How to Survive Boondocking at 100° in Your RV

when my wife Marissa saw that our current route to Idaho took us through one of the most epic boondocking spots in America Wall South Dakota she told me we have to stay there I told her you know it's going to be 100 degrees right and we'll have no electricity no water and no sewer well we voted on it and uh off to wall we go should you Boondock in 100 degree weather I'm confident that after this video you're either Never Gonna Boondock a day in your life or you're going to immediately pack your bags and head to Wall South Dakota it's time to let go and get going so let me start off by saying this might be the absolute worst idea we've ever had here in Brandon South Dakota is hot our sewer hose is sweating everything is sweating it's been almost 98 degrees here and then as I'm watching the weather in Wall South Dakota I mean it's it's topping 100 degrees the next couple days I mean we went back and forth to back and forth do we do this we not do this do we just go get full hookups and just visit Badlands and the stuff around wall that we really like to do do we just pass wall then come back later and ultimately I think we just started to feel like you know what most likely our favorite boondocking spot of all time to not go there because of a little bit of heat okay a lot of heat just feels like we're we're turning in our full-time RV or boondocking card or something so we're gonna do it prep for this boondocking in 100 degree weather starts today because I have not started my Honda generator in I don't know four months maybe even six months oh wow we've got to make sure that thing works I thought I got all that out there's another one let's turn that off on choked on one of the hardest things you could do on an engine is to not start the engine you might be thinking oh Nathan you have lithium well yeah we have lithium and we can run our AC with our lithium but it's I don't know how long ago three hours four hours it's about 1200 watts and we're gonna be showing up at like seven o'clock so we're gonna be getting enough solar coming in to keep that AC going long enough I feel like to have enough of an impact like having something like this if you're boondocking in 100 degree weather for some reason have a generator yo I meant to do that all right we're gonna let it sit for a few minutes think about what it's done it literally left a dent in my toe which was already ah in pain because of the Grand Canyon little known in fact if you see my nasty feet before I've had bunion surgery on both feet nine years ago because I had around the time Hensley was born which was a terrible idea I don't ever do that to your wife so we are going to be off because you're having the baby let's just go ahead and have my bunion surgery at the same time you can sort of take care of both of us so yeah I know not good not good those are super sensitive ironic thing this isn't even the flavor I wanted I'm really hoping this is not the way this video is going to go so we keep hitting Northwest it is still hot I mean obviously it's pretty miserable if we're gonna go Boondock in this kind of heat but at the same time oh man it's been years since we've been to these spots and we love them so much and so we're kind of thinking about putting it to the test and seeing at what temperature can we Boondock and pull it off hey are you ready to sleep 100 degree Heat tonight no it goes no you don't want to do it nope why not because I don't like sleeping in here I'd rather sleep in the cold than the hot that's true that actually uh it actually makes a lot of sense so we've boondocked in the cold quite a bit actually because you can you can always turn up the heat it's not that bad you get uni propane that's not using electricity um it's much trickier to Boondock and heat because the only way you're gonna get rid of that heat other than like increasing airflow is with an air conditioner which is a power hog on your RV so we're doing a few things to kind of prep this morning Marissa has already started having second thoughts I know how hot I am I can't imagine how hot Yogi the bear is Yogi the bear definitely needs a raise it's got to be hot I'm just gonna be completely honest like I'm really nervous I do not like being super uncomfortable I know I talk about all the time you got to be comfortable being uncomfortable but I mean like you don't have to sit in 100 degree weather I've almost chickened out multiple times I'm starting to come to see and it goes nice and cool I'm like yeah let's go Boondock and Hike at 100 degrees but then when I'm outside sweating like a pig start changing the tubes and I don't know I'll go back and forth back and forth what to do we've already changed our plans a lot I don't know I can't decide I love this area so much and I don't want to be hot the first thing we've done we've already kind of cranked this down to 70 on on our two ACS so I'm letting it get as cold as it can before we head out we have a it's probably about a five hour drive today so maybe this is for nothing I don't know but I'm like it's not gonna hurt to try just get everything the whole RV the walls and everything the aluminum the just get everything cooled down just all throughout the RV so we love our outdoor fridge but it does use some energy so typically when we Boondock we just turn it off we bought chocolate for our last event headed just a little bit left over on the estimation of what we needed so this pile of chocolate's gonna go inside because that would be very interesting to see what happens to that chocolate this fridge gets turned off I think everything else out here we'll be okay this has grown on me a little bit especially when it gets hot you come out here and you're already outside