Fresh Water Tank Care

Fresh water tanks normally require little maintenance, unless you live in an area with freezing temperatures and have to winterize your water system or you fill them with contaminated water.  You will want to flush and possibly sanitize your fresh water tanks after a season of storage or after contamination.  Whether you leave them full, drain them, or winterize them, you may still want to flush and sanitize them before setting out again each year after they've been sitting all winter.  Algae sometimes grows in full tanks and dust, insects, and mildew might accumulate in empty or near empty ones.  You will want to clean out the antifreeze used for winterizing.   It isn't toxic, but it does make the water look, smell, feel, and taste funny.  In any case, flushing and sanitizing takes care of the problem.   If you live where you don't have freezing temperatures, I suggest you store your RV with the fresh water tank full.   That way it is ready if you need or want to use it and, at least in my experience, a full tank doesn't get stagnant as quickly as a partially full one.  Most of the organisms that might foul the water need air so a full tank limits growth by limiting air.

Avoid putting contaminated water into your fresh water tank.   Always fill your tank from a source that is known to be acceptable drinking water quality.  If there is any question, use an appropriate in-line filter.  If you should put contaminated water into your fresh water tank, such as from an unprotected well or spring, flush and sanitize the system as soon as possible to remove any potential micro-organisms and other contaminants.  City water supplies are usually treated to be pretty safe and usually contains enough residual chlorine to protect the water in your tank, but untreated water from private wells or springs may not be.  You might not know if water from a campground is safe or not.  It should be, but an unreported or undetected problem could come up without warning.  If you find your water shows any unusual characteristics, such as being cloudy, muddy, or smelly, it may be contaminated.  You could take sample and have it tested or just empty, sanitize and refill your system from a known safe source.  Always use a hose rated for potable water to fill your fresh water tank.  Ordinary garden hoses may introduce a plastic taste and even toxic chemicals into your water.  NEVER use the same hose you use to rinse your sewer drain hose to fill your fresh water tank!  Doing so is a sure way to contaminate your fresh water with traces of sewage!  I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to drink or wash my hands and face let alone drink water that has even a trace of sewage in it!

Sanitizing a fresh water tank consists of two major steps.   First completely drain the tanks, then use a diluted solution of ordinary household bleach and water to kill any bacteria and remove any stagnant odors.  I've seen recommendations anywhere from 1 teaspoon per 100 gallons up to 1/4 cup of bleach for each 15 gallons of tank capacity.   An easy formula to remember is to add 1 cup of plain, unscented chlorine bleach to 1 gallon of water.   Add the solution to your fresh water tank and fill it.   Drive around a little to mix the solution and clean all the surfaces inside the tank.  Pump it through the lines to all the fixtures.  You should be able to detect a light bleach odor at each fixture.  Then let it sit over night for best results.  Lower concentrations are easier to flush out without leaving a nasty residue.   Higher concentrations will be more reliable at killing offensive bacteria but don't go overboard on the bleach.  The residue left when you empty a bottle of bleach is sufficient to treat a gallon of water, so it doesn't take a lot to sanitize your RV system.  Fill the tank.   Turn on the pump and let water run from each faucet until you can smell the bleach at each one.   If your solution is too weak to smell you may need to add some more bleach.  Driving the unit a few miles will help mix the solution and clean the walls of the tank.  Let it stand for at least 3 or 4 hours.  Overnight is even better.  Drain the diluted bleach solution and flush the tank with clean water.  To ensure there is no bleach residue, fill the tank again with clean water and baking soda.  Mix a 1/2 cup of baking soda in a gallon water, add it to a nearly full tank or, better yet, put it into an empty tank and fill it up.  Drive around a bit to make sure the solution is thoroughly mixed and all the interior surfaces flushed.  Run water through each faucet until the chlorine smell is gone to clean the plumbing.  Driving around a bit will help make sure it reaches all interior surfaces (like to top!) of the tank.  Drain the soda solution and re-fill and flush the tank with fresh water.  If you have any concerns about the water quality you can drain the tank and refill and flush it again with clear water to be sure the soda solution has been thoroughly flushed out. Be sure to drain and flush your hot water heater as well as the fresh water tank, lines, pump, and fixtures.  When you are satisfied that the water coming out of your faucets is acceptable, drain the tank one more time and refill it with fresh water, just to be sure you've gotten rid of all the bleach and soda.

Filling your fresh water tank.  Always fill your fresh water tank from a safe source.  If you have any questions or concerns about sediment or hard water, be sure to use an in-line filter when filling your fresh water tank.  The faucets at dump stations are often contaminated by sewage, so avoid using them to fill your tank.   Most RVs have a gravity fill where you can insert a garden hose or dump in fresh water from containers to fill your tank.  Some older campers and trailers have a pressurized water system that is filled by connecting a hose to a female fitting on the unit.  Filling the tank compresses air in the tank to provide pressure to deliver water to fixtures.  Some units only have a city water connection and use a "Transfer" or "Fill" switch or valve to divert water to fill the tank.   Either way, ALWAYS use a clean, potable water rated hose to fill your fresh water tank.  They are usually white or light blue.  Keep a separate hose of a different color (ordinary garden hose) for rinsing your dump hoses and flushing your holding tanks so they don't get mixed up.  Different colors shouldn't be a problem.  Most potable water hoses are white or light gray with a blue stripe or are light blue.   The most common color for garden hoses is green.  At any rate DO NOT use a hose to fill your fresh water tanks or jugs that has been used to rinse sewer hoses and never use your fresh water hose to rinse sewer hoses.   Just the thought of the contamination that might be transferred into the fresh water supply is enough to make me want to throw up!  A fill attachment for your fill hose will make it easier.  It looks like a short piece of hose, usually clear plastic, with a female hose fitting on one end to connect to your hose.  The other end has no fitting and is usually cut at an angle.  There is usually a shutoff valve on the fitting end.  If not, you can get one at an RV store, hardware store or home and garden center. The open end of the hose is pushed down into the fill port on your RV so you don't have to stand there and hold the hose.  Make sure the filler tube is clean.  When sanitizing a tank with a gravity fill you can usually just dump the bleach or the soda solution into the fill port before adding water.  If your RV doesn't have a gravity fill, sanitizing the fresh water tank will be a little more difficult.   Some folks just use a funnel to fill the fresh water hose with bleach and then hook it up to the faucet to push it through and get it into the tank.  Others prefer a device that siphons the bleach or soda solution from a jug and mixes it with the water as you fill the tank.  These gadgets are typically used to apply lawn and garden fertilizer so you'll probably have to buy them at nurseries or home and garden centers.  Buy one especially for sanitizing your tanks and never use it for applying fertilizer.  Some RVs have design limitations that force the plumbing from the gravity fill port to the fresh water tank to lack sufficient slope for water to flow easily.  If you get a lot of water spilling back out around the hose when filling the tank, this may be your problem.  You may be able to solve it by raising that side of the RV using leveling jacks or leveling blocks.  Another solution that sometimes works is to cut a piece of potable water hose long enough to reach through the filler tube all the way to the tank so you can deliver water directly into the tank.  Cut the piece to preserve the female hose fitting so you can connect it to your regular filler hose.  There should be a vent tube from the tank back to the gravity fill fixture.  Be sure to remove the plug from the vent line so air can escape from the tank as it fills.  If you fail to remove the plug or the vent tube is somehow kinked or blocked air will bubble back through the gravity fill port itself, interrupting the flow of water into the tank.

Fresh water tanks usually don't require any chemical treatments like waste water holding tanks always do but if your water supply is tainted or your tank develops offensive odors, there are products you can get from your RV store to freshen your fresh water tanks such as TastePURE Drinking Water Freshener.   DO NOT use holding tank chemicals in your fresh water tank. They are toxic!  Unless your water begins to smell or taste bad, it probably doesn't need to be treated or flushed and sanitized. If your water supply has lots of minerals in it, you may want to use a filter attached to the hose when filling your tanks or connecting to city water or add an internal filter to your system.  Filtering out minerals and other particles will help keep your fresh water fresh and avoid buildup of junk in your hot water heater, fresh water tank, plumbing, and fixtures.  Most city water supplies contain enough chlorine to keep your fresh water tank safe from bacteria but it may still need to be filtered.   If you fill your tank with untreated well water, you may need to add a small amount of bleach to discourage bacteria growth. A little bleach added each time you fill the tank will help control bacteria growth. If you can smell chlorine at the fixtures, you've put in too much ! Just the residue in a gallon bleach jug after its been emptied is enough to protect a gallon of water if you fill it for storage so it doesn't take a lot to protect a even a full tank of water -- just a few drops per gallon. A tablespoon full should be enough for a 100 gallon tank.

By the way, if you get a bad odor when you turn on a faucet, be sure it is coming from the faucet and is not wafting up from the drain.  I have seen situations where it seemed like the water smelled bad, but it was really just odors in the drain being activated and atomized by water going down the drain.  Sometimes if odors are coming up from a sink drain you only need to run a little water into the drain to fill the P-trap to block odors from the holding tank. Odors from sink drains may also be caused by a stuck or damaged  in-line or cheater vent.  They are usually located under the sink to allow the drain to flow freely when it malfunctions the sink may drain slowly and it can allow odors from the tank to come back up into the RV.

A quick way to check to see if the fresh water tank is actually smelly, is to open the drain valve on the fresh water tank and check the water there.  If it is OK, the problem isn't in the fresh water tank.  But, even if the water in the tank isn't bad, water in the lines or hot water heater may be.  Try running each offending faucet for several minutes with the city water hooked up to flush the lines.  

Another common source of fresh water odors is the hot water heater.  If the odor is only detected or is stronger when the hot water faucet is turned on, the problem is probably the hot water tank.  Warm temperatures create biological and chemical reactions that sometimes result in unpleasant odors, especially if there is any residual antifreeze left in the tank.  Shut off the water heater.  Then connect a hose to your city water inlet and open the drain on the hot water tank.  You'll probably smell bad water for 10-15 minutes before the tank has been cleared of odor causing materials.  Organics in water or left over antifreeze can turn foul from heating the water.  You shouldn't have any problems if you you properly flush the hot water heater and sanitize your fresh water system at the beginning of the season.  If simply flushing the hot water heater doesn't cure the problem you will need to sanitize it using a bleach solution to mitigate any residual odor causing materials.  You may want to follow it by rinsing it with a mixture of baking soda and water to clear away the bleach smell and finish freshening the tank.  While you're at it, check the condition of the anode rod on the drain plug.  These are designed to sacrificial.  That is, to be used up as they protect the exposed steel of the tank.  If there is less than 25% remaining, they need to be replaced.

