Boondocking Safety
By Marianne Edwards
Many RVers are held back from the joys of boondocking by concerns about boondocking safety. Aside from wanting the amenities and full hook-ups, safety concerns are the reason most people cite for preferring developed pay-campgrounds.
If you’ve made up your mind to be paranoid, you probably won’t even be reading this, but if you’re looking for boondocking safety information and advice to put your mind at ease, read on.
Dispelling Your Fears
For me, there were 3 parts to dispelling my initial fears about boondocking safety .
- Hearing about other’s experiences and taking comfort in their recommendations.
- Experiencing boondocking in remote locations first hand without incidence.
- And most importantly, thinking rationally about my fears and what really was behind them.
That’s not to say there aren’t places and reasons to be cautious in this world. Not only as far as RVs and boondocking safety are concerned, but in any situation, you need to let your own common sense rule.
The Common Sense Approach To Boondocking Safety
I truly believe that everything in life, even sitting in a chair and breathing, involves some element of risk. Each of us decides for ourselves every day what risks we are willing to take. If your risk tolerance is exceptionally low, you’re not likely to be travelling at all or reading this website.
When it comes to quieting our fears, nothing’s more effective than knowledge and experience.
From 8 years of boondocking experience, here are my common sense conclusions, insights and boondocking safety advice.
- When it comes to robberies, statistically, I am much more likely to be a victim in my house than in my RV.
- Setting up camp down a dirt road on public land makes me no more a target for a thief than anyone who builds a home or cottage on a country road in a remote area
- My RV is much less appealing to a thief than a permanent residence in that I don’t have the same amount of valuable removable furniture or fixtures that can easily be converted to cash.
- I’m often only camped in one location for a day or two…not enough time for a thief to scope the place out and get to know my routines.
- Although the majority of RVers are honest nice people, even if we’re camped in a “secured” campground or an LTVA area with other RVers all around us it doesn’t mean there isn’t a thief amongst us or that we’re safe from a break-in or robbery
- I admit that, like many people, at home, I don’t know some of my closest neighbors and I have very little time or interest in seeing who comes in and out of their yard. Most RVers will agree that when we’re traveling we’re much more likely to get to know and keep an eye on our neighbor’s property than when we’re at home.
- In most boondocking areas, the common courtesy is to leave space, a few hundred yards minimum between campers. In campgrounds, where units are closer, if someone (a stranger) is walking towards or around the immediate area of your unit, it may not be as obvious or noticeable.
- We use common sense when selecting a place to stop. When it comes to boondocking safety we trust our intuition and drive on if the environment doesn’t “feel” safe.
- The further from civilization, the more safe it feels to be camped where we’re totally alone.
- There’s safety in numbers. This holds true for boondocking safety. Especially when we’re closer to urban areas, we want others, RVers, truckers etc. within view.
- Most thieves are lazy. That’s why the majority of RV break-ins occur within easy access of the cities where most thieves hang out. We avoid boondocking when we’re within a short drive of the biggest cities.
- Most thieves don’t want to deal with any type of struggle so the easiest time to steal our possessions is when we’re not in the RV. As with any parked vehicle, we don’t leave cash in the RV and keep valuables out of sight.
- Because we’re inside our motorhome at night, our RV is much more likely to be a target in the daytime or evening while we ‘re parked for shopping, dining out, or going to a show in any urban location than when we’re camped in an out-of-the way boondocking site.
- In parking lots, truck stops or road side areas, don’t look for the darkest concealed corner. Instead park in the light, and use black-out curtains or eye-wear that block the light while you sleep.
- No matter where you are parked, if trouble does come to find you, driving away your vehicle can be your best defence.
- Park so that you can leave by driving forward. If you need to leave in a hurry, you don’t want to have to back up, or do more manoevering than necessary.
- Keep your vehicle in the best possible operating condition.
- Believe it or not, the only boondocking safety concern isn’t burglers. No matter where you’re camped, in case of a medical emergency, be sure you have enough fuel to make it to the nearest hospital or all night gas station in the middle of the night.
- Don’t be paranoid. Just cautious.
- When you’re in a community of RVs, even in a gated pay campground, make a point of getting acquainted with your neighbors before you leave your RV unattended for the day.
- In small towns, if there’s no signage to the contrary, ask at the grocery store or gas station or even ask the local police about using the town park or a parking lot to “spend the night”. If you get a positive response, you’ll have the added security of them knowing you’re there and watching out for you.
- Always be attentive to your surroundings.
contact 
Posted in 
Yahoo results…
While searching Yahoo I discovered this page in the results and I didn’t think it fit…
Thanks you…
There are some interesting points in time in this article but I donft know if I see all of them center to heart. There is some validity but I will take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBur…
Bonjour…
You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!…
Hello!…
An interesting discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers…
Hey…
very nice post, i certainly love this website, keep on it…
Thank you…
I was very pleased to find this web-site.I wanted to thanks for your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post….
Thanks…
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I …
dispel what he sees as the myths…
about chewing tobacco. he also addresses major and minor league baseball players each year at spring training.robert leslie sonoma county has it own tragic baseball related, smokeless tobacco, and mouth cancer story. in june of 1998, robert leslie died…
first two model vehicles.right after the war,…
the selling of isuzu trucks and the isuzu hubcaps that went on the trucks went out of the roof; who would’ve thought. the cars that isuzu manufactured were essential to the reconstruction effort that japan was going through. the cars …
Wikia…
Wika linked to this website…
side of the tablet and then turning…
to its software side.kindle fire: the hardware sidethe key hardware features of the amazon kindle tablet include:1. its 1 ghz dual core processor gives it the capability to execute various computing tasks at remarkably fast speeds without the latency a…
Wow!…
A very awesome post….
Dreary Day…
It was a dreary day here today, so I just took to messing around on the internet and found…
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]……
angeles.” have you ever wondered how a…
particular sport or activity came into existence? for instance, soccer. where did soccer come from? how come it is so popular throughout most of the world? a lot of cultures throughout history have some reference to or a link with the…
Great blog…
The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you coul…
Hello!…
An interesting discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers…
Great blog…
The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you coul…
Bonjour…
You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!…
Arigatou…
Hello! I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the great info you have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon….
Websites we think you should visit…
[...]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[...]……
Hi…
It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what youfre talking about! Thanks…
Online Article……
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……
Bonjour…
You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!…
Thanks…
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I …
hello…
you have a great blog here! would you like to make some invite posts on my blog?…
Wow!…
A very fascinating post….
[...]always a big fan of linking to bloggers that I love but don’t get a lot of link love from[...]……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Sites we Like……
[...] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose [...]……
Dreary Day…
It was a dreary day here yesterday, so I just took to messing around on the internet and found…
Hi…
It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what youfre talking about! Thanks…
Blogs ou should be reading…
[...]Here is a Great Blog You Might Find Interesting that we Encourage You[...]……
Thank you…
This really answered my problem, thank you!…
Websites we think you should visit…
[...]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[...]……
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
Thank you…
I was very pleased to find this web-site.I wanted to thanks for your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post….
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]……
Digg this…
While checking out DIGG today I found this…
Thanks…
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I …
Its hard to find good help…
I am forever proclaiming that its difficult to find quality help, but here is…
Wow!…
A very fascinating post….
Informative and precise…
Its difficult to find informative and accurate info but here I found…
Digg this…
While checking out DIGG today I noticed this…
Wow!…
A very spectacular post….
Thanks…
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I …
Wow!…
A very spectacular post….
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……