theboondork's RV blog

Quartzite boondocking

12/17/2022

Clicking the pics may turn you from naughty to nice.

Boondocking at Dome Rock Quartzsite Arizona. I always tell folks new to boondocking that if you want to find out how to do it right, spend some time in Quartzsite. Quartzsite folks are experts at it, and they've been doing it for many years. Anybody can boondock for a short time in good weather, but boondocking long-term in any kind of weather, and staying comfortable, that's what these folks excel at.

I ran out of propane this morning about 6:30, fortunately I had been up for a while and my factory furnace was going so the Lance was warm. But the outside certainly wasn't since it was 28° by my thermometer.

This would've been barely an annoyance in the Arctic Fox, and the solution was simple. I would go outside close the valve on the empty tank, open the valve on the full tank, and be back to normal in a few seconds. And yes the Arctic Fox has an automatic regulator that would switch over to the full tank, but I never used it, preferring to switch it myself so I would know when a tank was empty.

But unlike the Arctic Fox with its twin 10 gallon tanks, the Lance only has room for one 5 gallon, standard barbecue size propane tank. So when I run out I have to remove the empty from out of the Lance, get the full one out of the trunks passenger seat floor board, and put it in the Lance. This effort is complicated by me having to lift the full 5 gallon tank as high as my head to get it into the Lance, and in this case it was freezing cold outside and pretty dark.

It could've been worse. I could've run out of propane in the middle of the night, because my fridge is using propane all the time. So I could've got up this morning with the temperature below freezing inside and out, with no heat at all to motivate me to get out of bed.

But since I'm a long-term boondocker that demands comfort under all conditions, I have prepared for that very scenario by using my Little Buddy propane heater as a backup with its own little 2 gallon propane tank, which fits under my table, so I light it and warm up the camper before I have to go outside and change the 5 gallon tank. I love boondocking, but I love my comfort even more, and there's no way I could be a long-term boondocker and be miserable every other day.

Which reminds me, one of the things I enjoy about being in Quartzsite is I'm surrounded by thousands of long-term boondockers. After all long-term boondocking is why people come to Quartzsite. So I feel perfectly normal here.... I said I feel normal, I didn't say I was.

Theboondork

The crack of dawn in Quartzsite Arizona. It seems I have gotten in the habit of waking up before the sun comes up despite my best efforts of getting back to normal. But by getting up this early it means I'm going to bed earlier at night... It's a vicious cycle.

This is my standby heating system. Tiny little two gallon propane tank, and a little buddy heater. Unlike my factory furnace this requires no electricity and it sips propane while warming up the Lance in 10 or 15 minutes. And of course I can connect a regular five gallon barbecue type tank if need be.

One of the many flea market areas in Quartzsite. I always go to these folks first because they have lots of RV stuff.

Dome Rock boondocking area.

This brand-new shiny truck camper just had to park next to me, probably to show me how clean his camper is compared to my muddy camper.

But I don't like his bicycle arrangement. They must swing out of the way so he can open his door. But then when he goes inside the camper do the bicycles just stick out into the parking lot? Must be interesting to watch when he comes out of Walmart with a cart load of groceries.

8 Comments

Judith

12/17/2022 07:34:27 pm

Ah geez. I've just been writing on Barney's site about my fear of the Mr Buddy I purchased last spring. I won't repeat myself, but RunNRose, whom I don't know, has the same problem as I learned from the comments. I've never used a canister, I have some little propane tanks for my grill outside ,It's too bad you and Barney can't just show up and fix this!! I'm askeerd. Everytime I change the tanks on the grill I am thankful the whole neighborhood didn't explode. Duh. I'll find someone...but sheesh. First I will actually have to practice. This will be for emergency heat only.
LIke RunNRose I have a nice gas furnace, but you know, it needs a fan!! Electricity.

Tom

12/17/2022 08:52:37 pm

First, let me make sure we know what kind of propane tanks were talking about. The Little Buddy Heater uses a small screw on 16 ounce container that screws into the side of the Little Buddy Heater. And you can buy the 16-ounce containers in a lot of places, I always see them in Walmart in the sporting-goods area. And they usually come in a two pack for about $10.

Those 16 ounce containers are pretty small and don't last very long. But if there just for emergencies you could buy four or six of them and that would keep one room warm for a few days.

Since that's an expensive way to stay warm, I have a special propane hose that one end will screw into the Little Buddy heater just like 16 ounce containers, and the other end will screw on to a regular 5 gallon barbecue type propane cylinder. That way the propane is way cheaper and the tank will last a lot longer.

Since you're so hesitant about using this Little Buddy heater I would suggest that you buy a couple of 16-ounce propane cylinders that screws onto the Little Buddy heater, take the heater and the 16 ounce propane cylinder outside, screw the 16 ounce cylinder on the Little Buddy heater by hand, just snug it up, and light it up outside. Then once you feel like you've got the hang of it then you can take it indoors.

