West FREE Classes: Who, When and Why to Boondock OTG

[Ray Eklund]

The majority of Travel Trailer and almost all RV owners would not be interested in anything but... RV Parks and RV/Trailer Rallies. That is a great reason to get into the Travel Trailer and RV's. Just not my 'cup of tea' as my Mom would say.

Who would get an Airstream to... Boondock? ...and then onto Forest and BLM Roads... narrow, risky for those with poor driving experiences... GRIZZ...?

All you need are DeLorme Maps for that State and make it all up. No plans. Never Disappointed.

An Airstream too Fragile? Too complciated? Maybe by adding onto as options to the 2019 27FBQ International... 16 inch Michelin tires, 3 inch lift and a F350 Diesel 4x4. You... betcha!

Even Worse... Boondock Off the Grid.

Tent Campers Off the Grid are the Number One group to get an Airstream with a heavy duty Tow Vehicle... and drive off the asphalt onto unpaved roads of the Western USA. I say Western USA as that is where I camped since 1965 in a Tent to collect fossils and rocks. (Agates, Chalcedony... mostly.)

The conversion from a Tent... to an Airstream is dramatic. Less dramatic is the conversion to a Pop Up Trailer, which is, also, a big change moving into any Airstream. A Home on Wheels... Yaa Hoo.

...and with Great Views, of your choice. Sometimes... you need to pull over and set camp... and finish the trip the next morning... To Find the Great View.

Those went from Tent Camping to a Travel Trailer... DO NOT, in my observations, have all of the conflicting images that... Boondocking is dangerous, too remote and offers hazards not found at a RV Park.

Even in 2016, we had a 23 foot Airstream Safari and still enjoyed a Tent camping... further into the boonies... as some say. I did not have the digital camera in the early days... but sure use this camera once purchased. My old photographs are color slides... someday I need to convert those.

My Mom loved the experiences to come along, and slept in the back of a small 2006 Toyota pickup and later a 2016 F350. She feared Rattle Snakes.

In western Nebraska, tent camped next to the Badlands of Nebraska, a small 15" to 18" rattlesnake was sunning in the prairie grass. I took my walking stick, with two Human Beans watching, as I easily flipped the 'Buzzing Rattlesnake' into the eroded Badlands, away from the Tent.

My Mom dreamed that evening, about this buzzing rattlesnake, climbing up a truck tire and into the pickup... she admitted. Nope, nothing climbed into the back of the pickup. Her first rattle snake experience. I have had plenty.

Tent Campers that go to a Travel Trailer do not complain as much about the trailer needing tweaking and minor repairs. Also find them capable to doing on the job repairs with tools carried to work on the vehicle, in necessary.

Free Classes are the Tent Camping Experience. You now can do whatever you are comfortable. Tent and/or Travel Trailer.

Anyone have a story about their Tent to Trailer... or as a kid... traveling and camping in a trailer... to Boondocking.

If not, that is OK.

[Limnocnida]

As a teen in the 80's, the morning I awoke with a hemlock needle stuck in between my teeth, a local chickadee repeating a riff from "Come On Eileen", the woods also waking up . . I knew camping was something special.

My family of many fit inside a sweltering 12 person canvas tent with poles that our parents somehow managed to piece together with minimal frustration. No plumbing, no showers, no electricity. 2 weeks family vacation.

Forward 30 years, wife and I decided to upgrade from tenting to our first (and last) camper in 2019. We bring the experience but continue to learn this new way of getting away with some comforts from home.

Occasionally, I still hear that song and smile.

Special thanks to Tom and Ruth

[Ray Eklund]

One brave soul among several thousand Airstream Forum members. Makes my heart 'Soar like a Bird'. (Chief Lodge Skin- 'Little Big Man')

I consider the 2019 model Airstreams as the 'Last of the Boondocking Airstreams'. Short for... 'Me Like Model'. Ours has ALL the necessary and unnecessary appliances that 'modern' Airstreams now sport as standard.

Microwave stores bread and muffins...

When Fossil Collecting in the Badlands of Nebraska... when I found a complete Mesohippus, or Dinictus, or Hoplophoneus, or Eumys skull... I would whistle 'Camptown Races'. Why... Hell if I know, but still recall those days, well.