Hoses for filling your fresh water tank.  You should only use hoses designated for drinking water or potable water to fill you fresh water tank or connect your RV to city water.  Ordinary garden hoses may leach a plastic taste and possibly toxic chemicals into the water.  Potable water hoses are made from compounds that won't contaminate your water supply and some have anti-microbial additives to help prevent grown of mold or mildew.  They are also reinforced to withstand the constant pressure of being used for a city water connection.  Potable water hoses are usually white with a blue stripe or light blue with a white stripe. The packaging will clearly identify it for use for "potable water" or "drinking water", but once it has been removed from the package, the only identifier is the color, which is usually sufficient for owners to tell their drinking water hose(s) from other hoses.   Also NEVER NEVER NEVER use the same hose to fill your fresh water tank and to rinse your dump hose.   Never fill your fresh water tank from the faucet at dump station that is used to rinse sewer hoses.   Even if the water is clean and potable, the chance of the connection being contaminated by dirty hands handling sewer hoses or bad stuff being siphoned back up into the fixture is too great and you may risk getting sick.  Just the thought of ingesting sewage is enough to turn my stomach!   Try to drain all the water out of the hose before storing it back in your RV.  Use end caps or connect the two ends together to prevent bugs from taking up residence in your hose while it is in storage.  Be especially sure your hose is drained before you put your RV into winter storage if you live where you get freezing temperatures.  Water remaining in the hose will freeze and is likely to burst the hose.  When you get out your hose to fill your tanks or connect to campground hookups, connect the faucet end first, turn on the faucet, and let a little water run through to make sure it is clear of any debris or stagnant water before filling the fresh water tank or connecting to the city water connection on the RV.

A quick fill pigtail is a handy accessory for filling gravity fill fresh water tanks.  This consists of a short piece of potable water hose with a female fitting and a shutoff on one end and the other end usually cut at an angle.  Very often the hose is clear so you can watch water flowing through it as you fill the tank.    It goes about a foot down into the fill port and keeps the hose from falling out while filling.  The shutoff lets you turn it off quickly when the tank is full and water begins to overflow.  If you have trouble with water coming back out of the fill opening before the tank is full, you might try making a longer pigtail, one long enough to reach down into the tank.  You  may have to buy a short potable water hose and cut off the male end.

As briefly mentioned above, water filters are often a good idea.  You can get a filter that connects in-line in the hose to filter water that is going either into your fresh water tanks or into the city water connection.  Another convenient way to filter your water is to install a permanent filter so that both water pumped from the fresh water tank and water coming from the city water connection goes through the filter.   That way you always have clean water at your fixtures.   Specialized RV water filters are available at RV supply stores but many RVers have had good luck adapting residential filters and claim they are less expensive.  You can make up connections to put a large residential style filter in line  in your hose to filter water as you fill your tank or deliver water to your city water connection.  You may need some kind of crate or stand to protect it from tipping over and it would be a good idea to place it next to the campground pedestal or under your RV so it doesn't become a trip hazard.

Monitoring fresh water levels is usually done via a monitor panel that displays the status of many on board resources.  Most monitor panels include functions for fresh water, gray water, black water, battery, and propane.   Most of these systems use sensors installed through the wall of the tanks to measure the amount of liquid in the thank.  Sensors in fresh water tanks are less likely to become contaminated and fail or give false readings than those in holding tanks, but hard water deposits can eventually fowl them.  They can be difficult and expensive to repair or replace.  I recently read a review of new monitoring system that uses inductive panels installed on the outside of holding tanks to replace faulty sensors and improve the accuracy and reliability of tank readings.  It is called See Level II and retails for around $235.  Installation is fairly simple if you have access to the side of your tanks.  In a normal installation you would install the new sensor panels near the existing sensors connect them to the old wires.  Then you connect the new panel to the other end of the wires at the original monitor panel.  Other techniques for measuring how much fresh water you have in your tank includes a visual inspection of the tank (if you have access to it) or a siphon based gauge that gives you an external visual representation of the water level by sticking a tube down into the gravity fill and viewing the water level in a tube on the outside of the RV.  To do this you need clear tubing long enough to push all the way to the bottom of the tank, then loop outside down at least to the bottom of the tank, then back up above the top of the the tank.   Since water seeks its own level, the tube should fill to the level of water in the the tank.  If your monitoring panel fails to work, first check all the connections and any related fuses.  Then try to clean the sensors in he tanks.  One easy and safe way to clean a fresh water tank without introducing unsavory chemicals is to put some ice in the tank, then fill it about half way, and drive around a bit.  The ice will scour deposits from the inside of the tank (hopefully including the sensors) and will then melt so you can drain it out.  You will want to thoroughly drain and flush the tank before refilling it with fresh water to eliminate any residue the ice scraped from the tank.

If you don't have an electronic measuring system to check how much water is in the tank you can sometimes view the side of the tank to get an idea.  Lacking access you may be able to fabricate an external gauge from clear plastic tubing.  Insert it into the gravity fill hole far enough to reach to the bottom of the tank and then siphon water out of the tank to fill the tube.  Allow the tubing to hang down at least to the bottom of the tank and lift the open end of the tube above the filler, leaving a loop to the bottom of the tank.  You should then be able to see the water level in the tube.  I installed a light behind the translucent water tank in my enclosed motorcycle trailer, then cut a slot in the front of the paneling in front of the tank so I could easily view the water level whenever I turned on the light.  I used a momentary contact switch so I don't accidentally leave the light on and drain the battery.

Fresh water odors.   Occasionally fresh water systems will develop unpleasant odors.  Sometimes you may get a bleach smell if you've sanitized the system and haven't flushed it adequately.  Fresh water can stagnate if left unused for a long time.  It may begin to host algae or mildew, giving the water a nasty taste.  If you get bad smelling water at a faucet, try opening the drain valve on the fresh water tank and check the water there before flushing the whole system.  I've seen cases where it appeared the water was bad but what was really happening was the water activated nasty odors in the sink drain.  Simply flushing the drain with a bleach solution solved the problem.  The hot water heater is another common source of odors.  The warm water is sometimes an ideal home for microbes that can make your water stink and taste bad.  Fresh water normally doesn't require any special additives.  If you use city water, the water you fill the tank with will already contain a certain amount of chlorine that should protect it against algae etc.  If you fill it from an untreated source, such as a well or spring, you may need to add a bit of bleach to protect it.  It doesn't take much.  The residual bleach in an empty 1 gallon bottle is enough to treat a gallon of water.  I wouldn't use more than about 1/4 cup for an 90-100 gallon water tank, often a tablespoonful is sufficient.  If you get a bleach smell when you turn on a faucet, you've used too much and will need to drain the tank and refill it.  If you have chronic problems with smelly water there are commercial fresh water treatments available most places RV supplies are sold, but I would only use them as a last resort.  Sanitizing and thoroughly flushing fresh water systems are usually all that is needed.

Damaged tanks can be difficult to repair.   They are often made of LDPE plastic, which is highly resistant to solvents and, therefore, cannot be easily patched using solvent based sealants.  LDPE can be welded using plastic welding techniques.  Fortunately fresh water tanks are usually well protected and, unless you allow them to freeze and split, seldom crack.  Unlike waste holding tanks, they are usually not an irregular shape and a tank of similar size and shape can often be found to replace them.  In addition to size and shape the position and style of openings or connections will also be a major concern.  There are usually at least three plumbing connections:  inlet, outlet to the pump, and drain.  Some may also have an overflow port. If you have or want to add a monitor system you will need to install sensors on the tank.  Old style sensors require drilling to install them through the wall of the tank but there are also sensor panels that are glued to the outside for either new installations or to replace failing sensors on existing tanks.

Drink up!

Suburban Survival

No, I'm not talking about the expected longevity, crash resistance, or safety rating of a certain large SUV.   Suburban survival focuses on how to take care of yourself and your family in a suburban environment during a large scale natural or man-made disaster.  That said, the referenced large SUV might play an important part in suburban survival, especially if it has 4 wheel drive and can get you OUT if you have to bug out!

Your RV and/or your camping skills and equipment can be of great value in a disaster situation.   I have often touted the benefits of an RV as a "Disaster Recovery Vehicle" and have actually used my motorhome as such on more than one occasion.   Even having basic camping equipment and skills may be very helpful if your home is unsafe or all the utilities are knocked out. Keeping your RV and camping equipment in good condition and readily accessible in an emergency may be critical to your survival when things go bad.  Having shelter to get in out of bad weather and the ability to prepare meals on a camp stove or campfire could literally be life-saving.  Most suburban homes have a back yard big enough to set up a tent and other campsite amenities and may already have a fire pit or outdoor fireplace  If you don't have any outdoor fire facilities, you an always use your trusty BBQ or perhaps build a primitive campfire.  Many towns and cities ordinarily have stringent regulations about building back yard fires but cooking fires are almost always permitted and any regulations are likely to be suspended, eased, or ignored during an emergency.   If you live in an apartment or condo with limited yard space you might have to seek an alternate location to set up your emergency camp.   Check out your neighborhood ahead of time and identify parks or vacant lots or make arrangements with neighbors with large yards to join them.  If you are stuck in an apartment or condo with a balcony or deck you can probably fire up your BBQ outside on the balcony to prepare emergency meals.  DO NOT use it inside!  The toxic fumes and oxygen consumption can be deadly and it can create a significant fire hazard.

Safety first!   Carefully scope out your situation and take action to ensure your safety and that of your family before doing anything else.   Do not risk re-entering a collapsed building just to grab a few supplies or even to aid trapped victims!   Rescue in a badly damaged building should only be done by trained professionals with the right equipment.  Amateurs with good intentions are likely to become additional victims.  You won't be able to help someone else if you get trapped or injured --  you will only contribute to the problem!  In most disasters, more would-be rescuers are killed by ill-advised attempts to help people than are killed by the initial disaster.  Improper rescue attempts may also jeopardize the safety of trapped victims as well as injuring the would-be rescuers. C.E.R.T. training teaches the first thing you do in any emergency situation is a "size up".  In its simplest definition, "size up" means to "observe someone or something to get information".  Study the situation.  Identify potential hazards. Determine the number and location of victims and, if possible, the extent of their injuries.   Check for things that might cause additional damage or put rescuers at risk.  Look for safe passages to retrieve and transport victims.  If you can't get in and out safely, stay out!  Attempting a dangerous rescue is likely to result in you adding to the problem by becoming an additional victim and that isn't going to help anyone!  C.E.R.T guidelines allow even trained C.E.R.T. volunteers to enter only lightly damaged buildings.  They are prohibited from entering more heavily damaged structures except under the direction of professional rescuers.  How do you know if a building  is heavily damaged?  Sometimes it is obvious.  If the walls are splayed out, the roof caved in, or it is off its foundation,  it is clearly heavily damaged and unsafe to enter without proper safety precautions to stabilize the structure.  Following an earthquake you are likely to see lots of cracks in plaster and stucco.  That is actually normal and, unless there are "X" shaped cracks  below the windows, the structure is probably secure enough for rescue attempts even if there is other cracking -- unless there are additional signs of significant damage as described above.  If you see "X" cracks under the windows, cross it off your list to enter.