Here's a video showing a guy lighting his Little Buddy heater. The videos actually about how to attach a regular barbecue propane tank to the Little Buddy but near the end of the video, it does show him lighting it. Hope this helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXTBy6AAr04

Tom

Linda

12/18/2022 01:09:12 pm

I had no propane system at all in my van. Instead I spent tons of money on a solar system that let everything run on electricity. I hated dealing with propane previously so I simply didn't have any on the last rig. It was an expensive choice so I'm glad Dave made enough money to pay for it. :)

12/18/2022 03:23:00 pm

Wow Linda! I'm impressed. Propane and its propensity to catch fire, or explode, is the reason I don't sleep with any heat on at night, and never have, unless I'm plugged in and using electric heat. But propane is not one of my favorite things either.

But I do love my solar panels and battery bank, I just don't think I could make enough electricity to live for days without propane for heat, cooking, or running the reefer.

I could run some of those things for a day or three, but with the cloudy skies, and chilly weather like I've had since I started my winter travels this year would be a challenge, but I would sure like to try. I think of the growing expense, and hassle of dealing with propane and I would love to get rid of it.

Any suggestions on your part of how to rid myself of the need for propane would be much appreciated, and even tried if it's not too expensive.

Tom

12/19/2022 02:53:23 pm

My van used diesel fuel so I had a heater designed for a semi-tuck cab that ran off my fuel tank. That helped, I'm sure. Other than that I simply filled my roof with solar panels and had huge AGM batteries. My electric water heater was 2.5 gallon size. I would turn on the breaker to it, wait ten minutes, then turn off the breaker. That gave me perfect shower temperature without using cold water in the mix which saved water. My fridge was also electric only--keeping it more or less full makes it run less often.

12/19/2022 04:05:57 pm

I'll look up that diesel heater thing, that sounds like a good idea, and I trust diesel a lot more than I trust propane not to blow me to kingdom come. I have five 100 watt panels on the roof right now, and I could get one more, maybe even two, but I am worried about the weight of the Lance, and my trucks marginal weight carrying capabilities.

I could put a couple more lithium iron batteries in it, but there again, even though there half the weight of regular batteries I worry about the weight of the Lance overall.

I take a lot of birdbaths, so my water heater doesn't get much use. And I do the same thing you do, I only turn it on when I'm going to take a shower, and I turn it off before I start my shower, no sense wasting propane heating up water that I'm not going to use.

Use to keeping my refrigerator full so it would stay cold longer wasn't a problem, but now I can't afford to keep my refrigerator full, I just take more vitamins, there cheaper than food.

Tom

Ken Hufnagel link

12/19/2022 11:37:44 am

Swap out your propane fridge for a DC compressor fridge (NovaKool, Truckfridge, or other) is the first step. For cooking I use a combination of a small induction cooker (800W, no longer available) and a Hot Logic DC oven. That Hot Logic thing is slow (1-3 hours to cook a meal) but only draws 45W doing it. Most meals take around 1-1/2 to 2 hours, so 70 - 90W-Hrs out of a 1200 W-Hr (100 A-Hr) battery. I don't use heat because I only travel in nice weather. That would be an issue for you.

My van has 400W of solar and 220A-Hr battery. This is working well for me, but I don't run full-time.

I had a NovaKool R5810 in my Lance 845. It was almost a perfect fit, just a little shorter than the propane unit. I put a board on top for a filler panel to make up the difference. The Truckfridge TF-130 in the van is shorter yet and narrower so it would be more work than the NovaKool to install in your Lance, but costs just over half as much. Of course its smaller on the inside also. Both are larger on the inside and lighter than the propane unit that was in the Lance. That propane cooling unit takes up a lot of space, and is heavy.

12/19/2022 02:21:00 pm

Thank you for that information Ken. I've been looking into the electric refrigerator for the Lance and does look like that's the way to go. It would be worth it just because I wouldn't have to spend so much time leveling up the camper like I do with my propane fridge, but my refrigerator really doesn't use very much propane, especially in the winter when it's chilly outside anyway.

But getting around the problem of cooking without propane is difficult. It does sound possible with a fair amount of battery power, but, and that's a big but, as soon as you start factoring in the battery power it would take to cook electrically during the winter when the sun is low, and when it stays cloudy without much sunshine on the solar panels for several days, which does happen even in the desert, cooking electrically becomes a difficult problem.

It always comes down to heat, which is why full-timers run south just as quick as possible during the winter. We have to use some heat, even in the desert, but only for a couple of hours or so a day. And the only way I have found to stay comfortable and not burn up too much propane is the radiant propane heater that I have in the Arctic Fox. But these factory RV furnaces not only use up a lot of propane, they also use a lot of electricity... And don't get me started about the noise they make, although I have to admit this Lance furnace is the quietest one I've ever heard.

Tom

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