A Project for an RV Camping Group

Although there are boondockers who praise Solitude for the sake of itself, I disagree. Solitary camping for me is largely the result of two things: 
1) most men are paired with a woman who thinks boondocking is uncomfortable and unsafe, as well as boring since it's a 5 hour drive to the nearest Coach or Nieman-Marcus. 
2) most rigs are not designed for, or well adapted to, the needs of boondocking. (Point 2 is partly the result of Point 1.)

Therefore if you want to boondock, young man, my advice is to stay single and get a good dog. Hence I usually had to camp alone, by necessity.

But if we do manage to found a core group of boondocking outdoorsmen, it would make a great group project to "design" a suitable rig for our lifestyle. The RV industry builds rigs for a typical customer whose desires are very different from ours.

There are two basic approaches: 1) Select and combine a system of mass-produced rigs/vehicles/appliances that are readily available and repairable, or 2) Go into Do-It-Yourself mode.

You've probably seen extremely customized rigs that the owner was very proud of, and rightly so in one sense. For some guys, this is a labor of love. But how do you roll into a standard auto parts store or repair shop in a small town in the mountains and effect repairs on a "cute" or exotic rig? How would you insure all those hundreds of hours of work?

The Do-It-Yourselfer is also prone to the traps of reinventing the wheel as well as underestimating the power of mass production compared to the extreme slowness of home-making everything.

I'll assume that most readers -- being experienced and well-seasoned fellows -- have already agreed that Approach 1 is preferred whenever possible, and that Approach 2 should be reserved for filling in the interstices of the overall project.

Try to imagine the brainstorming of a group of real RV campers, as opposed to mainstream RVers at a Gathering. First we might use the "Lessons Learned" technique. All of our rigs have had features that were a pain in the neck. At the very least, a better RV should avoid such mistakes. The "negatives" are so concrete that we should quickly inventory them and then move on to the positive aspects of designing the ultimate camping machine. Obviously the positive aspects will eventually fade out into the subjective and uncertain.

I've already learned from other people's rigs: the first time I saw a fifth wheel trailer with an unusually small number of windows that were also below average in size, I thought the fellow had made a mistake. But he was right. Excessive window area is a classic mistake for RVs. (The RV industry makes this mistake year after year because it helps make the rig look larger and cheerier at the point of sale. Gullible customers expect large windows to make their RV look like a cute little McMansion-on-wheels.) Windows are one step better than a hole in the wall, but they cook you in the summer and freeze you in the winter. But yours are darkly tinted, you say? Fine -- touch that darkly tinted window on a hot sunny day; now touch the insulated wall. You won't have trouble feeling the difference.

Many people would be impressed if they had a chance to step into an A-frame folding trailer, as I had recently with Box Canyon Blog. You can only get so far by looking at websites or RV forums. You need to see it in the flesh and talk to a non-sales-oriented owner.

I always study other trailer's tire size and ground clearance. The 13 inch tires and low ground clearance that my ultralight travel trailer came with were a serious nuisance  -- in town as well as in the outback. Fortunately it also came with a compensating feature: under-rated axles. When I bent both axles I had the trailer lifted 2.5 inches, which made a world of difference. But in the future, I will insist on 15 inch tires like some travel trailers have.

It also helps to use rubber couplings on the holding tank's drain tubes -- the drain plumbing is very exposed on a low trailer. Either something is allowed to slip off, after hitting a rock, or it gets destroyed.

I would love to have van-people in my camping group. One of the people in my current Kodger Caravan has a van, and it has convinced me of its advantages. But I don't care for the excessive stuff they they try to cram into too small a space.

Arguably, the best camping machine for a single traveler is a spartan E-150 Ford cargo van (i.e., no windows), 2 wheel drive, with a high top, and no added exterior trim or storage. It serves as your den, bedroom, and kitchen. Then you pull a small, single-axle cargo trailer behind it, which stores toys, water, propane, batteries, generator, gas can and automotive chemicals, and perhaps serves as the shower. And it needs high clearance!

It helps to have a portfolio of rigs around when you are thinking of the next rig or the next improvement on the current rig. Otherwise your mind stays trapped in its solitude or is at the mercy of misinformation and sales-hype on the internet. 

Most of the time we get stuck on solving some problem, it's because we overlooked something right at the beginning. Having other people around can help a lot; they can challenge your assumptions.