Make use of what you have.  In a disaster situation, normal utilities and public services are interrupted.  You may be without electric power, natural gas, water, or sewer service.  The interruption may last for hours, days, or even weeks!   If you find yourself in an emergency situation, take stock of what resources you have on hand -- food, water, clothing, medical supplies, fuel, tools, building materials, and shelter.  Begin immediately collecting or retrieving useful items and organizing them where you can protect them and have access to them when you need them.   You might find it useful to keep some things YOU don't expect to use.  Someone in your neighborhood might need them and you can either donate them to be a good neighbor or use them to barter for things you don't have.

Water supplies are often interrupted during a disaster situation.  City water systems may be damaged and power to run pumps on rural wells may be out.  If you have a safe place to store water for emergencies it is a good idea to so so.  You can usually find room under beds for a few gallon jugs. The water in your toilet tank might be safe (if you don't have one of those blue drop in cleaners in the tank) and you can usually get 40-50 gallons of potable water by draining your hot water heater.  Once you have used the clean water from your toilet tank you can dump dirty water in it to continue to flush the toilets if the sewer system is still in tact.  This will only work with gravity toilets, not the power flush toilets sometimes used in basements.  You can use water from just about any source:  creeks, rivers, lakes, ponds, ditches, gutters, even puddles.  Avoid wasting potable water for flushing toilets!

An RV is a particularly good option for suburban survival -- if you have place close to home to park it.   It is especially convenient and useful if you can park it on your property.  You have a ready-made shelter, complete with beds, heating, cooking, sanitation, and often air conditioning. You have a comfortable bed, cooking facilities, and usually hot water, toilet, and shower.  If you have an on board or portable generator you may be able to supply power to your residential refrigerator and freezer to prevent the loss of food you have on hand.  Keep in mind that in many large-scale disasters, stores will be sold out in a few hours and and have difficulty restocking. You may have to survive 2 weeks or more on what you have on hand.  Your RV is a good place to store non-perishable provisions and, if you're not in freezing weather, fresh water.   Keeping a well-stocked first aid kit in your RV and maintaining your first aid certification helps prepare you for camping and disaster emergencies.  You might augment your camping clothes with a few key survival outfits -- just in case.  Keep in mind you might need clothing and footwear that is sturdier and more durable in a survival situation than for normal camping.

Tent camping skills can be used just about anywhere (unless you live in a high-rise).  Even then you might find respite in a local park -- if thousands of neighbors haven't already beaten you to it.  If utilities are out you might even set up your dome tent indoors so you can take shelter in a protected environment that will help you preserve body heat easier than in a large room.  Having a tent indoors protects it from wind and precipitation, making it even easier to keep it warm inside.  Urbanites have both some advantages and some disadvantages when it comes to disaster survival.   They will usually be the first to get professional search and rescue assistance and may be quickly evacuated to well stocked and well supported civic shelters.  They will also probably be the first to have utilities restored.  Water, gas, and power companies can do the most good for the most people by concentrating on areas with the highest population density.  In urban settings, you may still be able to get to functioning hospitals for medical emergencies.   Urban settings will not usually be good places to set up tents and campfires.  Nor will you have access to natural food and water sources you might have in a suburban or rural environment.  While there may be edible wild plants and possibly game animals in a rural setting, it is unlikely you are going to find anything like that in an urban or suburban environment.  While there might be resources in parks, there will also most likely be fierce competition for them.  That means you'll be dependent on what you have stored.  That includes water as well as food.  You may be able to drain water from your hot water heater or dip it from the tank on your toilet.  The water in the toilet tank should be pure as long as you haven't added cleaning tablets to the tank.  It should go without saying: do NOT use water from the toilet bowl.  Your pets might think it is OK, but it is not an approved source for human consumption.   The very thought of drinking out of toilet is a pretty effective emetic for most people. (An emetic is a substance that induces vomiting).  BTW, once you have used up the fresh water from your toilet tank it is OK to replenish it with non-potable water (from streams, ditches, ponds or even  puddles) so you can continue to flush your toilet (if the sewer system is still in tact).

Practice makes perfect is an age-old proverb that definitely applies to survival.   Fortunately, most of us don't experience disasters on a regular basis so unless we make a deliberate effort to practice our survival skills, they may fail us when a disaster strikes.  Unfortunately, that means our Practicing some survival techniques on every camp out is one way to maintain and develop your skills.   Start your campfire without matches.  In an RV ALWAYS conserve your on board resources (water, power, fuel, etc).  Get in the habit of conserving resources so it comes naturally when you need it.  Some survival skills may not be practical to exercise regularly, such as building an emergency shelter and setting traps.   There aren't many places you can cut trees and branches to practice building a shelter. For these types of skills, renew your knowledge by frequently reading relevant material, watching videos, and creating thought exercises in your mind.  Think about situations you might find your self in and how you would apply your survival knowledge to take care of yourself and your family.   Even if you've never built a survival lean-to or an igloo, practice building them in your mind.   What resources do you need?  Where will you get them?   How do you put them together to create an effective shelter?  How will you decide which direction the open side of a lean-to will face?  Where will you look for food?  Where will you look for water?  Where can you get tinder to get your fire going?   My wife and I played "what if" survival games on a recent road trip, trying to spot potential survival locations and resources along the way.

Escaping your urban or suburban environment may be your best bet in a long term disaster. Preppers call it "bugging out".  Before grabbing your bags and hitting the road, make sure you have a plan and someplace to go.  Just joining the throngs of panicked people fighting to get out of town won't do you much good.  If you know where you're going, you'll need a way to get there.  If the original event was an earthquake, hurricane, tornado or blizzard, chances are many roads will be impassible.   I once counted more than 130 bridges on the commute between my home and work in southern California and every one would be a potential obstacle following an earthquake.  Getting home after a major quake would have been a major problem.  A friend of mine in the Los Angeles area took escape really seriously. He bought a 4x4 Jeep which pretty much just sat in his garage waiting for "The Big One" to hit.  He also kept a 4x4 ATV and learned to fly and sail.  He bought memberships in an airplane and a sail boat.   That was decades ago and, as far as I know, he has yet to make use of any of his escape mechanisms.   I'm not suggesting that you need to go that far, but you should make sure you have fuel for whatever vehicle(s) you might plan to use to get from your home to your survival destination.   My RV and dirt bikes figure prominently in my survival plans.  Since I already live an a rural area I don't expect to have to go far for survival but my RV will be my "Disaster Recovery Vehicle" and my dirt bikes may get pressed into service as "runner" vehicles to exchange status and other information with neighbors and local emergency services organizations.  As a last resort we could drive a long way on damaged roads or off-road to escape pending doom.  Even horses or bicycles might be part of your escape plan.  If all else fails, you may have to walk.  Having some hiking experience and equipment would be useful in that situation.

Have you ever watched the TV show "Survivorman"?  If you have, you will know that, regardless of the physical situation (ocean, desert, jungle, frozen tundra), he ALWAYS stresses the most important aspect of survival: the will to live.  No matter what the situation, your attitude and commitment and mental state will be the greatest factor that determines whether or not you will survive.   People with little survival training have survived against great odds by sheer determination and thoughtful planning.  Some people with extensive survival knowledge have died because they panicked, forgot  or didn't apply their training, or just plain gave up!

You may not have many opportunities to practice suburban survival (at least we hope not!) but you can and should mentally review what you will do in an emergency.  It is the next best thing to actual hands on practice and will help you remember what to do if you ever need it.

And last but not certainly least, seek out C.E.R.T. training.   I've been through the course over a half dozen times to maintain my certification and skills.  C.E.R.T. gives you what you need to know to deal with most urban and suburban disaster situations, covering topics like Disaster Psychology, Light Search and Rescue, Medical Triage, and even some Hazmat instruction. You'll learn how and when to shut of your natural gas, water, and electricity.  You'll be given guidelines for assessing how badly damaged a building is to help you determine whether it is safe to conduct rescue operations therein  You'll be taught how to "size up" a situation quickly and organize and prioritize available resources to do the most good for the most people.  You'll be instructed in how to conduct a "60 second assessment" to help you evaluate a victim's status and assess the extent of their injuries and to triage victims so you can do the most good for the most people.

Survive!

Internet Resources for camping etc.

Internet resources for RV, OHV, camping, and survival information are virtually unlimited.  If you're reading this, you've already found at least one!  There are lots of other blogs and web sites with useful camping and survival information.  Many manufacturers and retailers of relevant equipment and supplies have company web sites that often include helpful general tips in addition to specific information about their products.   Most RV and OHV clubs have their own websites too.  If you need information about a particular brand, product, region, or campground or a specific related topic or activity, enter it in your favorite search engine.  Need information on wilderness survival or wilderness medicine?  You can find it on the Internet in great abundance.   Use your favorite search engine to find articles on just about any subject.   Do it NOW.   Chances are local Internet access will be down during a disaster in your neighborhood and mobile access in the remote areas where you normally find campgrounds will be limited and spotty. 

Buying online.   Many familiar stores can be shopped on line.  Often their online selection exceds what you will find  in the brick-and-mortar retail store.  Many times you can have the item shipped to be picked up at your local store to avoid shipping fees.  The only downside to online shopping is you can't try out or try on items before buying.  Online classified sites are frequently a good place to find bargains on used or vintage items.  Most sellers on Internet sites like ebay and craigslist are legitimate, but like anything else, there are a few bad apples that can spoil things.  Check a sellers feedback on ebay.  If they don't have any or it is mostly negative, you may not want to deal with them.   Those with a lot of positive feedback are usually pretty safe.  Ebay has its own buyer protection program that may ensure you don't get ripped off.   I did get ripped off once, before they offered buyer protection.   I bought a truck bed liner kit and never received it.   When I tried to contact the seller I eventually learned the seller was a teen age boy who had been stiffed by his supplier and there was nothing I could do about it but chalk it up to experience.   Ebay and craigslist are good places to look for bargain prices and to search for rare or obsolete parts and equipment.   But keep in mind that you must enter the highest bid in order to win an auction on ebay.   In some ways that means you must be willing to pay more than anyone else in the world to win your item!   But, unless you allow yourself to be drawn into a bidding war, you will usually get good value on ebay.   You can make online purchases from many retail stores too and save a "trip to town".  Always consider the shipping cost.  Some stores, like Walmart for example, will let you buy online and then pick it up in your local store with no shipping charges. So why buy it online in the first place?  By doing so, you can be sure it will there waiting for you and won't be sold out when you get there and some online items aren't available in the stores.   And you don't have to search the store to find it.   Just go to the Internet will call desk.

