Solo Off-Grid Camping Two-Week Trial (Senator Wash & Picacho State Recreation Area-CA)

JamesDow · May 2023

Just starting a two-week (5/8-5/22) solo trial living on BLM land and State Recreation land.
~ Plan on not stopping during the two weeks for any supplies such as food, water or ice.
Standard 2018 T@G with lithium battery along with a 100-watt solar panel keeping my Norcold NRF30 running along with some lights, fans, drone and audio visual.
Will also have two 50-watt solar panels to charge up a Renogy Phoenix 300 power station and the other to charge up batteries for phones, tablet, cameras, fans, rechargeable water pump and projector.
Bringing a number of fully charged battery banks.
Not taking a generator, so no AC.
I have two 9-inch rechargeable fans on a USB timer for evening/sleeping.

Kayak, Clam screen shelter, coolers with ice to start out with (Should keep beers and the like cold for around the first 5-6 days before I will have to start to put them in the Norcold refrigerator as necessary.

Weather temperature highs expected mostly to be upper 80's to high 90's with lows in the upper 60's to low 70's.
Bringing lots of sunscreen.

Cell phone coverage limited to very limited.
Will meet up with two friends at Picacho State Recreation area (5/17-5/21).
Should be a fun test if all goes well.
Hope the 18-mile dirt road to Picacho is passable with my 2012 4WD Toyota RAV4.
   Can I make it two weeks?
   Do I have enough food?
   Will I run out of cold beer?
   Will the mosquitos be out for blood?
I will attempt to post things as possible during my trial.

SENATOR WASH, CA


PICACHO STATE RECREATION AREA

Sharon_is_SAM · May 2023

What is your plan for water?

JamesDow · May 2023

Drinking water will be limited.

Have lots of frozen gatoraid and cold (for the time being) beer and juice. Temp today inside trailer 90 in shade.

A nice cooling breeze.

Washup/cooldown water unlimited.

Multi filtered reservor water using rechagable pump.

I may be able to refill my T@G at Picacho SRA.

Stopped at Mr. Gs and got two days worth of of burritos.

Sitting back enjoying the bird sounds.

Set up a 9 inch rechagable fan (eliminated batteries during day) running it off 50 watt solar panel. Working great so far.

GulfCoast · May 2023

Good on you. We'll look forward to updates. Linda and I have a trip percolating and we'll enjoy your insights.

JamesDow · May 2023

Two new trys on my solo trip.

Solar powered fan clamped on chair. Sit in the shade with a nice breeze. Use a power bank and timer at night for sleeping.

Rechargable water pump. Triple filter. Wash off or cool down without going into the water.

Both may be worth the slight extra work.

JamesDow · May 2023

End of day two.

Great day out on the water with inflatable kayak.

Water level went down by about 8", so I had to adjust my water intake for my battery powered pump.

Not doing as well with solar power and main T@G battery. Ended day two with 88%. That loss will not work for a two week outing. Need to adjust something. Been running car with AC on two or three times a day (coolers in car). Maybe I will try to back my tow vehicle close an hook it up when I run it for 20 minutes or so.

zgfiredude · May 2023

It would be interesting to see how much 20 minutes gains you.

JamesDow · May 2023

68 degrees ( 12 degrees cooler than yesterday)

9:02 am SOC (State Of Charge) 76.4%

9:22 am SOC 77.0%

(1.8% increase per hour)

Just maybe I can get the battery to the mid 80% SOC by end of day.

I should be able to live with that.

Windy last night and today. Dust everwhere.

JamesDow · May 2023

End of day 3.

Battery SOC 5:30 pm = 88.8%

So I was able to charge around 12.4% over the course of the day.

Tomorrow and beyond is just getting hotter and hotter. (104°) My poor Norcold is working hard to keep up. I am near needing to open up my main ice cooler. As I kind of thought, with just one 100-watt solar panel it may be impossible to maintain charge on a 100 Ah lithium battery. Especially with the heat.

So far, my water supply is meeting expectations.

JamesDow · May 2023

Well today was an invasion of day users. Maybe 12 vehicles. Lots of music from across the border. That is fine as long as it one day.

