If you're interested in boondock style camping, you want more privacy, serenity, interaction with the nature around you. And you want to hear some tips on how to boondock longer, quieter and more cost effectively. Stick around, we're going to share with you some of the things that we've been doing to boondock for up to six months a year. Hi, my name is Aaron Miller and this is Plan Free. The channel that illustrates a location in the pen and lifestyle and shows you how to get it. We're just wrapping up about a six week boondock right now. We're going to share with you some of the tips that helped us stay out in places like this the entire time. We're by no means experts, and I'm sure some of you out there will have tips and tricks that are even better than what we're doing. And that's great. Please share them in the comments. But as we learn each year, we're getting better and better at staying out longer and longer in serene places like this as we continue to enjoy boondocking. The next thing you want to pay attention to is in the area of comfort and that is heat. Many of the onboard furnaces or heating systems in RVs and motor homes are terribly inefficient, and they will require a ton of propane or whatever your power source is to run them. In addition to requiring a fair amount of battery power to turn them on and off, run the thermostat, et cetera. One of the first things that we did when we began to boondock more was move away from the onboard furnace, which we basically never used today. And for us, we went with an alternative heating source, which was much smaller in the form of a Mr. Heater. The one that we used is a two setting high and low 6,000 BTU on low and 12,000 BTU on high. This is more than enough to heat our 32 foot motor home. Most of the time, I run it on high for a few minutes and then run it on low for a little while and then eventually shut it off. This is in the summer. Now in the shoulder season, you'll find yourself running it more and more longer durations on high and then sometimes basically throughout the day. But it's still drastically more efficient to run something like a Mr. Heater than it would be to run your onboard furnace system while boondocking. Any of you out there that are utilizing creative and cost efficient heating systems in your RVs while boondocking, please share with us what you're doing, add to the comments below so that others may be able to take advantage of some of those ideas. Now when it's particularly cold outside and we're running the Mr. Heater for long durations, we sometimes use a small USB powered fan to assist in the circulation of the heat and the air. One note is when you're using a heating system like a Mr. Heater, it will consume oxygen. So be sure to vent your windows to have enough fresh air coming into your unit so that you can remain in a safe oxygen level. We carry an extra portable propane tank to run our Mr. Heater because I may have mentioned that the onboard propane tank that we have in this particular motor home is not very large. And so we use the external portable tank to run the Mr. Heater in the event that that runs out. It's much more convenient for us just to take the portable cylinder into wherever it may be, sometimes over an hour to get it refilled, than having to pick up our entire camp and move the motor home just to fill the tank that's onboard. So anything we can do to lengthen the amount of time that we would have to fill the onboard system will then lengthen the our ability to boondock, which is what we're after here. Now previously when we owned our fifth wheel, it had two removable 40 pound propane tanks on it. And so propane inventory wasn't as much of a concern. So depending on what configuration of unit you own out there, propane and things like it will be more or less of a concern. So customize to your individual unit that you currently run with. Hot water bottles are something that are very cost effective and easy to use that we've used over the years, especially in shoulder seasons, generate extra heat for basically no cost. We'll generally heat a pot of water on the fire, pour it into the hot water bottle, and then we'll use those hot water bottles, either on our lower back behind us while sitting around a campfire on cool evenings, or we'll throw one or two in our bed. And it instantly warms up your feet and makes it a much more pleasant experience going to bed in the shoulder seasons and it keeps you warm for quite some time. Speaking of heating water on the fire for the hot water bottles will often utilize the same campfire energy source to heat things like dish water or water for sponge baths. And on that note, just a good old campfire is often an excellent source of energy and heat to make your experience more comfortable on shoulder seasons or when it's cool out. On the subject of campfires, we generally increase the frequency and duration that we enjoy these again on shoulder seasons. So in the summer, we basically use fires for cooking or heating water. Once it starts to become spring or fall and it's cooler out, oftentimes we'll utilize a fire to sit in front of to stay warm. And so this leads to another recommendation or encouragement. If you're looking to boondock longer, you'd want to add a collection of tools that you're able to collect and process firewood with. This can significantly extend the amount of time that you can boondock and increase the amount of comfort you've got while you're doing it. So consider adding to your collection things like saws, axes, hatchets and for us, even a tarp is very helpful so that you can cover your wood and protect it from things like rain. Keeping it dry for the next time you want to light a fire to create some heat. Thanks for watching.