2 weeks dry camping success!

[Eric H.]

We took our Triton 3551 to the Sierra's for 2 full weeks with no services or fresh water available. My wife and I for the 2 weeks and a 9 year old girl for 1 of the weeks. Everyone uses the woods for #1 during the day but the 2 black tanks are used for night trips to the john. Both black tanks were beyond 2/3's full but not totally full. We still had at least 1/3 tank of fresh water and only 1/3 full on both gray tanks. I bring a 55 gallon drum for water and fill it at another camp ground near by. I keep that on it's side in the back of my truck. We use it for all hand/feet and dish washing and it lasted most of the trip but I forgot it was on once filling a secondary container and spilled roughly 10 gallons so I did have to top it off. I had both propane tanks filled a couple weekend trips ago before this trip and ran the fridge off it for the first 12 days. The first few mornings were cool so the furnace was used for 15 minutes or so to take the chill off and the water heater was left on for the first 5 days. The indicators on the changeover valve showed 1 tank empty and the second tank close so I only ran the water heater in the mornings and for showers and I switched the fridge over to 110v off the inverter. We did not run out of propane but must be close. Batteries showed about 56% in the morning but were 100% by noon. I was getting 300w/18a of solar by 9:20am and saw as much as 100a charging at noon. Didn't need AC because we don't stay in the trailer during the day but we watched a movie every night before bed in our heated and vibrating recliners. The only time I ran the generator was if I was defrosting something in the microwave in the evening just to save battery reserve for the night.

And as usual, we ended up unpacking 2/3's of the food we thought we'd need lol. Don't need to food shop for a couple more weeks.