Lithium battery is doing slightly better than yesterday.

At 5:45am it was 77.9% Now at 1:43pm it is 87.6

Got into my reserve IPAs. If consumption was not calculated correctly, I will have friends bring more on 5/17.

Today hot, tomorrow hotter, next day even hotter.

Long trip today on kayak today.

Just maybe with nothing else besides Norcold NRF30 a 100 -watt solar panel can keep me alive. 94° per car.

JamesDow · May 2023

JamesDow · May 2023

Ok end of day 4. Got lithium battery to 99%. For some reason it really jumpted the last 10% quickly. Local day visitors mostly moved on. No problems, just cars people and noise.

As expected, water level has fluctuated greatly. I mark the mildstones with a stone. I have moved the water intake for my rechargable water pump 4 times. Currently it sits high and dry along with the kayak.

zgfiredude · May 2023

Holler if you need beer, I am only a couple of states away!

rich67 · May 2023

We managed to only get about 5 days max out of our lithium battery and solar panels while traveling. Of course most of the time we either had intermittent cloud cover or a lot of shade. I'd be really interested to see how far along you can squeeze this out. I'd be tenting it in that weather, or sleeping in a hammock! LOL...that's some tough heat to camp in.

JamesDow · May 2023

OK the heat got the best of me today. Following a very long kayak run, I could not deal with the heat at my campsite. The site is nice and private in a bowl type setting. This bowl is away from the main water and with little wind I was getting overdone. Moved across (walked most things over) little dirt campsite road and set up in a nice breeze and cooler temps from the water surface.

More shade and needed to extend my solar setup another 10 feet. This site is the first campsite I stayed at Senator Wash years ago. Solar today at the end of day 5 (with some loss due to my move) is currently 88.6% SOC.

JamesDow · May 2023

Starting day 8 of solo trip. 100Ah Lithium battery not holding up to indefinite power with just 100 renogy solar suitcase. Current SOC 68.6%% 9:50am. Got all day to recharge, but also all day running Norcold NRF30 at around 31°. With outside temp over 100° I should expect to be at around 76% SOC at day's end.

Heading to Picacho State Recreation Area 5:00am on Tuesday morning. A few friends will meet up with me. Future weather will be equally as hot with potential for overcast sky.

Fresh water easily holding up. Recharge with second solar panel (all other things) which allows 9-inch rechagable fan to run on timer for around 6 hours per night. Fan also can run all day outside at campsite in the event air too still and hot to sit in shade.

Will fill my cooler (Igloo BMX52) before going to Picacho, so even if solar can not keep up charging in potentially overcast desert weather, I will make it for the duration. All coolers have been maintained inside the car, which I cover with a reflective tarp. Readjust tarp during day to keep out sun. Run car AC for 20 minutes at a time 3-4 times a day. Trailer parked in shade for a large part of the day.

Bottom line and as somewhat expected, a 100-watt solar panel will likely fall short of usage demands in this heat. If I could easily hook up my other panels (50&60-watts), things may be different. I attempted this before my trip, but ran into too many solar connection issues. Will look into potential solutions when I get home. Maybe another solar panel and/or MMPT controller with panel.

Have not hit my head even once on any shelves.

JamesDow · May 2023

Ending 9th day.

Leaving Senator Wash heading to Picacho State Recreation Area. (Meet up with friends).

Current battery SOC 73.1%

With this heat (100°+) and Norcold set to 31° extendended stay would start to have issues.

Picacho will be slightly warmer with partly cloudy weather.

I should make it until Sunday and have fun.

Road into Picacho may be rough, so repacking needs to take that into account. Leaving around 5:30am, so next post should be from the next location (cell coverage will be worse).

Car says temp here is 105°.

Brain says hey, have a cold beer.

zgfiredude · May 2023

Jim, hope you are enjoying the beer and company and have NO cell/internet. Post up that all is good when you can.