you grab a cold drink like that's that's really nice I'm still not going to say I'm 100 sold on it because the power it takes when you're boondocking the space it takes but she kind of compromised with me and let me store some things in here too and that's made me a little more okay with it you guys ready for breakfast uh yeah so much chocolate during my break I watch YouTube videos I'm about to take it apart clean the carburetor put it back together [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] yeah there's definitely some gunk in there I can see it see it right there my Sony just overheated it's already way better [Music] We Didn't Start we weren't going boondocking 100 degrees here we come all right so we're putting the slides in we have three fans we can turn on going on the road so I'm gonna turn those three fans on it's gonna open right here and let the Heat come out the top of that in Hensley's bed we got another one right here look at all this condensation off fan up there foreign batteries the whole point of staying in full hookups is to make sure your batteries are topped off before you go to Boondock 100 degree weather but our batteries are currently at 37 so I think I know what I did we had stated to harvest hosts just before we got the Jellystone and so I'd set the RV to only be taken in a small amount of power because the Harvest hosts were at let us have 20 amp so we were only pulling in 20 amps the whole time we're at this Jellystone running two ACS which is kind of crazy in and of itself then we're on two ACS off of 20 amps um and our batteries and it worked pretty much flawlessly for three nights I don't know taking a break I think ideally we would have stopped somewhere with with air conditioning or something you gotta go we got you got it I mean we're at 52 percent that's guys pouring in we're getting like 940 Watts coming in more than 40 maybe even 45 amps are coming in so it's pretty cool to think about the sun just pouring in 40 50 amps into the RV see how hot it is in here it's funny that we stop at a rest stop and we want to use our own bathroom that's one of the perks of RV life like I said it feels terrible I felt cool in here but it's 91 so so it's pretty warm we're going to stay optimistic this is going to be great the other original plan was to maybe like a couple hours where we stopped I would go and kick the AC on since we have the battery juice to do it and it would be cooling it down not there to be cold but it cooled down a little bit before we got to our location and then we'd hook the generator up and go from there but um This is complicated things just a little bit okay so even the 40 amps is nowhere near countering what this AC is actively pulling in so let me see how long it takes for the battery would be just dead but this AC on so with the active amount of sun we have coming in it's saying that we can make it 17 hours so that's kind of the thing we have 1280 Watts on the roof if we were in like a sunny environment inside with the AC on you know we could probably make it 16 17 hours or whatever but if we run the AC at night we're not getting anything coming in and that's where the generator comes in and all that so we're negative 70 right now okay drop down to nine hours so solar took the batteries from 36 to 40 in an hour of doing the math and even if we drag our feet for like six hours I don't know 65 something like that I'm not gonna lie I debated like in the Honda I've been letting it run while we're going to Ruby Tuesdays how's your air conditioning Marissa thinks I'm tricking her here oh this is all Allure you you never offered ever to pull the RV over and take me to Ruby Tuesdays to get this salad bar whatever in our eight years of travel this is all a trap no it was her idea to Boondock and I said it's gonna be hot you sure you want to do it she said yeah and she changed her mind and then so I may have brought her some over the air conditioning that happens also every Tuesdays so that's part of this is oh I know when I'm being trapped I'm being trapped one of the best things about today's video is we're going to show you numerous stops you can make with your RV so you don't have to detach for any of them and you'll know that all these are okay because if we do this with our 40-foot rig it's 13 foot six probably pretty good on just about anything so first stop is the Minuteman Minuteman missile historic natural site I got it Minuteman missile National oh my goodness the longest name ever this right here the Minuteman missile National Historic Site Visitor Center oh my goodness I called them they said they had air conditioning so we said we're on our way oh those look so good don't you want to just jump in those Hensley all right let's go see the museum which one which one is that we've been reading your book that looks like a painted grasshopper doesn't it oh yeah so pretty oh man our kids love like bug books and they love going on bug hunts so this museum is basically about in this area they had bunkers with counter-attack missiles during the nuclear Cold War standoff with Russia and so this Museum like details what went down with all that for about 40 50 60 years we had to be ready for possibility that nuclear warheads could be coming our way from Russia a nuclear bomb already first you're done and then you'll cover other techie covers yeah they're taking cover that wouldn't do any good well probably not but when you hear Duck and Cover you just Duck and Cover I never knew all that I'm gonna slow I mean it's summer it's Peak Travel season yeah but every blog I've been reading is like yeah you want to go in the spring and fall it's hot this summer and it is it's hot people are out man we're we're tough right we can handle this all right