The technical support groups for major manufacturers are usually an excellent source of useful information.   You can contact them online or call them.   I have been pleased with the response I've gotten on several occasions, including an engineer at a converter company who advised me to buy an automotive battery charger instead of upgrading the failed charger built in to my converter.   The chargers in most converters are not built to sustain batteries the way a good multi-stage charger does anyway.  I was also able to learn what the correct charging voltage should be and discovered that mine, at 18+ volts, was boiling my house batteries.  I disconnected the faulty charging circuit and used an external charger until I could upgrade the whole converter to a new model converter with a multi-stage controller.

When you ask for help in a search engine sometimes you may be offered an opportunity to buy answers from online technicians.  Some of these guys are licensed, some of them are not. Sometimes they know what they're talking about, sometimes they don't.   They are usually experienced experts in their field.   The fee is usually pretty nominal and my personal experience with this kind of service so far has been good.  I've solved some RV problems with their help without having to drive it in and pay high hourly diagnostic rates at a dealership.  Check feedback and credentials if you can before you send any payments.  It is a little uncomfortable paying up front, but my personal experience with these services has been positive so far.

Online books and manuals.   You may find useful extracts and sometimes even the complete text of useful books and manuals on line.  This can be especially helpful if you are in need of technical specs or parts lists for obsolete equipment.  You may also find out where to buy or order printed manuals for future use.

Blogs, forums, and use groups are another good source of information.  I hope you are finding this blog useful.  Internet sharing through blogs, forums, and use groups gives us all access to worldwide resources where we can take advantage of the experiences -- and the mistakes and bright ideas -- of thousands of other people.   I've found free advice on several subjects ranging from the restoration and mounting of a vintage bench vice to residential roofing repairs and RV plumbing questions.

Online search engines are an incredible resource.   With them you get instant access to thousands of sources of information related to your search.  Often the results will be overwhelming and you'll have to refine your search criteria to zero in on what you're looking for.  I have noticed that recently almost all search engines are returning a lot of unrelated stuff and often seem to loop back to the same search when I click a result.  They didn't use to do that.  I think it may be a side effect of search engine optimization.  You may have to be patient and persistent to get the results you want.   Look for ways to make  your search as specific as possible to reduce the clutter.

Be imaginative in your searches. Y ou may find useful survival tips by researching the lives and practices of mountain men or discover excellent camping meals under "pioneer cooking".  Searches for tents and sleeping bags will probably yield more information than you can even read, let alone absorb.  Sometimes you may have to narrow your search to keep it manageable and get down to what you want to know.

Archives of "Survivorman" episodes are available on several web sites.   I've watched every "Survivorman" episode at least two or three times.   Even though you may never expect to find yourself stuck in the Arctic tundra or stranded in an African or Amazon jungle, his techniques and advice have many applications and he demonstrates that you CAN survive in a multitude of inhospitable environments.   Having done a lot of desert camping and riding I found his desert episodes right on.   I appreciate that he isn't afraid to admit when he makes a mistake himself. Hopefully we can learn from his experiences.   And, by the way, unlike some other "survivor" shows, Les's adventures are NOT staged or faked.   He does solicit expert advice about each area he visits so he is prepared, but everything you see him do is real.  And I like it that he shares his mistakes and failures (like when he set his survival shelter on fire!) as well as his successes.  Sometimes it is good to learn what NOT to do.   Some other "survivor" shows deliver more dramatic and exciting content, but it has been shown that they are staged.  The main actor even spent the night in a comfortable hotel nearby and not in his survival shelter.  A little broadening of some their "remote location" shots showed they were within a few hundred yards of a busy highway!   Les has to live by his wits and live with his own mistakes, like accidentally setting his shelter on fire in one episode.  I would rather have honesty than a dramatic story.

Government agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and state and county parks departments often have web sites that can help you identify campgrounds and other recreational opportunities.  It is always a good idea to check the rules and regulations for your destination to be sure you aren't counting on being able to do something that is prohibited.  OHVs are prohibited in some campgrounds even though there are legal trails nearby.  You may or may not be able to discharge fire arms and there are often restrictions on alcohol consumption.  There may also be seasonal fire restrictions.  OHV trails are sometimes closed after the winter until log falls can be cleared and wet sections can dry up enough to be passable with permanently damaging the terrain.  It is always better to know ahead of time about any kind of restrictions rather than be turned away or end up breaking the rules and facing expensive fines.

Check it out online!

Hygiene and Sanitation Options for Tent Camping and Survival

One of the fundamental features of RVs that is so appealing to people is how they emulate many the conveniences of home.  On board systems provide sleeping, cooking, water, climate control, and bathroom services.   But you don't have those same built in facilities when tent camping or in a wilderness survival situation.

Campground facilities can sometimes be used.   Commercial campgrounds often have full service restrooms with flush toilets, sinks, and hot showers.  More primitive places may have only a few central water faucets and some pit toilets -- or just pit toilets, which are usually adequate (though often quite nasty!) for most tent camping needs.  However, if you choose to take advantage of boondocking in "open camping" and other primitive areas such as those offered by the BLM in many locations and by forest services in some areas, you will be dependent on what you bring with you.

Boondocking options are limited to what you can reasonably transport along with your regular camping equipment.   The most basic tools for personal hygiene and washing dishes is a water jug and a small, plastic dishpan.  If you want hot water for dishes, washing, shaving, etc, you can heat it in a pan or teapot on your campfire or camp stove.   For more convenience there are portable sinks, some with built-in water reservoirs and manual pumps that make them pretty easy to use.  In some cases you may be able to dig your own latrine for temporary toilet facilities.  A really simple toilet option that I've seen used in truck campers and very small camping trailers, is a folding toilet.  It consists of a toilet seat with legs that fold up like a camp stool.  Plastic bags are fastened underneath the seat to collect wastes for proper disposal.  It is not the ideal solution, but is far more convenient and familiar than an open latrine.   For a more home-like solution, get a "Port-a-potty".  These are made of plastic and the box-like construction includes a built-in clean water reservoir and pump and a small holding tank.  The lid is usually padded so they can be used as an ordinary seat or footrest when not in actual use as a toilet.   Some other variations, often offered as disaster toilets, are seats that attach to an ordinary plastic 5-gallon bucket.  I've seen some that fasten into the hitch receiver on the back of a tow vehicle.  No doubt these are much sturdier than the folding type if there is any question of sturdiness.   Port-a-pottys require chemicals like those used in RV holding tanks to break down wastes and control odors and must be dumped in toilets or in approved dump stations.  Dumping chemically treated wastes in some pit toilets or septic systems may be prohibited because the chemicals interfere with the normal process in the system.   Holding tank chemicals may be used in plastic bags on folding portable toilets and bucket toilets to reduce odors.  You can buy special waste collection and disposal bags called "wag bags" that  contain a  gel to control odors and reduce spillage.

Disposal of gray water usually isn't a major problem.  Many primitive campgrounds provide sumps where dishpans can be safely dumped.   These are often old perforated 55 gallon drums buried in the ground and partially filled with sand and gravel.  If the campground has any sewer plumbing at all, you may be able to dump dishpans down a sink drain or toilet (check with your camp host first).   Always follow the posted guidelines you will usually find near a common sink in a campground.  When boondocking in remote areas, you may be able to dump lightly contaminated water onto the ground, but check with the land manager prior to exercising this option.   In many places dumping of ANY waste water onto the ground is strictly prohibited.  If it is allowed, make sure you are a safe distance from any spring, stream, lake, or well (usually at least 200 feet) and dump it where it won't flow onto any camp site, trail, or road.

Toilet wastes can only be disposed of in a toilet or an approved dump station.  Even dumping Porta-a-pottys into a pit toilet may cause problems and may be prohibited.  NEVER empty your Porta-a-potty onto or into the ground!   If you happen to be tent camping in a site with full RV hookups, do not attempt to dump your Porta-a-potty into the sewer connection at the site.  These connections do not include a catch basin to prevent ground contamination.  Some portable toilets may have a connection for an RV style dump hose and those might be used successfully in a sewer connection, but take extra care to ensure the hose doesn't slip out of the sewer pipe while you are emptying your toilet.   You won't like cleaning up the mess it makes!

Portable hot water heaters add a level of comfort and convenience seldom found in tent camping until the last few years.   Until they came out, you had to heat your water in pans on your campfire or camp stove.   That worked OK for doing dishes and shaving, but was pretty inconvenient for showers or bathing.  Propane powered portable hot water heaters can be hooked up to provide home-like showers.  You'll probably need a shower enclosure, an inexpensive self-standing 360 degree shower curtain that provides enough privacy to enjoy your hot shower.

Sun showers are a very economical and ecological option.  They consist of a plastic bag, usually about 3 gallons, that is left out to be heated by the sun.  Putting it on the hood of your car is a good place for it to get full sun and be safe.  When you're ready to use it, hang it high enough to use the attached hose and shower head.  You may also want to use a shower enclosure for privacy, depending on just how remote your camp site is.

Food wastes should be incinerated or placed in tightly closed plastic bags.  That includes scraps from meal preparation and any left overs from plates at the end of the meal.  Food wastes can attract unwanted visitors from the local fauna, including large and dangerous animals such as bears as well as pests such as ants and rodents.  Another option is to dispose of food wastes in your campfire so there are no scraps left to attract pests.  I find using paper plates a good way to reduce washing dishes -- and an easy way to dispose of scraps by putting the whole mess into a roaring fire . Just make sure what you're burning will not create obnoxious fumes for your fellow campers around the fire.

Portable sinks can make life in camp more comfortable.  A simple plastic wash basin or dishpan will provide minimum functionality.   You can pick up a sink stand at a military surplus store.  It folds flat, like an old camp stool for transport and storage, but securely holds a large plastic bowl when opened. I have a portable sink I bought years ago.  Glad I did.   I haven't seen any more like it since then and the closest ones I've found on the Internet are pretty pricey.  It is molded into a water jug so it has its own reservoir built in.   It is about the size of a 5-gallon water jug. A  small hand-operated plastic pump pumps water from the reservoir through the faucet for brushing your teeth, shaving, and washing up.  A hose connected to the drain on the bottom of the sink carries away waste water to a bucket under your table.  An quick Internet search revealed a variety of portable sink options, ranging from simple manually pumped ones more or less like mine to large ones with battery operated pumps that give you near residential functionality.  They're not cheap. Even the manual, self contained version runs about $75-80.  Or you can make your own. I've seen people cut on opening in a portable portable plastic picnic table to accommodate a plastic dishpan, then add a faucet and hook it up to a campground faucet using a potable water hose.  If you want hot water, you'll need to heat it in a pan on your camp stove or campfire or break down and buy a portable hot water heater.  A water jug and a simple battery operated pump can add convenience.   Some portable camp kitchens have a sink option, making food preparation and doing dishes a lot easier.