JamesDow · May 2023

Well, I got back from my solo 13-day trip (5/8-5/21). Did Senator Wash, CA. and Picacho State Recreation Area, CA. Accidentally shut off my power on second from last night. Operator Error, pressing monitor buttons on my battery. At the time State of Charge (SOC) was 26.1%. Lost a days worth of food. Ended the trip with about 13.6% SOC. While in Picacho, my sun access was limited due to trailer placement and having only 25' worth of solar cable. I also experienced about 1 1/2 days of some overcast.
Bottom line with the heat of over 100° and Norcold NRF30 set to around 32°, my 100-watt Renogy solar suitcase could not keep up. Cutting the trip back about 3-4 days would have been ideal. My 60-watt solar panel did fine keeping power blocks charged up. Able to run a nightly fan for 4-6 hours. I really never powered anything else except the refrigerator during the trip.
One failure - In the process of briefly testing my 9-inch rechargeable fan, the front T@G USB port experienced a problem. It would do OK charging a phone. A mystery issue to be solved.
Got a small hole in my inflatable Kayak on May 19th caused by a Goat's Head seed (Acanthospermum hispidum). Easy fix, but packed it (kayak) away for a home repair.
I did come within 1½ seconds (twice) of becoming stuck in deep sand on my way home from Picacho. That would have been a first towing the trailer. The RAV4 4WD decided to kick in at the last moment to pull me out.
Finished cleaning up the car and trailer. Fine dust everywhere. To be expected, but I mean everywhere.
Would I repeat the trip? - No. Not for 13 days. At least not in the desert heat.
I now looking into maybe one additional 100-watt solar panel. I may look into a MPPT controller (30 amp) verses, the PWM controller (20 amp) I currently have.
I could just go ahead and get another Renogy 100-watt solar suitcase, which would likely meet my needs while also providing a complete backup ($199). That solution sounds like a winner, but the weight and space for a second panel is of concern.
I am currently gathering my photos (Dash Cam, Phone, GoPro, Drone, other) to potentially put together a Youtube video.

rich67 · May 2023

Thanks for the trip report! We used Gorilla tape on our inflatable kayak while traveling, and it's the best repair you can do for an inflatable.

GulfCoast · May 2023

@JamesDow, like you, I wanted to supplement the capacity of the Renogy 100W solar suitcase we use with our T@G. I picked up one of Renogy's flexible panels; weight is just over five pounds. The controller in the suitcase was adequate to handle the flex panel wired in parallel with the suitcase panel. We used the flex panel by just propping it on something. I eventually decided to mount it on the roof, and added an mppt controller in the tongue locker at the same time to serve both panels.

The suitcase model without a controller weighs in at 20.5 pounds. It's a convenient, but heavier than necessary. If we decided to add more capacity, I plan to make a lightweight frame for a flex panel from 1/2" aluminum angle.

JamesDow · May 2023

Finally got together to chart some of my State Of Charge of my 100Ah Lithium Battery using my 100-Watt Renogy Solar Suitcase.
State of Charge (SOC) starting day one was 98.0%.
The peak SOC charge for most days was around 5:00 PM.
I was able to hit near 100% SOC on day four.
While my original camping location at Senator Wash Provided the best solar production, the lack of breeze forced me to relocate on 5/12 to an area with less hours of sun and forced me to use another 10 feet of solar cable.
Starting on around day seven (5/14/23) my production started to drop off, with a SOC peaking less than 80%. Each following day my peak charge progressively dropped. [77.9, 74.6, 65.0, 43.8, 44.4, 34.8, 23.2]
When I relocated (day ten) to Picacho State Recreation Area (5/17/23) my hours of sun were cut substantially due to trailer placement. Weather also became increasingly cloudy. When I left Picacho on 5/21/23) my SOC was 13.9%. This is the lowest I had ever let my lithium battery drop.
Bottom line, need more solar gathering capacity, if I want to stay off grid for any extended period.

SENATOR WASH

PICACHO STATE RECREATION AREA

akgrown · June 2023

Great experiment and info! Thanks for sharing, Jim!

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Solo Off-Grid Camping Two-Week Trial (Senator Wash & Picacho State Recreation Area-CA)

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