Big Rig & Free Camping Tips we've learnt - AUSTRALIA, Australia
AUSTRALIA, Australia
I thought I'd start adding all the good ideas we have come up with or been told by fellow RVer's
I will be adding to this list all the time as time goes by.............
Mind you I must stress that these things suit us and it mostly applies to a big rig but may not suit others, this is really just some things we have found and you may consider as food for thought, take what you want from it, disregard what you don't want.
**Use Shower Gel instead of soap, it stops soap scum in the shower, you'll be amazed!
**Shower Gel is great for lathering up with a little bit of water before rinsing when you are conserving water.
**We stand in a large dish under the shower, then use that water to wash clothes next day.
**Use Wool Mix to wash clothes, they tell me you don't need to rinse. (Thanks Carmen & Peter)
**Everything should have more than one use.
**If pushed - a black tank or cassette goes a lot further if you throw your used toilet paper in bin for #1's only, rather than it going into the tank. There....I said it! (Thanks lovely lady at Cliff Head WA)
**Steaming vegy's is extremely economical and retains all their goodness, then.....
I use that hot water to wash up. Saves water and double heating.
**Wash up in a dish rather than the sink, Saves water. I put all the dishes in another dish on the floor until days end and wash up all at once. Looks heaps better than all in the sink!
**Johnson & Johnson wipes for no water wash. Save water. Cheap wipes leave sticky skin!
** In winter light a fire and cook in Camp Oven or a Bodurie Pan,cook as much as you can to make use of coals and heat, I put a roast on then loaf of bread then scones. (Thanks to Ash's Dad)
**Dream Pot or similar are fantastic for cooking Gas/power as well as it being cooked after a long day.
**We have smallish bow saw which we saw off small dead limbs, the twiggy ends for kindling and paper to start.
**Fire Lighters are also VERY helpful to start fire too
**Heat Beads are good when you can't get firewood.
**Always keep track of where you've been and what you've done, I highly recommend Travelpod. (Thanks Derek & Jo)
**Belkin has a Set Top Box and an App which works from home/base to watch TV, record, change channels directly via App or wifi/satellite on your smart phone, computer or tablet. Watch TV from anywhere as long as you have internet.
(we've found Tele is harder to get more consistently than the internet or phone??!!)
**If you tow a toad on an A Frame or even on a trailer, make sure you close the vents as we found out the *********** our first dirt road!!! filled it with dust!
**We've covered the front of the car with shade cloth to protect it also.
**Towing a car on the A Frame we find personally better too because when we go somewhere, nobody would know if someone is in the bus or not, whereas it's obvious if the car is off the trailer.....mind you a trailer would be great for extra storage. More advantages are 1 rego or 2, less tyres to wear down & later replace/renew.
**Large tyres of the big rigs run straight over the top of most corrugations on dirt roads.
**We love a central door on a bus because the awning covers it from rain, you can have a screen door, plus room to have swivel driver and passenger seats that double as lounge chairs.
**Copy your Movies onto a portable hard drive rather than taking all the discs. I use "DVD SHRINK 3.2" to compact them before saving, then we have a Media Player which plugs into the Hard Drive which plugs into TV to watch movies etc.....maybe there's cordless one available now??
**We did 3 years of homework before we decided on the RV we did eventually buy, but even then have found so many things we didn't consider or know about and a lot were luckily in our bus! So we find we are forever sighing with relief at our luck, (Thanks Jenny & Bob).
**One of the biggest is the Hydraulic levelling system on our Motorhome, we watch others driving in circles, stop start, chock here chock there, dig holes, back up, move forward, argue between the two of themselves......whereas we are so grateful to just drive in, stop and set up camp, sometimes we take the toad off (which we have down to a fine art) and go for a drive to find a suitable spot to camp. That's it. Very expensive I know but we didn't realise just how great they are.
**Another is the louver windows, you can still have them open no matter if its raining.
**(In the case of big rigs with Air brakes) A fitting on the air tank to pump up tyres (service station's air for pumping up tyres don't handle the pressure needed for big rigs 90-100psi tyres) as well as use an air operated grease gun, or the use of air operated tools anywhere.