Wet wipes are convenient for quick touch ups between showers.  Sometimes you can buy generic wet wipes or baby wipes at dollar stores, so they don't have to be expensive.   Make sure you dispose of them properly when you've finished using them.  They don't break down well in Porta-Pottys and RV sewer systems.

Cat baths are a good way to clean up when tent camping.  All you need is a small pan or pool of water and a sponge or rag and a towel -- or some wet wipes.  Cat baths won't be very effective in handling large amounts of dirt and grime but can take care of dirt normally accumulated in routine daily activities.

Hand sanitizer is a quick and easy way to make sure your hands aren't contaminated with dangerous germs when eating or preparing food.  You can usually find several different sized containers at your local dollar store, making it cheap and easy to provide individual bottles for each person.

Survival hygiene.  If you find yourself in survival mode, you'll probably have little or no hygiene supplies with you.   Wash up in a stream or lake if you get the chance.  Fine sand or silt might help remove grease or heavy grime.  Lacking sufficient water for any kind of clean up, air or smoke showers will help freshen your body and your clothes.  Both sunlight and smoke can kill offensive and unhealthy bacteria.  To take an air shower remove as much clothing as modesty permits and expose your body to fresh air and sunlight.  Take care not go get sunburned!  For a smoke shower, add punky wood, sage brush, or green leaves or branches to your fire, then let the smoke flow over your body.  The smoke will help kill bacteria that causes odors and disease and burning sage brush or pine boughs will add a pleasant fragrance that can further disquise body odors. You can chew pine or juniper needles to help clean your mouth.  Doesn't taste very good (kind of bitter), but it does kill bacteria and clean your teeth.  Don't swallow.   If you need leaves for toilet paper, be sure to test them on your arm about an hour before using them to avoid some VERY unpleasant itches and rashes in sensitive places!  Crush or fold the leaves and rub some of the juice on bare skin.   If there are no problems within an hour, they should be safe to use.  Far better to deal with skin irritations on your arm where you can treat them than on more sensitive and remote body parts.  You can add ashes from your campfire to greasy pans to create a rudimentary sort of soap to help clean them.  Here is  link for making homemade soap from ashes and animal fat.  Here is a Youtube video that shows how.  Simply using ashes to scrub greasy pans is a kind of short cut and may be useful for quick cleanups in a survival situation.

Clean up!

Leading A Trek or Choosing a Trek Leader

Many RV, OHV, and camping adventures need someone to lead the way.   Leading a caravan to the campground requires someone who knows the roads and landmarks.  You want to make sure your leader is well qualified and knows what he/she is doing -- especially if it is YOU!  Often the places we go for camping and OHV riding aren't well marked by road signs so you need someone who can recognize the natural landmarks and get you there without unnecessary detours and delays.  It has been said there are two ways of becoming a leader:  1) do something special and get people to follow you or 2) find a group that is going somewhere and get out in front of them.  Leading a group on or off road requires a lot more than just being out in front.   A leader needs to choose a route that is safe and appropriate for the skills and equipment of those following him.  A leader also needs to keep track of everyone in his/her group.  One of the best practices for this is for each person in the group to take responsibility for the person behind them.  Each time you make a turn, make sure the person behind you makes the same turn before you continue out of sight.  These principles apply to caravaning on the highway, horseback rides, OHV rides, boating, and hiking.

Choose your leaders carefully and be careful about volunteering to lead.  An inexperienced leader can get a group into a lot of trouble.  You don't want to follow someone who doesn't know where they're going and for sure you don't want to be the one who leads people astray!   One of our pleasant rides in the Mojave Desert turned into a bit more of a challenge than we had planned when we allowed one of our supposedly senior riders to assume the lead on our way back to camp.  Instead of returning via the same route we had taken on the way out, he decided it would be fun to see some different scenery.  Eventually he became disoriented and had to rely on his map to continue. Unfortunately, either the map was out of date or inaccurate or he wasn't reading it right.   What he thought was an ATV trail over a small hill on the map turned out to be little more than a wild goat trail.  We nearly seized at least one bike trying to get enough traction to reach the top of the hill. The back side wasn't any better and, instead of finding a well-defined ATV trail we expected to take us to the dirt road back to camp we found another goat trail that dropped us into a canyon and a dry creek bed with boulders the size of Volkswagens -- and NO trail.  By this time were were committed.  There was no way we could make it back up the goat trail we had come down so we had to find another way out.  Fortunately, some of the riders had a pretty good sense of direction and we were able to pick our way down the creek bed until we finally did hook up with the road to our camp a couple of hours later.   An honest review of our afternoon adventure determined we had misread the map.   What our "leader" had thought was an ATV trail was really just an animal trail a few miles before turn off to the ATV trail, one that led us into uncharted wilderness.  I learned later that the fellow who got us into this precarious situation had a reputation for getting lost, so we should have known better than to follow him in the first place.   He insisted he knew where he was and where he was going this time and with no one in the group with enough experience in that particular riding area to challenge or dispute him, we allowed him to lead us no where!   Another lesson to be learned from this story, is to turn back BEFORE it is too late.  In this case, our 20-20 hindsight tells us we should have turned back when we reached the top of that first hill (if not before) and saw there was no real trail on the back side.  We could have slipped and slided our way back down to the main road and found another, more appropriate route, maybe even the trail we were looking for.   By the time we got to the bottom of the back side of the hill, it was too late to turn back.  It would have been nearly impossible to get the bikes back up the back side of that hill.

Leading an RV caravan or other vehicle convoy on the highway is usually pretty straight forward and not much of a problem as long as the leader knows where he or she is going and everyone can keep up.  Modern GPS navigation systems take most of the guesswork out of traveling -- at least on established roads.  However, there are some things that the leader needs to take into consideration. The size of all the vehicles in the group will create some limitations.  Large vehicles may exceed the height, weight, and length restrictions on some parts of the route, such as bridges, tunnels, and twisty, narrow roads.   Some tunnels prohibit vehicles equipped with propane tanks so you'll have to find another way around for RVs.  Bridges on many country and forest service roads have height and weight limits.  Some roads and many campgrounds have length restrictions.   You also need to be aware of fuel requirements.  You may have both gasoline and diesel powered rigs in your convoy. Large motorhomes pulling boats or trailers will probably need to fuel up at truck stops where they can maneuver while smaller vehicles may be able to take advantage of just about any gas station. Find out the fuel capacities and range of each vehicle so you can plan appropriate fuel stops.  Just because YOU might have a 400 mile range doesn't mean everyone does.  Are any vehicles overloaded or under powered to the point where climbing grades will be a problem?  You may need to alter your route to avoid steep grades or allow extra time for slow vehicles.  You also need to plan rest stops based on the physical and/or medical needs of people in your group.   Families with very young children or elderly travelers may need more frequent stops than a bunch of college students or yuppies.  Will anyone in the group require specialized ADA access to facilities?

Leading an off-road adventure puts a lot more responsibility on the man/woman up front. When leading a group hiking, horseback riding, or OHV riding, you need to know the experience, strength, and endurance level of each individual in the group and the capabilities of any equipment they use.  When hiking, you'll be primarily concerned with the experience, strength, end endurance of each individual.  When leading an equestrian ride you'll need to have some idea of the strength, endurance, and capabilities of the horses as well.  You'll need to know if any of the steeds have special needs or any phobias that might limit the terrain they can successfully negotiate.  When leading an OHV ride, you need to know the types and capabilities of the vehicles, the fuel capacity and range, and the skill and experience of the riders.  In any case, you will need to select a route that is within the capabilities of your group.   If your preferred route has particularly technical or difficult sections you may need to select an alternate route based on the participants skill level -- or plan for alternate paths around the difficult sections.   Taking the experts over a difficult hill climb and sending the novices around to meet you on the other side is a common practice to ensure everyone has a good time and is able to reach your destination safely. You would do well to always have an potential leader in mind to lead the alternate course.  On any outing, you'll be better off adjusting your route and pace to the group.   In the long run it will be a lot faster and more fun for everyone than having to carry someone back to camp if they are injured.   You'll want to include enough technical trails to keep it interesting, but not overwhelm the less experienced participants. Sometimes you can turn a ride or a hike into a "skill builder", carefully stretching the limits of your followers.  Take care NOT to draw them into activities that are way beyond their capabilities and be prepared to give them the support they need to learn new skills.  Want to teach them hill climbs?  Do some easy ones first and see how they do before tackling a serious slope.

The routes a leader chooses will depend on the type of machines in the group and the age, experience, and skill of the riders.   Single track trails are a lot of fun for dirt bikers but are often not negotiable by 3- and 4-wheeled ATVs.  Roads that are suitable for ATVs and UTVs may be boring for dirt bikers.  Technical trails, with steep hill climbs, water crossings, and tight switchbacks are fun for experienced riders but could spell disaster for novices.  Young riders on small vehicles require special consideration.   Regardless of the rider's skill, the size of the wheels and the available power may seriously limit where they can go.

Exploring new trails is always fun.   However, traversing unfamiliar routes brings added risks. Learn as much as you can from maps and from other users before you start out.   If the going gets too rough for any part of your group, you may have to be prepared to turn around and go back or find a way around difficult sections.   Make sure any maps you use are up to date and that you know how to read them correctly.  As a participant, be careful who you follow and try to keep up with the group -- or let them know if you aren't comfortable with the pace or the route.

Riding sweep refers to the last person in a convoy or group.  The sweep is almost as important as the ride leader.  The person riding sweep should have nearly as much experience in the area as the leader. This person picks up stragglers and may be required to assist with medical or mechanical problems to help them get back on the road or trail.  In some cases, they may need to guide lost or disabled participants back to camp.  The sweep rider and ride leader should coordinate at the beginning of each trek and at each intermediate rest stop.   Being in radio contact during the journey is also very helpful.  CBs and FRS walkie-talkies are usually adequate in most terrain..  The sweep rider can help the leader adjust the pace or the route to better suit the riders in the group.  Having to alter a planned route because of unskilled participants is annoying, but not nearly as annoying and troublesome as having to rescue them when they get in trouble!   Being the last one in a group of OHV riders is not a good place for novices. Riding sweep for an RV caravan or a convoy of tent campers is not quite as demanding, but you still need someone at the rear to take care of stragglers.  Ideally, the sweep will have 2-way communication with the leader.  If not, the leader must make regular stops and wait for the sweep to catch up to make sure no one gets lost or left behind.   When I first started riding with my Desert Rat group I fell in as sweep so I could keep an eye on my kids.  It wasn't until several years later that I learned how flattering it was to have been allowed to ride sweep.  I thought I was just keeping out of everyone's way.  Fortunately, my mechanical and medical skills plus an innate sense of direction let me handle the job adequately.

