A 3-Way also runs from 12v, but that can be the source of many headaches too. A lot of people make the rookie mistake of running their 3 way fridge from 12v power whilst stationary. One has to consider that when running from a source of electricity, this type of fridge (heat exchanger) can draw anything up to a whopping 25 amps. That will flatten your battery bank in no time. The 12v function is essentially there for the purpose of running the fridge directly from your vehicle's alternator whilst travelling. It ensures that the fridge keeps operating whilst in transit. As soon as you reach your destination, the fridge should be switched over to gas or 240v, if available.
With your fridge running on LPG, there isn't much else in a normal set up that draws a lot of
power. some caravans have separate 12v and 240v light systems and others have hybrid systems by which the 12v supply is switched into the 240v supply via an inverter. Inverters essentially convert a 12v power source from a battery, to a 240v supply. What you can run from your inverter is based on three major factors:
1) The quality of the inverter and the how it's output is conditioned to cycle. It's not really worth looking past pure sine wave inverters. Modified sine wave inverters are cheaper, but they are not a good power source for devices such as laptops. It's really not worth going cheap with an inverter. The better the inverter, the more safe it's likely to be. It's not something that one should take any risks with. There are some very good, very safe inverters on the market, at a reasonable price.
2) The inverter's power capacity is also quite important. The bigger the capacity, the more expensive the inverter. I see people with 2000W inverters. They might be capable of running powerful appliances such as microwaves and kettles, but you will need a pretty big battery bank for those things to run for more than a couple of minutes at a time. Kettles boil very quickly on a gas stove and a bit of planning should negate the need for a microwave when your free camping. The biggest inverter I've ever run is 600W. My current inverter is a 600W Victron Blue and it runs the TV, sound system, three laptops, printer, 240v LED lights, stick blender, spice grinder and a small food processor.
3) There's no point in running an inverter if your battery bank is very small. Lights, TV, laptops and USB phone chargers can all be set up to run directly from a 12v supply. There's no point in attempting to run appliances that require 240v power, if your battery bank is very small. If you're going to install an inverter, I recommend a battery bank of no less than 240 amp hours.
The subject of batteries can cause some confusion. There are 4 main types of deep cycle batteries for use in house battery banks. unsealed flooded led-acid, AGM, Gel and Lithium. There are some basic rules of thumb:
- Led-acid are cheap, effective, but can't be used in a confined space in which humans also breath. They can be discharged down to about 12.1v without compromising the battery's life.
- AGM batteries cost more than led-acid. They are sealed, so can be used anywhere. They shouldn't be discharged lower than 12.3v.
- Gel batteries are very similar to AGM batteries, but more expensive They can handle more vibration and generally last longer.
- Lithium batteries cost 8 to 10 times as much as AGM batteries. they can be discharged down to around 80% capacity. This means that a battery bank using lithium batteries can be quite a bit lower in capacity than a comparable bank using the other types. They are considerably lighter.
AGM batteried outsell other types for the purpose of caravan / RV house batteries by 70:1. They are my personal preference and I think it's going to be a while before lithium batteries come down in cost enough to make them attractive.
Solar panels come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are a number on the market that are marketed with claims of super efficiency and quality. I'm sure such claims are true of some, but others are exactly the same panels that you can buy on ebay for around $1 per watt. I've found that $100 Chinese made 100 Watt panels from ebay, generally do what it says on the tin. There are plenty of Australian importers selling them with Australian warranties. Personally, I don't see the point in buying more expensive products. In my experience the cheaper panels output what they're supposed to and stand the test of time. Electrons are electrons, no matter what they cost to generate.
As a general rule of thumb, a solar array should be produce around 4 times more power in Watts than the charge a battery bank holds in amp hours. For a 240 amp hour battery bank, a 400 Watt solar array is about right. Depending of course on how much current your system draws in a day. If you have a 240 a/h battery bank for just LED lights, it will last you a long time and you won't need a big solar array to top it up each day. Add fans, a TV, phone chargers, laptops and a few kitchen appliances, you'll soon suck the charge from the bank.
We have a 240 a/h bank in the caravan, with a 460 Watt array. The cost of such a setup breaks down to around $600 in batteries, $500 in panels, $300 for the inverter, $150 for a 30 amp solar regulator and approximately $250 in cabling, fuse boxes and 12v outlets. Just short of $2,000 for a system that gives us all the home comforts we need with little compromise. Our fridge runs on LPG, but we also have a compressor freezer in the Land Rover, which has it's own 150 a/h battery. That battery is charged from the alternator and another 100W panel which is on the car. That setup had it's own solar regulator and a battery isolator. It cost around $500 to set up.
