Using your RV as a Doomsday Prepper Mobile Fortress
As you know, your RV is basically a home on wheels. What if you could make it a fortress!?
There are a lot of ways you can tweak your RV to become a true doomsday prepper mobile fortress. Living off the grid is easier than you think if you have the right tools.
The basics of living off grid is having enough safe drinking water, solar and or wind power and enough food for you and your family. Of course, you need to protect your assets as well. We will also get into that in this blog post as well.
Let’s start off with the most important resource you need in a prepper environment, water.
Water
Water is your most precious resource, since you can only live three days without it. Ensure you can carry enough water with you or have a trusted water source nearby where you decide to bug out to.
If you can camp near a stream, river, or water well, you are in great shape. We suggest the following to ensure your water is safe to drink. Â
- Inline Granular Activated Carbon Filter – If you have a direct connection to a city water spigot, this carbon filter greatly reduces bad taste, odor, chlorine, and sediment.
- Sawyer Water Filter System – When we sailed through the South Pacific, we were totally off grid and so were a lot of the indigenous people we came in contact with. We brought Sawyer water filters with us to donate to local villages. One of these water filter systems can filter up to 1,000,000 gallons of water. Worth it’s weight in gold.
- 12 V Emergency Fresh Water Disinfection System – This handy little water disinfection and decontamination system is awesome. We use it on our RV all the time. The manufacturer states that it kills 99.999% of viruses and bacteria
1. Jerry Can Water Container – We had a water maker on our boat, however I always ensured that we had enough water, since water is life. We had numerous jerry jugs on our boat filled, just in case the water maker stopped making water. These jerry jugs are BPA free and hold up to 7 gallons each. Â
There are numerous places to refill your jerry jugs, even if you are way off grid. You can find a nearby stream, go into town and refill at the city water spigots. Â
Security and Protection
If you are in a true doomsday prepper scenario, others may want to take what you have worked so hard to achieve. Â
We suggest the following, however knowing that you may have other ways to protect yourself and your family. These are less lethal ways. Â
- Wasp Spray – Inexpensive and packs a wallop! This is a great non-lethal way to protect yourself. The wasp spray can shoot up 30 feet line of sight, which is about the length of most larger RVs. This is not an endorsement to use it on humans, as it may blind them, but we have kept one can by our bed in our boat, RV and home. Â
- Outdoor Security Solar Light – Intruders hate to be seen. We use this each and every time we go Boondocking. We have actually seen a large cat, (Mountain lion or Bobcat), out in front of our RV when this device was activated. The light automatically went on while we were watching a DVD in the safety of our RV and Melissa saw the large cat walk right next to our screen door.
- GPS Tracker – We have a hidden GPS tracker on our RV and know the RV’s location all the time. This is a great tool to locate your vehicle if it is ever stolen.
- Motion Detector Alarm – We use this device all the time as well, when we are going on long hikes or will be away from our RV for an extended time. This motion detector alarm has a remote and has a deafening scream when it goes off. It is battery operated and not attached to the RV systems.
Off Grid Power
Solar is great because it produces no noise which keeps you and your position discreet. Solar is also pretty easy to install and once it is operational, there is virtually little to no maintenance. Â
- Solar Suitcase – We use our solar suitcase to keep our batteries charged while we are off grid. It is easily stored in our overhead cabin when we are not using it and it only takes a few minutes to set up wherever we are. Â
- Permanent Solar Panels – Depending upon how much power you need, you can add permanent solar panels to your RV so you are never power deficient. The more solar power you have, the more batteries you will need to store the power. We recommend using Lithium Ion Batteries for the longest life. Â
- Wind Power – Going back to our boat again, since we were off grid for almost a year, we had a wind generator that acted as a backup to our solar panels. If the weather is rainy, overcast or it’s nighttime, you can still make great power using a wind generator. We were NEVER without power when we had both systems on board. Â
- Generator – We put this last but it is a great source of power. There are two issues with using a generator when you are a using your RV as a doomsday prepper mobile fortress; it makes noise which will give away your location (if you don’t want to be found). Also, you need to have fuel to run a generator. The generator we have listed here is the, “go to” generator for a lot of people. It is much quieter than most generators of it’s caliber and it can use a few different fuel sources. We have two on our property, with one that runs on gasoline and the other on propane. Depending on the fuel source we have handy, we can run either one at any time. Â
Communications
If you are in a proper scenario, you will want to stay connected to your family in friends that are not with you. You will also want to know the latest news. Here are some devices that we use on a regular basis when we are off grid.
- Garmin InReach – We have used this satellite communication device for years. We have used it in the middle of the South Pacific and in the middle of Denali Alaska texting our family our location and how safe we were. This device connects easily to a mobile phone via Bluetooth, so you can text from your mobile device just as easily as if you were home.
- Cell Phone Booster – We installed one of these a few years ago on our RV and it is amazing. The device boosts our cell signal about 32 times depending upon the strength of the cellular strength in the area. It is mounted on the roof of our RV, which allows it to be higher and unobstructed in most environments.
Food
We have a small storage area where we leave canned and dry food products for that, “just in case” scenario. Unlike other who may have horded toilet paper and the like, we have essentials but not in the hording style that was all over the news. Â
Food is heavy, cumbersome and takes up a lot of room. When prepping your RV mobile fortress, think about all the weight and logistics of your food, well in advance. Â
- Prepackaged Food – Nothing is as good as fresh food but if your are stuck in the middle of nowhere, you might as well eat as good as you can, even if your meal comes from a bucket. Â
Bug Out Location
Know where to bug out to before you need the information. We consistently use Campendium as our, “go-to” for finding amazing off-grid locations.
We suggest that you do you several test runs to ensure you work out all the bugs before you actually need to use your RV as a doomsday prepper mobile fortress.
Entertainment
Nothing stifles morale worse than not being properly entertained. In order to ensure you and your loved ones aren’t just missing a major calamity, you also need to be in the right mindset and keep active. We have a pleathora of downloaded movies, DVD’s, Books, Podcasts, games and much more to ensure we can handle the isolation that comes with being in the middle of nowhere. Â
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Chase Vehicle or Towed Vehicle
Depending on your RV (Trailer, Fifth Wheel, Class A, Class B, Class C motor home, Toy hauler, etc.) you will definitely want a chase vehicle or a towed vehicle to allow you to drive something other than your RV. If you need to run to town, go scavenging, or anything else, you want to ensure you have a safe and efficient vehicle to get you around. Our Prius has done many adventures off-road and it gets a ridiculous 50mpg, which really helps offset the costs of gas when we are RV’ing.Â
Learn More
Of course, we have only scratched the surface of what you may want/need for your Doomsday Prepper Mobile Fortress. Go ahead and scour the internet, watch some videos and learn as much as you can about being self-reliant and properly prepped. Please take everyone and other information with a grain of salt. Fact-check everything you learn because there are some trippy people out there that are a little too extreme and have some “unusual” views.Â
Have fun.Â
Be safe.
Be smart… and enjoy life for all it has to offer. Most of us only live once. 🙂
PS: Did we miss something crucial? Please let us know in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you!
2 thoughts on “Why Using Your RV as a Doomsday Prepper Mobile Fortress Will Make You Question Everything”
Thanks for the tips!
Our pleasure. Glad we could help!