Communications on the road or on the trail can be very important.  At one time travelers were limited to line-of-sight visual signals or horns and whistles to contact each other. Indians used smoke signals and cavalry sometimes used gun shots.   Ships at sea used semaphores.  Today's two-way radios give us the ability to talk to each other on the road or trail or to contact our base camp if we need assistance.  Most two-way radios require line-of-sight pathways for the signal.  Mountains or even large buildings can interfere with signals.  As a minimum, it is good for the leader and the sweep to be able to communicate with each other.  That way, the group can be alerted to wait for someone who has become ill or injured or experienced equipment problems.  Family Radio Service (FRS) and General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), and Citizens Band (CB) radios are fairly economical and easy to use.   FRS and CB don't requite a license.  GMRS radios do, at least on certain frequencies and power levels.  GMRS radios share some channels with FRS and can be used on FRS frequencies at the low power setting without a license.  Amateur (Ham) radios are more powerful, more expensive and require an FCC license.  The use of headphones, push to talk (PTT) microphones, and voice operated transmission (VOX) options may make the use of two-way radios more convenient, especially when operating a vehicle.  A popular and convenient two-way radio for rider to rider communications is the helmet-mounted "Sidewinder", which operates in the FRS band. It is surprising how well VOX systems work, given the high ambient noise level of dirt bikes and other OHVs.  However, VOX systems may be accidentally activated with embarassing results when riders verbally express their dislike for situations or other riders they encounter.  FRS and GMRS radios typically have a range of about 2 miles.  CBs may reach 4-5 miles.   HAM radios sometimes bounce signals off high altitude atmospheric conditions and, with sufficient power, can transmit for thousands of miles.  HAM radio operators sometimes compete to see who can reach the most distant contacts, thousands of miles away using something called "skip".  This is not a particularly useful feature for communicating with people in your group or even in reaching your base camp.  For that you still need line-of-sight contact.   FRS, GMRS, and CB radios are usually the better choice and are far less expensive.   And, unless you use the high power channels and option on GMRS systems, you don't need an FCC license.

Lead on!

Consistency

Why would consistency be important for RVing, OHVing, or camping?  Isn't doing the same thing over and over kind of boring?   Perhaps...but there is also a value and joy to sharing familiar activities.  We camped in the same handful of staging areas and rode the same trails in the Mojave Desert for 30 years and it NEVER got boring.  Over time it was fun to breeze through a pretty technical section of the trail and remember how difficult it first seemed.  It also gives you a chance to become familiar enough with the area to be able to comfortably negotiate your own rides without a guide.  Before long, you may find that YOU are the experienced expert!   I once found myself out with a some of our regular Desert Rat riding group when we encountered some newbies looking for directions.  As we discussed trails and options I was quite surprised to discover that I was the the most experienced rider in our group!   I still thought of myself as one of the new kids, but in reality I'd been riding the area for somewhere around 20 years and knew it better than I thought I did -- and better than any of my companions, who'd only been in the group a few years.   Consistency in where you go gives you a level of familiarity and comfort that can keep the stress levels down.   After all, we go camping for fun!

Where consistency REALLY makes a difference is in routines that ensure comfortable camping and safety.   Consistency in preparing and maintaining your rig, your ride and/or your gear makes sure everything you need makes it on the trip and is in good condition and ready to use when you get there.  Consistency in storing things in your RV or your camping storage bins pays great dividends when you need to find something in a hurry.  In fact, consistency probably takes precedence over logic when things have been in a certain place for some time.   Hopefully there was some logic for how your organize your gear and supplies in the first place and re-organizing things from time to time is not necessarily a bad thing to do, but you'll need to give yourself some clues to help you remember where you've moved things to.  Having them "where they've always been" might override "having them where they should be" when it comes to finding them the next time you need them.   Of course, if you really want the best of both worlds, start off with things where they should be and then make sure they stay there.  "A place for everything and everything in its place" is more than an just an over-quoted platitude and does not necessarily signify obsessive-compulsive disorder.  It is a very good rule for any kind of camping activities.  If you have things in illogical places, it is certainly OK to move them to better locations.  Just keep track of what you moved and where you put it and be SURE it is a more logical place so you can find stuff when you need it.   And when you're done with something, ALWAYS put it back where it belongs.

Establishing consistent routines for pre-trip preparation, setting up camp, breaking camp, and post-trip cleanup is essential to keeping your equipment in top shape and ensuring the success of your outings.  I find pre-trip checklists especially helpful to make sure nothing gets left behind or goes undone.  Some folks find checklists useful for setting up and breaking camp too but having developed a procedure I use consistently, I haven't felt the need for a setup checklist.  If you've ever driven off with the step down or an awning extended you might benefit from a departure checklist.  It doesn't have to be elaborate.   Just a few crucial items on a 3x5 card on your visor will do the trick. Some things to always check before any departure, in addition to steps and awnings, is to make sure the refrigerator doors are secured, leveling jacks and/or blocks are retracted or stowed, and tires are all properly inflated.  Check to see that all exterior doors, cabinets as well as access doors, are securely latched and your awnings are properly rolled and locked.  If you're towing a trailer, make sure the hitch, safety chains, and electrical connections are secure.  Checklists aren't just for sissies.  Airline pilots and astronauts use them regularly and religiously and they're about as macho as it gets!

My family has accused me of being OCD over putting my tools away.   But I've found it simplifies things if I keep my tools properly stored between uses.  That way they don't get lost or stolen and I can find them the next time I need them.  Same thing with riding gear.  It may seem like it takes more time put things away correctly, but ultimately it is time well invested when it comes times to use them again.  I have organized the riding gear in our enclosed motorcycle trailer with all of my gear on one side and my wife's gear on the other side, grouping various items in the same logical order on each side so it is easy to find -- jerseys hung together; pants hung together; jackets hung together; helmets always in the same place (I also store gloves and goggles inside the helmets so I can find them quickly).

Consistency among family members may be harder to achieve but is still a valuable practice.  If everyone stores their personal belongings in a similar way it will be easier for everyone to keep track of their stuff and everyone can help each other out.   Each person should at least be consistent in how they pack and store their personal gear from trip to trip. The idea of "a place for everything and everything in its place" will save a lot of headaches, frustration, and lost time.  Consistency in what gear and alternate clothing you bring along will ensure being comfortable if you get hit by bad weather or damage some of your clothing.  Being able to change your shirt or your jeans as needed without having to change your entire outfit is handy.

Be consistent!

Search and Rescue

Hopefully we will all follow the rules of common sense and good camping practices and avoid search and rescue missions for anyone in our camping groups.  However, even with the best preparations and precautions, people sometimes get separated from their groups and have to be found.  How can you keep from getting lost in the first place?   What should YOU do if you are the one who is lost?  What should you do to find someone who is lost?

Professional Search and Rescue Teams have extensive training and often have access to equipment unavailable to most of us (like helicopters and wide-area radio communications).   Many times these teams consist of volunteers associated with the local sheriff's office.  These are dedicated people who invest a significant amount of their own time and money to get the training and equipment to be able to be part of a Search and Rescue unit.  When I looked into it, I discovered required personal equipment would cost about $4,000, not counting vehicles or animals.  Search and Rescue teams often have access to various 4WD and OHV vehicles to facilitate their functions.  Jeeps, ATVs, and UTVs are often equipped with 2-way radios and stretchers or other equipment for transporting injured parties.

Don't get lost in the first place.   Following proper riding or hiking practices goes a long way toward not getting lost.  Remember too that YOU are responsible for the person behind you when on the trail.  Every time you turn onto a new trail you must make sure the person behind you makes the turn.  Always keep an eye on the person in front of you so you know where they're going.  And always keep track of where you've been and which way it is back to camp.  If you're leading a group or just have family members to keep track of, stop now and then to make sure they know where they are and  how to find their way back to camp from there.  Try to keep up with the group.  If, for any reason, you aren't able to keep up, let someone know so they have an opportunity to adjust the pace so you can keep up.  Most people would rather move more slowly or plan regular rest periods than have to stop and go back to find someone who has fallen behind.

What if you do get lost or separated from your group?   First of all, DON'T PANIC!   Panicking is absolutely the worst possible thing you can do.  When you realize you are not where you should be, STOP.   Not only is that an essential initial action, it is a basic survival acronym for Stop, Think, Observe, and Plan.  Stop as soon as you think you might be in trouble.   If you keep moving you're likely to just be getting further and further from recognizable landmarks and potential rescuers and deeper in trouble.  If you keep going you will just be getting further and further from where would be rescuers will be looking for you.  Think about your situation. Think about what you know about where you are. Think about what you know about local landmarks. Think about what you need to do next.   Are you in any immediate danger?  If so, how can you protect yourself or get out of harm's way?   Observe your surroundings.  Is there any possible shelter nearby?  Are there materials to make a shelter?  Can you find firewood?   Are there any open hilltops or tall trees nearby from which you might be able to locate your group or familiar landmarks?  Are there sources of water and food?  Plan your actions carefully.  If you must move to avoid imminent danger, do so cautiously and carefully.  Do not run!  If you feel like running, hug a tree.  If there are no trees around, wrap your arms around your body and hug yourself tightly.   If you're on horseback, get off and hug your horse. OHVs are harder to hug but might suffice in an emergency.  Of course if you have suitable companion, hug them!  This will help you control the urge to run.  Running will only get you more lost more quickly and quite possibly lead to injuries.  A second common problem in an emergency situation is something called "negative panic".   Instead of feeling like running,  people sometimes freeze and are unable to do anything.   If you find yourself in that situation, hugging therapy can also help you calm down and reconnect with reality and get you going.  Examine your situation.  Do you know the way back to camp?   Or to a known destination?   Can you backtrack to the last place you were with the group or certain of your location?   If the answer to these questions is "no", then stay put!  If you do KNOW (and not just THINK you know) the way back to camp or another known location, start making your way back methodically.   Otherwise, continuing to move will just make it harder for anyone looking for you to find you.  The only exception is you might want to climb a nearby tall tree or hill to see if you can get your bearings or locate the rest of your group.   Make yourself easy to see.  You don't want to stand out in the weather during any kind of storm nor do you want to bake in the hot sun, nor should you stand in the middle of a road or trail near a turn where you might be in  harms way, but try to make yourself visible to potential searchers.   If you have a whistle (and you should ALWAYS carry a whistle in remote activities), give three blasts on it every few minutes to aid searchers in locating you.  If you don't have a whistle, bang two rocks together or pound on a hollow log.  After dark, use a flashlight, light stick, or light a fire to assist searchers in finding you.   A flashlight that automatically flashes SOS is a good option.   Always signal in groups of three sounds or flashes at regular intervals.  Such a pattern is unlikely in nature and is pretty universally recognized as a call for help.   If you find yourself in bad or very hot weather, seek temporary shelter to protect yourself.  In adverse weather conditions you could die of exposure in just a few hours.  If you must move, try to maintain a view of the trail you were on so you can see and contact potential rescuers approaching before they pass you by.