As we are on the road full time and want to avoid expensive caravan parks, we also have a good backup system. That takes the form of a 1Kva generator and a 25 amp smart charger. If the sun doesn't shine, we can run the generator for a few hours and charge the battery bank enough for the next 24 hours. The Charger cost around $350. I bought my Honda generator second hand for $400, but that was an absolute bargain. They are usually around $700 for second hand unit, but there are plenty of cheaper Chinese models on the market these days.
There are a lot of cheap nasty solar regulators on the market. They're not worth the hassle. The same goes for inverters and smart chargers. By the same token, there are a lot of ridiculously expensive products out there that men with beards wearing Akubras will tell you are the "only product you should buy." That's a load of bollocks. They just want to tell you how good their gear is and make you feel inferior. If you want to spend a lot of money, I'm sure that you won't be disappointed, but if you want good products at a good price, I can throw a couple of names at you. In terms of solar regulators and inverters, Projecta and Victron make exceptional products at a very reasonable price. Safety is a big issue and these products are as safe as any. As far as chargers go, I personally wouldn't go past the Projecta Intellicharge. When I was first looking at them, I spoke to an auto electrician. The Projecta rep left one at his workshop on demo for a month. When he came back, they wouldn't let him have it back, plus they ordered another 10 units. They are very good indeed.
There are few names on the market that you'll see crop up regularly. Redarc products are excellent, but getting towards the pricey end of the market. C-Tek products are also extremely popular. They are in the middle price range, but I don't think they offer anywhere near as much bang for buck as other products in that price range. Their selling point was once the fact that they were extremely reliable. I'm not sure that's the case since mass production came into the equation.
Cooking - There's no shortage of people who want to sell you the latest outdoor cooking gizmo, and there are plenty of them. Food is a big thing for us. I was a food writer / broadcaster for a number of years and we owned a couple of restaurants. We know our way around a snag! I'm not going to provide a list of what's out there. I'm simply going to go through our setup.
We're very lucky in that our caravan has a full size gas oven with a four burner cook top. We can do anything with it. The only problem with that is that in hot conditions, it's essential to run the air conditioner if we want to cook inside the caravan. We have a backup position in the form of our outside cooking setup. Now, in the world of caravan living, one thing is extremely noticeable. People really like to have the same stuff as everyone else. They fall victim to great marketing and before you know it, there's another "only product you should ever buy," and you're utterly worthless if you don't have one! In outdoor cooking, the default product is the Webber Q gas barbecue. Everyone has to have one. Except me. For a start, a gas grill isn't a fucking barbecue. Barbecues cook with charcoal. All that aside, there's nothing wrong with your Webber Q. It's a quality product. The problem I have, is that they clock in at around
$600 and take up a fair bit of room. Now in saying that, they've become such a standard that most modern caravans have compartments that are designed especially for them.
Our caravan is far from modern and alas doesn't have a Webber Q compartment. After professional counselling, we have managed to accept life without a Webber Q. Since the counselling cost $400 and the alternative around $150. we're fifty bucks up.
We have an old metal, folding card table with an off cut of checker plate on the top. That acts as a stand for a cast iron Chinese wok burner, which cost $50. If there's something the Chinese are fairly adept at manufacturing, it's wok burners. Your Webber Q is "engineered" in the USA and manufactured in China. We've pissed off the middle man and saved a shit load of money.
That brings me to the posh bit. The cooking surface. On top of our wok burner, we place a Le Chasseur enameled cast iron grill. Arguably one of the best cooking surfaces known to humanity. It cost $90 on special from Victoria's Basement. I reckon our Chinese cast iron burner and and French cast iron grill, give us as good a gas grill as anything on the market, for $140! If i want covered cooking, which I rarely do, I'll stick the wok upside down on top. If I want a barbecue, I'll cook on the ground with charcoal. The best thing about the wok burner, is when we want a deep fryer, we can put our cast iron saucepan filled with oil, on top. The burner is also perfect for our 12" cast iron French casserole and a frying pan. With a windbreak crafted from 3 pieces of hinged checker plate, it doesn't get much better.
