Atlas Boondocking

[WA_Airstream]

We are thinking about purchasing an Atlas. How well does it work with no hook-ups - like in a national park campground?

[LB_3]

The Atlas is new enough that there aren’t a ton of Atlas owners here yet. But there are a few who can probably help answer your questions better than I can.

Generically, most Airstreams are poor boondocking vehicles out of the gate. It’s all about finding out what your rate limiting resource is and either adjusting your camping style to accommodate those limitations or modifying your van to accommodate your camping style. We chose the second route.

When we first purchased our Interstate, the batteries were our rate limiting factor and we could just made it through the night and would need to run the generator daily to recharge.

We hate that noisy generator and feel terrible about starting it up to make toast or run the microwave early in the morning and disturbing the peace for all our neighbors.

We added solar which cured the need to run the noisy generator on sunny days. That took us from being battery/generator dependent to the weather being our limiting factor.

Then we added lithium batteries which allowed us to go several days with no sun and even allowed us to run the air conditioner or microwave for short periods. Now the generator sees practically no use at all except when traveling for business in hot weather.

This left propane as our limiting resource because our propane fridge would guzzle fuel when operating erratically (needing to be ‘burped’). We eventually converted over to a DC fridge (luckily, that’s what’s in all the newer vans).

We’ve probably reached the point of diminishing returns at this point and 2 weeks has been our outer limit for boondocking. Instead of being battery, generator, weather, or propane dependent we’re now limited by how much fresh water, food, and supplies we can carry.

We’re going to try to spend a month off grid on private property soon and are ditching the folding bike on this trip to make room for more food and we’re planning to set up an outdoor toilet to help take some pressure off the black tank. But that duration is Covid inspired so hopefully we’ll have the bike back with us soon.

[Lily&Me]

I’ve only been inside one of these, and don’t recall the frig/freezer combo, but if these are on the large side and run strictly off battery or electricity that will be your biggest limiting factor.

There are threads here on managing these limitations in Interstates, which may be of help to you.

Maggie