Organizing a search party.  If someone in your group is lost you will naturally want to go look for them.   Running off without a plan is a really bad idea and may result in even more people getting lost or injured.  You may have trouble controlling family members or friends of lost people who will be anxious to get going.  Remain calm and let them know you know what you're doing and that they must all work together and follow a reasonable plan to ensure success.  The LAST thing you need is end up with your search teams getting lost too!   Make sure to send our searchers in groups of at least 2 or 3.  Plan your search starting at last known location of the lost party.   When sending out searchers, send them out with a specific scope of where and how long to search.   Divide the search area according to the resources you have available.   If you don't have enough people to cover all areas at once, prioritize the areas based on the most likely direction your lost companion would have gone.  After completing the scope of one search area, teams should return to your base of operations to report and to be assigned another area to search.   Agree upon a signal that will be used when you locate your quarry.  Three whistles or three beeps of a horn or three shouts or gun shots are typical signals that can be used by lost persons to call for help and for search parties to alert each other when the find something.   To avoid confusion you might want to use 5 as the number of signals that the party has been found.  Limit each search by time as well as geographic area.  Ensure that each search party has someone who knows the area well enough to prevent THEM from getting lost too.  Typical search patterns include concentric circles or a grid based on the last known location of the lost party.  Keeping an accurate record of which areas have been searched requires some effort but is critical in making sure you don't miss an area and don't waste time and resources checking the same places multiple times.  Try to have at least one member of each team who is first aid trained in case your lost person is injured or someone in the search party gets injured.

Search and rescue gear.   The kind of search and rescue gear you will need will depend on the terrain, climate, time of day, and type of activities you are involved in.  For almost all search and rescue operations you will need whistles and flashlights.  Two-way radios are very useful if you have them.   Each search party should carry a first aid kit and have at least one person who is trained in first aid.  Very often a person becomes separated from their group because of illness or injury -- or soon becomes sick or injured.  Axes, hatchets, and machetes may be needed in thick brush.  You may need additional equipment depending on the type of activities your lost party was involved in.   For example, if they were on an ATV, UTV, or snowmobile you might need a tow rope to retrieve a stuck or disabled vehicle.  Heavier vehicles like Jeeps and 4x4 trucks might also need a big jack or a winch to extricate a disabled vehicle -- or driver -- from unusual locations.  You might need a stretcher or a "stokes" (rescue basket), or a backboard to move injured parties.   Equestrian activities might require ropes or leads to catch and control escaped or frightened animals.  Retrieving hikers or climbers in steep terrain will require ropes and possibly rappelling gear along with special ropes training.  Attempting a rope rescue with proper knowledge of how to set things up and conduct the rescue safely will most likely end up in the rescuers needing to be rescued!
 
Professional search and rescue teams may be needed if you aren't able to locate your lost people within a reasonable amount of time.  What is a reasonable amount of time?  That depends on several factors, such as climate, weather, activities involved, and age and physical condition of the victims. Bad weather may hamper rescue operations but, ironically, may also require a faster response.   Elderly or very young victims whose ability to take care of themselves in a survival situation adds urgency.   Any known medical condition might accelerate the need for rapid recovery and professional help.   Most search and rescue teams work through local law enforcement and many of them are volunteers who spend a considerable amount of their own time and money on special equipment and training.  Part of the cost of a search and rescue operation might be passed on to you by the agency that operates the team.   The advantage of these teams is, of course, their level of training and experience and the equipment they have available to support their operations.  Usually they will be familiar with the area and will know the most likely places to find people as well as being able to quickly organize the most efficient searches.  If someone is sick or injured, they usually have advanced medical training and good equipment and procedures for evacuation along with relationships with local emergency medical facilities to speed transport and treatment.  If any victim may be sick or injured, is a high risk individual (due to age or medical condition), or weather conditions are life threatening, you should consider calling for help sooner rather than later.  In these situations, time may be of the essence.  Due to the remote locations of many our our RVing, OHVing, and camping destinations and the fact that it will take some time to call out, assemble, and transport the search and rescue team, you need to make that decision BEFORE it becomes urgent.  Most search and rescue teams are not sitting around like a paid fire department waiting for an alarm to go off. Getting to someone in time may literally mean the difference between life and death.   Getting the immediate aid of a sheriff's deputy or local ranger can expedite your own search and rescue efforts and they will be able to help you call in the formal search and rescue team when needed.  Local experts will know what kinds of mistakes others have made and may have some thoughts that will assist you in finding your lost people as quickly as possible.   Search and rescue teams often have many resources available to help them, including teams on foot, horseback, and ATVs, helicopters, and good radio communications.  They usually have relationships with nearby emergency medical facilities to speed getting your victims appropriate care as quickly as possible.  Most emergency services personnel would much rather respond to a false alarm and find the victim already safe than be called too late to do any good.

Modern technology can be a real boon to search and rescue missions.  I was called out by our fire department about 2:00 AM one morning to help locate a missing person in the forest.  Our county Search and Rescue team joined us and I was amazed that they were able to track the person's cell phone within about 100' of where they were to locate them.  Interestingly enough, the GPS locator on the cell phone put them a long way away from where they told dispatch they thought they were!

An ounce of prevention is said to be worth a pound of cure.  That is certainly good advice when it comes to search and rescue.  Avoid the need for a search and rescue operation by making sure everyone in your group knows and follows the rules . Keep track of each other on the trail so if someone is injured or otherwise unable to stay with the group, it will be quickly discovered and you can find them before they become truly lost or left behind.   Whenever you come to an intersection of a trail or leave a trail, each person is responsible to make sure the one behind them makes the turn, even if it means falling behind the rest of the group for a little while.  Stop now and then to let everyone catch up and catch their breath -- and to test each person's perception of where they are and which way it is back to camp.  Help them learn to identify local landmarks they can use of find their way.

Search on!

Firewood

The campfire is certainly one of the iconic features of camping.  In days gone by campers would often collect firewood from around their campsites.  This practice eventually consumed almost all such natural sources of firewood and in most places today, collecting firewood is impractical and mostly illegal.  You will need to bring your own with you or purchase it at the camp store.   Be sure to read the rules or check with the ranger before collecting any firewood around a campground.  Illegal collecting can result in stiff fines.  It is much cheaper to buy a bundle or two of firewood than pay the fines.  Buying local firewood helps prevent the spread of some diseases that might infect wood brought from outside the area and saves you the hassle of transporting it.

Choosing firewood.  A lot of people are rather indiscriminate about what they burn.  This has led to regulations prohibiting the use of some types of scrap lumber in campfires.  Pallets are popular for large bonfires but they leave behind huge amounts of screws and nails.   I once dragged a burn site in a popular camping area in the Mojave desert with a magnet and in less than an hour picked up more than 10# of rusty nails!  You DON'T want to be driving over a mess like that with your RV, car, tow vehicle, or OHV!  Other scrap lumber problems involve painted and chemically treated lumber, including plywood, laminated beams, pressure treated lumber, and other items that include paint or adhesives.  The non-organic materials give off toxic fumes that can cause illness or even death!  Besides that, they smell bad and usually put off nasty smoke which won't endear you to your fellow campers or enhance the fragrance of your clothing.   Using treated or painted lumber outdoors in a campfire isn't as much of a health hazard as it is using it in an indoor fireplace but the fumes can still be dangerous, even outdoors if you happen to be downwind and should breathe them.  Better to avoid the problem by not burning painted or treated wood.  Many places prohibit burning scrap wood with any kind of hardware attached (hinges, knobs, latches, nails, screws) because it contaminates the fire pits and fills them with junk that someone then has to dig out and haul away.

Sagebrush is common in semi-arid areas of the Western United States.   It burns well even when green and makes excellent tinder for starting fires.  It burns very quickly so if it is your sole fuel you'll need to add sticks frequently.   Its aromatic smoke has a pleasant smell and has disinfectant properties so it makes a good fuel for "smoke showers" and killing bacteria on your skin and in clothing and other fabrics when in survival mode.  You can also make tincture from sagebrush to be used as an antibacterial cleaning agent.  A tincture is similar to a tea and made by boiling the silvery leaves.

Best firewood.  The best firewood is whatever you can get conveniently at a reasonable price that is dry and well seasoned.  Avoid green wood (any wood that hasn't been dried for at least a year after being cut).  It will be hard to light and will give off lots of smoke.  However, green wood is a good choice for daytime signal fires where you want to create a lot of visible smoke.  In fact, for creating smoke use green pine boughs or leafy branches.  Choosing hard or soft woods is mostly a matter of cost and availability.  Fancy hardwoods may burn longer and give off more heat per volume, but, unless there is a local source, imported hardwoods will probably be a lot more expensive than local softwoods.  Softwoods are usually easier to split and to light, so they make good tinder and kindling, even if you are using hardwood as your primary fuel.  If you're concerned about which wood produces the most heat, do an Internet search for "firewood btu".  You'll find several charts that give the ratings for various types of wood. In general, hardwoods, like oak, walnut, hickory, and some fruit woods, will burn hotter and last longer than softwoods like pine, poplar, and cedar.  Cedar has a slightly higher btu rating than pine which are both rated "good" overall.  Poplar is generally rated "poor" but is often cheap and readily available because it grows fast.  Wood with "excellent" ratings include ash, oak, and hickory.   For most people, price and availability will be the most important factors.  Even softwoods with low ratings will create beautiful campfires and generate more than enough heat to make you move your chair back when it gets going.  Need more heat?   Pile on more wood.   But don't make your fire bigger than necessary to keep you and your companions warm.  That's called a "white man's fire", according to the old saying "White man build big fire, stand way back; Indian build small fire, get up real close."   There is much wisdom in using an Indian fire.  Not only does it conserve wood and save money, it reduces the amount of pollution you add to the atmosphere -- and you'll most likely be more comfortable anyway.   And remember, it isn't just the smoke that pollutes the air, even invisible carbon-dioxide, a by-product of burning wood and other carbon compounds like gasoline is released and believed by some to contribute to global warming (now renamed "climate change")...  Another downside to a big fire is you generally tend to be too hot on the side facing the fire while your backside freezes.  Instead of building a bigger fire, you might want to build smaller ones you can stand between on cold nights or even create a circle of smalls fires and sit or stand in the middle.  Keeping multiple fires going will take more effort, but it might be worth it for the comfort.  Sitting or standing in front of a big fire usually makes you too hot on the side toward the fire while the other side freezes!