For years I swore by my trustee Furphy camp oven. I still do, they are an incredibly versatile bit of cooking kit. However, after a a year on the road, we decided that it took up a lot of room and added a lot of weight, not warranting the effort considering how infrequently we used it.
There's a lot of media that romanticises the whole Aussie bush, campfire cooking thing. There's indeed nothing like it. Cooking under the stars is the highlight of many holidays, but holiday is the very point. Campfire cooking takes an effort. It's a very worthwhile effort to make, but when space and weight are compromised, a large 10kg camp oven is somewhat of a luxury. Whilst campfire cooking is the image of the ultimate in frugal living, it's actually not all that convenient on a regular basis. We tend to cook on a fire a couple of times a year. It a great way to spend an evening, but it doesn't justify spending money on dedicated cooking equipment, nor the space and weight that it takes up.
Some people take cooking more seriously than others, so it's difficult what to suggest as a
basic kit. We get an incredible amount of use out of our cast iron French casserole. The good ones cost upward of $200. I think they're worth every penny, but we already had one prior to ending up poor. If you scour ebay, you'll find half decent Chinese made products for under $50. They probably won't wear as well or last as long as Le Creusset or Le Chasseur products, but they'll do the job until you can afford a posh one.
Cast iron is a great cooking medium. We also have a lidded cast iron, wooden handled saucepan that was made in England by Salter. It dates back to the 50's and cost me $30 on ebay. It's a very high quality cooking vessel. We use it specifically for deep frying. Apart from that we have one stainless steel saucepan, 3 frying pans from 6" to 15", a couple of pizza trays and 3 x 0.5GN commercial bane trays that are not only invaluable for baking and roasting, but also store away inside each other in the oven. I wouldn't be without my collection of quality kitchen knives, but I am a knife anorak. However, I do believe that a selection of 4 good quality kitchen knives is essential.
When planning your cooking setup, it's probably a wise decision to look at your typical weekly menu and narrow down your cooking implements to suit. It's just not worth carrying something on the off chance that you might use it one day. I know a Swiss fondue is very tempting, but my intuition tells me that you might end up travelling many thousand kilometres without cracking out the colour coded forks and copper pan. Living on the road starts by being weighed down by a whole pile of stuff you don't need. As life on the road progresses, you end up wondering why you ever thought that stuff was a good idea in the first place.
Temperature Control - I have one piece of advice for living on the road in cold weather; keep driving north. I can't offer any advice on heating. I don't have any need for a heater, neither do I ever intend having a need for one. Cooling on the other hand, is a far more involved science.
I'll keep this brief. Rooftop air conditioners are very expensive. Around $2,000 and about
$1,000 for installation. I find that they're not only expensive, but also quite noisy. I read regular posts on forums, pertaining to them struggling in temperatures above 38 degrees C. They're also heavy and add significant height to a caravan. On top of all that, if you want to run them off grid, you will require at least a 2.5kva generator; a decent one will cost around $2,000. That's around $5,000 to keep cool while free camping amongst a bunch of people that will give you such dirty looks every time you start your generator, that you'll never bother.
We bought a very reliable, very efficient, light and compact Kelvinator wall unit. The RRP was $600. We picked up a factory second with full warranty for $300. Factory second meant that the box was missing. It cost very little to install. It's quiet and runs for 6 hours on one full tank from my 1kva generator that I paid $400 for. We have run it from the generator in extreme temperatures as high as 43 C, maintaining an inside temperature of around 27. People can sing the praises of rooftop units until they're blue in the face and I'll never be convinced. Nearly everyone I meet who has one, seems to complain about it.
We make a big effort not to use the air conditioner until conditions demand it. It costs money in fuel for the generator. Before we fitted fans, we used it a lot, but we became acclimatised to an air conditioned environment and found the outside world somewhat challenging in terms of temperature.
One of the best product ranges I've ever discovered is the Caframo fan range. They were
designed for use in yacht cabins. They're small, wall mountable, very powerful, quiet and extremely power efficient, drawing 0.5 Amps at full power. There are several models in the range. A lot of caravan owners are opting for the Sirocco. We have opted for the Ultimate. The Ultimate has 2 speeds as opposed to the Sirocco's 3. The top speed on the ultimate is more powerful than the Sirocco's top speed. The Sirocco has a timer, but I'm not sure why. It can also rotate 360 degrees on 2 axis, whereas the Ultimate turns 360 degrees on one axis and backward and forward on the other. The Sirocco has a stainless steel guard around the blade. The Ultimate has an extremely lightweight, flexible rubber blade that doesn't hurt when you lean into it and I regularly do. At $170 for the Sirocco and $80 for the Ultimate, it's a no brainer. They're fully manufactured in Canada and carry a 1 year manufacturer's warranty.