Many Travel Trailer and RV Owners enjoy socializing with friends and strangers, owning similar accommodations. Our purpose is to spend as much time, far away from the civilized world, as possible during... the various Camping Seasons. When exploring off the grid towing, those who pleaded to go with us... never ask again. Actually some leave... early.

In Central New Mexico in the Gila... do not fry Bacon in your Airstream. If you think Bacon smells and tastes good... imagine a hungry 350 pound Black Bear getting a nostril full. All ten inches to your one inch+ nose. Free advice... to Bacon Lovers.

Or anywhere Wild Bear wander for... food.

(I was digging up an eight foot, ornamental tree today, which in 100+ Sunshine... the tree almost won. Axe, bumper jack, rope, trimmers, shovel and wheel barrow as entertainment. My breaks were writing about something I would rather be doing. But... saved enough to cover Diesel Fuel paying some crew to cut down and dig out the stump.) I finished and have no more incentive to sit in the AC cooled house and type on the Airforums, today.

Off to the local Casino for 5 cent Video Poker., soon. Draft beer is in our hands in five minutes. Ohhh weee.

We spend little time IN our Airstream, from Sunrise to Sunset sitting on our arses. Boondocking is to relax and seek adventure where we find it.

The last thing I want to be around is listening to Generators, Televisions and Air Conditioning units. At 8,500 feet elevation... nature provides it all.

[ke6gkv]

ahh,tent camping! grew up sleeping on the cold-hard ground. Started with a 46 Hari teardrop,not much but it got me off the cold-hard ground.All my trailers know the boondock path with only the annual state park visit. why stay at rv parks when I have thousands of acres of public land to roam? But I don't miss the cold-hard ground!

[mr5x5]

I camp exclusively in the west. I live in the mountains surrounded by trees, so when I camp, I like to go to open spaces like deserts and scrublands.
I was camping in death Valley(California) with two of my brothers. The wind started to blow and blew all night. I was OK in my little backpacking tent, but my brothers does not fare well in their family style tent. It turned into a ripstop blanket and made a lot of noise. Looking at their sleepless faces in the morning got me started thinking about a trailer. I bought my first airstream a few months later.

[Ray Eklund]

[QUOTE=mr5x5;2748194]I camp exclusively in the west. I live in the mountains surrounded by trees, so when I camp, I like to go to open spaces like deserts and scrublands. /QUOTE]
*****
Does your year of 23 foot have 14 inch or 15 inch wheels? Our 2006 had 14 inch C Rated Tires and did not work well for us. After 8 years... it was time to go to 15" and swapped them out to 16 inch on the 25 foot International. No problems after that.

(Six Lug Nuts... 15 and 16 inch wheel drums.) Had our 2006 23 foot Safari 15 inch wheels... we would still own it. The Go Anywhere Airstream.)

The 23 foot Double Axle for Airstream is as good as the Oliver Elite II's with double axle. They come with 16 inch wheels and tires. A foot or so narrower than most Airstreams at 7 feet wide and bumper to hitch about 23 feet. Go anywhere like yours.

Wyoming... wide open high country. Utah... high desert and higher mountains.

[kb0zke]

Jo Ann's family camped. Mine didn't. I started dreaming about Airstreams in the early 1960's when I ran into Wally Byam's book, Trailer Travel Here and Abroad. I read it several times back then and even got on Airstream's mailing list so that I got a new booklet each year with all of those pictures and floor plans.


Fast forward to 1984. Jo Ann and I go on our first camping trip - as two of the adult leaders for the church youth group's canoe trip! By the time the kids were in elementary school we would tent camp every summer. By the time they were in middle school we bought an OLD Minni Winnie Class C. Kids grew up and we moved to a Class A diesel pusher for 10 years. All that time I still dreamed of an Airstream.


In February, 2023 we sold the Foretravel and bought this Reflection as a bridge to an Airstream. We thought we were going to take it to Alaska, so we added solar, batteries, Victron MultiPlus II, etc. Plans changed, and we're taking a cruise to Alaska, so we're looking for an Airstream. We'll have something bigger than what Ray would recommend, but we're also new enough to know that we ought not start out with really out in the wilderness boondocking. We'll put a 3" lift on the Airstream if it doesn't already have one and add solar panels, batteries, etc. so we can go for several days just on our own resources, should we want to or need to.


We spent two days and nights up on the bluff overlooking I-80 and the main UP rail line just outside of Rock Springs, WY this summer. We really enjoyed that, and both of us are looking forward to doing more of that type of boondocking in the future.