** Plenty of power points for obvious reasons.
**Two aircons are great because we can close down one end and just cool or heat the other. Therefore a door on the inside middle of bus is great for privacy as well.
**Fabulous removable pull out clothes line that attaches to the back of the bus, we bought another and put it on the other side.
**The Window awnings on each window really makes a huge difference to keep the Bus cooler.
**Solar Screens for the windscreens are the best investment you will make!!!!
**Windows Live Movie Maker is fantastic for making our memories come together in a slide show and edit video.
**The forums are a great source of info thegreynomads.co.au website & forum, ozervnews.com & aussiemotorhomes.com and a fabulous website/blog is hobohome.com ** Gavin & Tracey Murray have been on the road in their big rig for over 10 years and their website is a huge wealth of information http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ayer_embedded&v=UinSc5zQNeI is an exceptional video they made .
** CMCA is a Camper & Motorhome Club well worth joining too with a magazine once a month, discounts etc etc and they work hard to make 'our' lives on the road better, like installing Dump Points just as one example.
**Since being up north we've been eaten alive by Sandflies, but we've at last found a terrific product "Sandfly & Mozzie Stuff" by The Locals. We bought the cream but it's avalable in the spray too, it is both a repelant and a bite itch soother, both work brilliantly....so far anyway....I'll keep you posted!! Check out where they sell them on www.thelocals.net.au We have no involvement whatsoever, just grateful for some relief.
** Peroxide is great to stop itches.
** Hot rocks placed on new bites for 5 minutes will lessen the bite's reaction.
** A cork stops cramps!
** Keep a separate mat at the door so when you stop you can put it out, the red dust in some areas gets tracked into RV so easily, so a mat helps.
** A solar shower is very handy, to fill up with sea water after swimming to wash the sand off at the car or RV. When water is conserved. Or the old fashion bucket with a shower rose!
** If you love the sea and beach combing or rock pools, don't leave home without reef shoes, they are fantastic. Use a stick to steady if you're a bit rickity! Great for the core!
On our list of things we want to change.
**Have a top loader washing machine, that way when free camping a lot, to conserve water or use creek water etc. you can either have another tank for suspect water for our front loader or load via buckets, which we cant do, with our front loader, mind you!!! the BOSS is in the think tank over that now as we only just bought a new machine!
It'd be very handy to have a portable freezer for storing extra food.
**Something else to concider (thanks Shane & Karen) is to have a stop cock on the inlet hose to toilet so you can turn water on and off when needed, as flushing #1's all the time uses a lot of water.
** I'd like a separate drinking water tank, as then when crook water is the only option you can fill your fresh water tank without fouling the good drinking water. Another alternative is to keep drinking water in separate drums/containers, but that takes up precious storage space.
** I'd like a separate cassette attachment as well as our Black water tank, so when we are camped up for any length of time more than 2 weeks, we wouldn't have to pack up, drive and empty our black tank, we could just pull out the cassette and empty, the tank is fantastic when you're moving around and stopping up to 2 weeks you empty when you find a Dump Point.
** This is food for thought for new RV buyers
**Cabinets made of chipboard or MDF will not last, if they don't fall to pieces they swell in humid parts of the country. Any ply woods or hardwoods are preferable.
** We've spoken to many RVers over the time and all the manufactures Vans etc have dust problems, when all closed up. They have no idea where it gets in. Unless we have the windows open dust does not get in. I'd like to hear of what RV's others have and if you have problems with dust, just sitting with all windows and vents closed.???
** Many owners of some RV's that have triple slide down window furnishings, block out screen etc. complain that they pull out in wind from the slides along the edges and eventually rip, same goes for the slide screens that are in Skylights and vents. I have no idea what the solution would be, I'm not completely happy with our slimline venetians they rattle and close in the breeze, and cleaning!!!! grrrrr ...........nor would I like curtains......any ideas greatly appreciated! But venetians are the lesser of the evils at the moment.
** Don't kid yourself, a double or queen bed with one side against the wall will drive you crazy
so many tell us that this would be the first thing they'd change. Especially as we older folk get less and less nimble!