Water and Waste - Again this is an issue that's very dependent upon individual needs. Caravans, RVs and camper trailers generally have fitted water tanks. Depending on their size, a backup is often necessary. In recent years, rubber bladders have become available. They are designed to fit into a variety of spaces in various models of car. A lot of them are designed to sit on the floor, in front of the back seat and hold up to 200L. They allow caravan owners to drive to a water source and take on a significant quantity of water without having to hitch up the caravan. A hose from the bladder can either be pumped or gravity fed into the caravan's on board tanks.
The big issue in the world of free camping is the dreaded "grey water!" Some free camps demand that all vehicles are "self contained." This means a toilet on board with a removable "black water" tank and a means of collecting "grey water" and dumping it elsewhere. This is allegedly based on environmental friendliness, but to be frank, it's tokenism. Many argue that the grey water issue has been pushed onto councils by the bodies who largely represent motorhomes. The most contentious issue is that some camps require fixed on board grey water tanks.
Motorhomes carry such tanks by means of compliance requirements. It's pretty easy to fix an extra tank to a vehicle with a wheel in each corner. it's considerably more difficult on a caravan or camper trailer and impossible on a tent. many argue that it's down to motorhome owners wanting free camps exclusively for themselves.
At the end of the day, we've been using free camps for years and yet the self contained issue has never come up. We use a drum to collect the water from our sink and pour it on well drained bushes. We have a particle filter on the sink and only use eco-friendly detergents. Seeing as we only eat natural foods, all particles that miss the filter are biodegradable.
Our bathroom is a double ensuite tent, with a Thetford Portapoti in one side and a shower with a digitally temperature controlled hot water system in the other. We inflate a child's paddling pool under the shower, collect the water and also dispose off it on well drained bushes. We've never killed a bush and never been moved on or even questioned by an authority figure.
Many modern caravans and motorhomes have inside toilet / shower cubicles and I agree that they're a great convenience. On the downside, they take up room, they're often cramped, they frequently cause condensation and they can create odour. I'm glad that we have chosen the outside option. It's less convenient on short stops, but we tackle that by using a light folding popup ensuite. It goes up and down in a minute.
There are endless arguments online about the grey water issue. I'm sure this post will cause a few. I tend not to get drawn in anymore. I know what's right and I'm perfectly comfortable in my skin, doing what I do. Without adding too much fuel to the fire, it's very often people who own huge motorhomes and converted buses who argue most vehemently for fixed grey water tanks. They always argue from an environmental perspective. I have one response; pouring a bit of freshly used, filtered washing up water on a well drained bush, has virtually no environmental impact compared with carbon emissions from a large diesel engine in an aging bus!
There are those who attempt to take the freedom out of free camping. There are also those who abuse it. The biggest offenders are big companies that own fleets of small campervans aimed at the "backpacker" market. A lot of people complain about backpackers and the way they fail to comply in free camps, with particular reference to their toilet habits. I agree that it's far from satisfactory, but I don't think the backpackers themselves can be blamed for the worsening situation.
They arrive in Australia and are inundated with marketing from van hire companies. The vans are determined by the operators to be "fully equipped" and the companies claim to be reputable. They aren't equipped with portapoties or ensuite tents and the customers are not provided with a guide to free camping etiquette. There's a lot of talk about minorities making things bad for people who do the right thing. Truth be told, it's not really a small minority. In some places the "whizz bang" vans are very much in the majority. However, I feel strongly that the individual customers aren't to blame. There's a significant tourism sector that perpetuates bad behaviour. It's not the result of some kind of "pinko lefty libertarian conspiracy." It's just a sheep-like response to typical modern day capitalism. Take the cheapest product available, create a trend and sell it en masse with no concern for the consequences or it's impact on others.
There's a lot of common sense involved in free camping. I can't say that every night we spend on the road, is in a designated camping area. However, when we're parked in such an area, we put nothing on the ground but our tires. We arrive late and leave early. It's about being stealthy in those situations and having respect for those around you when you are in designated camping areas. It's also about having a sense of what's the right thing to do, which gives you the confidence to do your thing without being bullied by whingers whose only justification for their dickweaseliness, is that they have more money than you.