[Ray Eklund]

For those Airstream Owners who believe they need Lithium, generator and Solar... it all depends on where, why and how you camp.

It is an adventure to be experienced. Not a motel with a television... and flushing toilet.

If you are in hot and humid low elevations... yep, probably need Generators and Solar. Geese are smarter than Human Beans as they FLY when Seasons Change. Human Beans... well, too many conversations needed to understand Elevation makes a difference.

East os Salina, Utah a week ago... it was 38F before Sunrise. And into the 80's later that morning. Low humidity. No furnace. No AC during the days. Thin Air warms and cools fast. You can even BREATHE and hold your breath in thin air.

Everything is fine with our Airstream's two Solar Panels and two 12 volt Interstate Batteries. Four 6 volt batteries and two Solar Panels in the Oliver Eiite II.

To spend $1,000's and more for Lithium, making changes in the systems... fine with me. When things go bad, not as easy to fix, either.

We do it with the bare minimum and rarely uncomfortable. Too hot... camp higher elevations. Too cold... lower elevations. You live in Texas... GO to the Rockies for vacation in the Summer and tour Texas in the Winter.

No bragging about our energy needs. Propane is #1. The rest we can get by, easily with comfort.

Raining in New Mexico monsoons right now, we were there earlier in the Spring. Now go North at Elevation for warm/hot days and cold/cool evenings. Change in Seasons... you figure it out. We have.

Avoid 'ski towns' as they are busy 12 months a year. Drive a bit further and... great camping. Takes a little geography and you move with the Seasons.

Camp as the American Indian did for thousands of years. You have wheels. For all of their history they walked and carried everything. Horses were very late in their history. Too much television. We find Indian Camps that are thousands of years old. Their trash is everywhere... obsidian and agate chips.

How do you think we find these campsites? By SMELL? No... we study our maps, contour lines, routes and history. You can as well.

[Mikebrady62]

Ray
When does class start? I will have to pick up my boondocking suit from the dry cleaners��

[Toasterlife]

I'm not certain if National Parks and Monuments count - but we hardly ever have hookups unless, spending an overnight in a commercial camp ground on our way to somewhere else.

Some of our favorites? Morro Head and Nafajo National Monument - Great Basin is nice too. Most people crowd into commercial full service places - which is good for us, more room in the lesser known spots for folks who dont need all the services

[Ray Eklund]

Once upon a time I was a 16 year old, with a new Driver's License and making payments for 12 months on a 1956 Volkswagen Bug. Cost $325 off the Dealer's Lot, I worked at Sears Catalog in Kansas City on weekends, holidays and during most of the Summer.

I packed the Army Canvas pup tent and headed out to western Nebraska to the Badlands to collect Fossil Mammal and Tortoise Fossils. About 670 miles... one way to Crawford, Nebraska from Independence, Missouri. (Yes former President Harry Truman home town. I spoke to him once going to Safeway. An older car with his own driver. He as riding in the back seat. Cannot remember what we spoke about. Nothing about camping...)

This military A shaped canvas tent... all have a SMELL you do not forget. If you had one... you know what I mean.

I park myself in the prairie overlooking the Badlands. Pulled out the Canvas Tent... NO Tent Poles. I called Collect from Crawford, Nebraska and after a discussion where to find the two poles that come in three connecting parts... the closest Greyhound station was Rapid City, South Dakota.

After driving up to Rapid City, I sat waiting for the Bus. And waited. It showed up and I drove back to the Badlands. Complete tent for a week finished.

Now that I am a Genius... of sorts, WHAT SHOULD I HAVE DONE? What should my Dad told me to do? No, there are NO Trees in the Badlands.

This could be interesting. I did not know. My parents did not know. After all of this... I later figured it out. I learned by making mistakes, while young and ignorant. If you made no mistakes... you have had nothing to do and bored.

I am not bored as I type. My break is over and back to... making mistakes.

[Ray Eklund]

I should have gone to the possible hardware store in Crawford, Nebraska and bought TWO tall wooden Dowels... ten miles from where I was camping, for a couple Dollars.

Or sent someone to get Two Sky Hooks, not the blue ones, but brown.

Do any of you go... Snipe Hunting with a Canvas Bag? Obviously... an easier question. No one obviously figured out the dowels.

Any Volunteers? Clear Canvas Bags... are best.