thank you yeah don't know that we've ever taken this big rig and like just kind of on and off and explored like this we're doing a trail right here right at the visitor center and then we're gonna follow this up and around definitely do the yellow Mounds overlooking wait if there's parking there I haven't double checked that yet and then the boondocking spot we're gonna do Nomad news right I think up in this little area right here good RV parking you like that I'll parallel this thing in a second we made it you don't see that very often I like it I like it I'm sure they can feel it Towing it but I like it we made it it's so cool I mean we're in it our home is right here like in the middle of Badlands National Park [Laughter] here you go oh yes I know it's so hot I made it good job buddy yeah we're in the shade now that feels good got about 15 degrees cooler I mean part of my wonders you know we're here we made a big deal out of the Heat and it is it's I don't know it's a big deal to us because we're always following the weather but that's where we just hiked through guys I think sometimes when you do something adventurous and you push through even though it's hard maybe it's not what you want to do I think it does make you stronger you feel stronger yet no we're working on it we made it oh that's beautiful that's beautiful it's 98 degrees right now 98 degrees right now all right guys you ready let's go back before you think to yourself that these guys not even check the weather there was no zero chance of rain that's what it said and again High gusts were not supposed to be happening so I at least did look into that the weather can change rapidly out here Marissa's up here this is one of her favorite things here are these painted Mounds really windy up here this is yellow Mounds overlooked look at all these colors I think you said the one thing it said was just not to park there it was raining right or if it's just crazy it's always going to be windy at this boondocking spot we're going to but if it's just crazy windy like 60 70 mile per hour gusts like don't do it either so we we came here I don't know what four or five years ago or whatever for it to be this hot and there'll be this many people on here I'm blowing away I heard this place was packed all the time now some of the largest most level spots have like a Kia you know like ah yeah camping is definitely changed since when we hit the road straight back straight back and stop look at this spot good news is we're here and this looks epic well it's even better news is it does not feel like 99 degrees no it's that rain like completely cold today down this is just breathtaking tips for nomad view first tip do not tell anyone else about this place he showed up and it's so crowded you you're making a YouTube video about it right now between US just between us then going back and hindsight I would say Rob early we waited because I thought oh it's gonna be 100 degrees there's not gonna be anybody out here it was still packed didn't matter it's a wide variety of people it's no longer like just the full-timers coming out here for a few nights we probably should have came over here set up and then went in with our truck only and just done Badlands that way in hindsight and then be patient when you come in you're going to see some spots you'll think they're kind of level and then you'll pull up to them you're like no that's not level like just be patient keep going and hopefully eventually find a level sight if you're not arriving late in the day okay so you're really hesitant to come do this whole boondocking 100 degrees the good news is it ended up not being 100 degrees ended up dropping to about 90. but it was still because that Monsoon that happened it really dropped at 10 degrees Yeah it's awesome really when it comes to like is it worth it to Boondock in hot weather I mean I think it totally depends I know for Marissa like even in 90 degrees this is a no-brainer for her and for us my favorite spots ever like I love this spot it's to my heart I have amazing memories here from when we were here years ago this is why you do it and this morning we got up drank our coffee in our home looking at this awesome View while doing that like that's why you do this you're getting a million plus dollar View for free think about that for a minute like rving is a laugh hack because we get to immerse ourselves in this location this beauty but then still have the Comforts of of life with us maybe not the Comfort space see this this experience but it was so worth it it was just incredible well if you want to see our other series on Nomad View and on Badlands and on this era we said last time we're going to link to that playlist definitely check that out this and Badlands are not the only cool thing to do because there's Wall Drug if you want to drive into Rapid City from here you could do it it's a bit of a drive but you could use this as a home base this area Black Hills just epic so underrated it's starting to not be as underrated people are starting to know about it too Secrets out but definitely check out this area it's like a must do as an rver

Channel: Less Junk, More Journey

Views: 68,300

Keywords: full time rv, rv, rv living, rving, hensley and jj, how to rv, camping, camper, full time rving, rv life, rving with kids, travel vlog, 5th wheel, fifth wheel, less junk more journey, less junk more travel, best rv youtube channel, rv living with kids, rv south dakota, badlands rv camping, south dakota camping, how to boondock in heat, boondocking in heat, how to boondock, rv boondocking, dry camping, rv travel vlog, rv traveling the usa, full time rv living

Id: m6qOODEM4xM

Length: 19min 34sec (1174 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 13 2023