Land cruising???

[riptyler]

I have found some general references to staying aboard while the boat is being trailered (I.e. in a camp ground). I have a couple questions:

Are there ways to discharge your holding tank using RV park systems?

Any clever ideas if you need AC or heat?

Most important-any clevernquips for when the RV guys give you strange looks?

Planning a visit to Chesapeake Ranger this week to look at new and brokerage tugs, might be a real Tugnut soon...

 

[Spirit of Gratitude]

I sleep in my R-29 all the time when I trailer her to cool places. I have heard people talking about pulling into RV parks and camping. You are limited is some ways if you do this. Your head uses sea water to be flushed.While on the trailer there is no water to flush. I have worked a solution to this. I fill the toilet from the shower head and then when you go to flush, if you hold both the flush and fill button down at the same time then you will get a flush without the head wanting to draw water from the sea water through hull.
I do not have A/C so I am not sure how that system works. That may work if you have a power plug in. You cannot run a genset out of the water, again no sea water to cool it. My heater works great out of the water because it is the wabasto heater that runs on the reserve diesel tank.

When using your galley or head sink they discharge on to the ground. Not cool if you are RV park.

So I do not pull into a park to sleep. I just pull into a truck stop and park with all the trucks. I hop in back fire up the directv, cook dinner and go to sleep, wake up and hit the road again. Best hotel in town but no hot shower.

So as much as it seems cool to think of using your tug as a camper in a RV park I would say that it is not very practical to do so. To use it as a crash pad while on a mission, well it's great!

Stuart

 

[JamesTXSD]

We have put over 35,000 miles on the trailer on our C-Dory, often staying in campgrounds or RV parks. I haven't come up with a fool-proof way to empty the poop tank... we try to get the boat in the water often enough that a full tank isn't an issue. When it has been an issue, we simply hold an RV sewer hose over the macerater outlet on the side of the boat and pump the waste into an RV sewer dump. Not as elegant as when using our RV, because there is no way to flush that hose with gray water afterwards. That means you will be using a hose to flush the RV sewer hose... and then you need a place to store both of those items.

You cannot use your shower or sink, unless you have some way to capture the water - most RV parks would toss you out if you dump any gray water on the ground. We use a dishpan in our sink and dump that in the RV sewer dump; we use the campground facilities to shower.

As far as heat and a/c: we use an electric heater on the boat when we have a plug-in and that works just fine. We do not have marine a/c on our boat, but we do use a small room-type a/c when necessary, through the front window... looks kinda Beverly Hillbillies, but it works.

On rare occasions, we have been turned away from an RV park... generally because they have had a bad experience with a boater dumping gray water, or because they simply don't know what to do with them. When we pull in to an RV park, I let them know we are self-contained and will be plugging into their 30 amp and not hooking up to water. Most of the time it is no issue.

As far as comments from other RVers, we have had plenty of questions. Only one guy who wasn't sure we should be there... he walked all around us and finally came up and said, "That doesn't look like any RV I've ever seen before. You sure you're in the right place?"

I said, "Well, we are the only RV here with radar. Plus, we're the only one that can go into the water more than once."

We let folks know that we have all the same amenities they have in their RV, just a little different arrangement. Not really an issue.

Best wishes,
Jim B.

 

[sportner]

Toni and I have spent over six months in the last year aboard Traveler, our Ranger 27. Over two months and 10,000 miles have been on the trailer. Its like Jim explained, we stay mostly in RV Parks too. We dump using the macerator with me holding the hose TIGHTLY against the the discharge, we also have a 2 1/2 gallon bucket under it with water and bleach mix to catch any leaks and rinse the hose, we also use rubber gloves. We use a clear hose that fits our grey water sink discharge fittings and drain it into a 2 1/2 gallon water jug with a spigot. We use their shower facilities. We have a small room air conditioner that we put in the base of the door with canvas privacy cover with velcro over the opening or small electric heater for heat. We carry a Honda 2000 generator with us but rarely use it.

We have only been turned away one time and that was at a resort because we didn't have an RV certification. Most RV parks are very happy to have the business and we get very positive inquiries from people in the parks.

 

[tuggertoy]

We have a R-21 Classic that we "camp" on all the time! We keep a porta-pot in the van for use while at the campground. We have a free standing floor A/C unit we set up in the Pilot House - my Chief Engineer rigged the vent hose out the pilot house window and the condensation can drain into the bilge. It keeps the pilot house very comfortable. We use the Magma Grill on the rail for cooking - (that gets a lot of looks from RVers). We carry a 3 gallon waste water container and two wash basins for dishes. Finally we have a dorm fridge we set up in the "Fridge" tent to keep the food and drinks cold.

Sounds like a lot to carry - but we go to State Parks and stay for a week or more - boat every day and still have all the comforts of home on land. May husband always says, "why rough it when you can smooth it!"

 

[riptyler]

Thanks everyone, I knew I was missing something. Not ruling it out but I clearly need to think it out more. Got some good ideas here.

Rip