Hard versus soft woods.  What is the difference between and hard and soft woods and why do you care what you use in a campfire?  The actual "hardness" of the wood isn't the defining scientific characteristic.  Basically, in layman's terms, hardwoods are flowering plants, softwoods are non-flowering.  Surprisingly, balsa, one of the softest and lightest woods around, is a very soft hardwood. Yew, famous for being used to make English long bows, is a very hard softwood.   Common hardwoods used for firewood usually come from trees such as oak, ash, and hickory.  Pine, fir, cedar, and poplar are among the most common and popular softwoods for campfires.  Hardwoods often have denser cellular structure than softwoods, giving them a higher number of calories or btus per unit volume. That means you'll typically get more heat out of a hardwood log than a softwood log of the same size.   Softwoods are usually easier to light and will burn faster than hardwoods.  Softwoods usually split easier to make kindling too.  Hardwoods are good for fires you want to last a long time and for making good beds of coals for subsequent cooking.  Most of us are too impatient to wait for our fires to create good coals and cook right on the flames, but that is not the best way to do it and one of the reasons so many marshmallows end up as torches instead of golden-brown deserts.   If you're anxious to get that bed of coals, burn softwood, but for a long-lasting cooking fire, use hardwood.  You probably won't be able to tell the difference between the heat output of hardwood and softwood fuels on a campfire, but it might make a difference if you are heating a cabin with a fireplace or wood stove -- or cooking on a wood stove.

Commercial firewood bundles are quite often primarily softwoods like pine, fir, and cedar, but in some areas where hardwood forests remain you may find hardwood bundles.  In some areas where orchards are common, you may find firewood from fruit trees.  Apple, cherry, walnut and almond all make pretty good firewood.  Firewood needs to cure for about a year after it is cut before it is dry enough to burn well.  Commercial firewood is usually well seasoned or kiln dried, making it dry enough to burn efficiently.  Green wood will be hard to ignite and will give off a lot of smoke.   Most commercial bundles consist of split wood in chunks about 1 1/2' long and about 3" across.  Sometimes you'll see larger or smaller pieces in bundles.  Fatter pieces will last longer in your campfire but smaller ones are easier to light so having a variety of sizes is a good thing.  You can usually split a couple of the larger pieces further to make kindling.  If you have to carry your wood any distance, denser hardwoods are going to be heavier and softwoods lighter, making it easier to carry more softwood.   But, since softwoods burn faster, you will probably need more softwood.  Some firewood bundles are bound by an elastic cord.  Although it is convenient to pick it up by that cord, doing so often results in it breaking and dumping your bundle on the ground.  Better to grab it by the ends of one of the bottom pieces of wood.

Buying in bulk can save you money.  A cord of firewood is 128 cubic feet -- 4'x4'x8'.   It takes a lot of bundles like those sold in front of supermarkets and ranger stations for $4-5.00 each to make a cord, probably more than 60-70, making a cord of firewood at $200 a bargain -- if you have somewhere to store it properly (see below for storage guidelines).  Bulk firewood is sometimes sold by the pickup truck load.  A truck load is usually somewhere around half a cord.   If you buy bulk firewood, know what you're buying.  Is it hard or soft wood? Is it already split and cut into campfire lengths?  How long has it been seasoned.  Good firewood should be seasoned at least one year.  You may see "kiln dried" firewood too.  That is usually more expensive because of the cost of kiln drying it.   Kiln drying makes new wood ready for use quicker than natural seasoning.  The 'kiln' is essentially an oven where the moisture is baked out.  Kiln dried firewood is claimed to burn cleaner, hotter and longer than regular, naturally seasoned firewood and is often guaranteed to have a moisture content below 25%.  Properly seasoned or kiln dried firewood should be fairly light.  Heavy pieces indicate there is still a lot of moisture present.  Some firewood sellers deliver and stack the wood for you.  You can probably save money by going to the lot and picking it up yourself, or stacking it yourself if it is delivered and just dumped in your yard.

Scrap lumber is sometimes an economical source of firewood. It may not be as cosmetically appealing as commercial firewood but you probably won't notice its shape for very long in a fire.   It usually burns faster than logs too.  The odd-sized scraps are sometimes difficult to transport and to arrange in your fire.  As mentioned previously, avoid lumber with hardware and treated or painted lumber.   Old, unpainted wooden fences make good kindling.  They are usually very dry, having been exposed to years of sunlight and rain.  Dimensional lumber from demolished buildings (2x4s, 2x6s, etc) cut into appropriate lengths makes good firewood, if all the hardware has been removed.   Cedar roofing shakes often contain fire-retardant chemicals that may give off toxic fumes, but often, by the time the roof is replaced, the chemicals have mostly been leached out by rain water.  Untreated shingles and shakes make great kindling.  The cutoff scraps from construction sites also make good firewood, although inconsistency in length can make transportation and arrangement somewhat of a problem.  

Crates, plastic tubs, and canvas bags make good containers for transporting odd-sized firewood.   I like using bags because they can be folded or rolled when emptied and take up little room when not in use.  Consistent lengths of wood can be tied in bundles.  Take care when lifting or carrying firewood bundles.  The ties or rubber bands are not really designed for lifting and often break.   Cradle the bundle in your arms or grab a bottom stick by both ends to avoid having the bundle break open.   Sometimes bundles are wrapped in "shrink-wrap".  If you have an aversion to breathing burning plastic, remove the shrink wrap before putting the wood on your fire.  You probably don't want to put the whole bundle on at once anyway.   Disposing of the shrink-wrap in your campfire in a well-ventilated, open area will probably not be hazardous to your health unless you stand over or downwind of the burning plastic and inhale the smoke!  Put the shrink wrap in your trash or follow the example of Bill Clinton's claim about his college marijuana use and don't inhale!

Sources of scrap lumber.  Since most of us are limited in the scope and number of home projects that generate scrap lumber, you'll want to look for alternate sources.   Sometimes you can find "free firewood" in your local classified ads or on craigslist.   This will usually be scrap lumber from new construction or demolition projects.   In many cases you will have to cut it to firewood size.   Watch for new construction projects in your neighborhood.  Many times you can approach the superintendent in charge of the job and get permission to haul away scrap lumber.  Be sure to take ONLY what he/she has designated as scrap.  Many times they will have a pile of unused pieces -- even odd-sized pieces -- that they still plan to use.   Factories that use wood products, like those who make doors, cabinets, and furniture may also be a source of scrap lumber.   I've seen some who put their scrap in a dumpster clearly labeled "free" for anyone to take.   If there is any question, be sure to check with the office before taking anything.  As a courtesy, check in at the office even when there is dumpster labeled free firewood.  Avoid anything that has been chemically treated.   The treated lumber used where wall framing comes in contact with concrete floors and foundations contains chemicals that can generate toxic fumes . Same with plywood and other manufactured wood products and painted lumber.   IF you choose to burn treated or painted lumber, make sure you maintain good ventilation and stand or sit upwind, and avoid breathing the smoke.

Sources of natural firewood.  Never gather firewood in a National Park or Forest Service camp ground without permission. Some open BLM managed primitive camping areas may allow gathering of firewood.  While gathering firewood near most camp grounds is now prohibited, it is possible to obtain wood cutting permits from some forest services.  These permits allow you to harvest limited wood for personal use, taking marked trees from designated areas.  Contact your local Department of Forestry or the USFS to find out if there are permits available in your area and to learn the rules for where, when, and what you can cut.  You'll need a chain saw and a truck or trailer. In some areas you are only allowed to collect already fallen timber or cut only dead trees.   Sometimes the forest management may have "tagged" trees to be removed for thinning.  In any case, take care to follow the rules and take only what your permit and local regulations allow you to take.  You may have to get certified by the Forest Service to use a chainsaw before you will be allowed in the forest.  Fruit orchards sometimes cut down old trees and make the wood available.  Be sure you have permission from the owner and take only that which is designated to be taken.  You may be able to use firewood cut from trees on your own property. I got enough for a couple of nice fires from a single large limb that blew off a big elm tree.  I often save smaller branches cut during annual pruning for future use as kindling.  I also trim the branches from our Christmas trees and save them in a plastic trash bag for tinder and cut the trunk into kindling.   By next Christmas it is dry enough to use for nice, fragrant holiday fires in the fireplace.   When using green wood, cut it into firewood lengths, split larger pieces, and stack it.  It will need to "season" for about 1 year after it has been cut before it will make good firewood.  Split firewood will dry faster and better than full logs.   Cover the top of the pile to keep off rain and snow but leave the sides open to allow air flow to dry and season the wood.   Green wood that hasn't been seasoned will be difficult to burn and will create a lot of smoke.  Split large logs into smaller pieces to facilitate drying, handling, and burning.  The largest logs or pieces of firewood I like to use are 6-8" across.  The best size for normal campfires would be 3-4" across.  While you can split logs using an axe, a wedge works better.  A log-splitter adds a lot of convenience.  Gasoline or electric powered log splitters are the easiest to use but those that use a hydraulic jack and good old fashioned elbow grease are a lot less expensive and are still a LOT more effective and efficient and safer and easier than splitting with an axe or a wedge.  If you do split your wood with an axe or wedge, be sure to follow proper safety procedures to ensure you don't injure anyone, including yourself!

Firewood from your own trees.   Unless you're a city or apartment dweller you probably have some trees on your own property.  Branches and limbs that blow down during storms and those you cut out during pruning can often be used for firewood, or at least for kindling.  But make sure you season it about 1 year before burning it, if you have somewhere to store it while it dries.  Otherwise it will be green, making it difficult to light and producing lots of smoke when you burn it.  Our neighbor has a huge old elm tree that often drops 4-6" thick limbs in high winds, often in our yard.  Each one amounts to about 1 night's fuel for our fireplace at home or one campfire.

Cutting your own firewood is an option if you live near a forest where you can get a firewood permit or own land with trees on it.  Remember, firewood needs to be thoroughly dried or seasoned before it makes a good fire.  If possible choose dead trees for firewood.  If you have to cut green trees (because you need to cut them down for safety or clearing anyway or because you don't have any dead trees available) count on letting the wood season for at least a year before burning it.  Cut your firewood in suitable lengths to fit your fireplace or log splitter before stacking it to dry.   Split wood dries faster and better that green wood.  When stacking it to dry, put it on pallet or lay down a couple of small logs so the firewood doesn't lie directly on the ground.  Cover the top of the pile but leave the sides open so air can freely circulate. 

Storing firewood.  It may be cost effective to purchase larger quantities of firewood than you need for a single outing.  When you do, you'll need a place to store it until you're ready to use it.  Do not stack it against your house or garage.  It can attract insects that may infest your structure or may create a fire hazard.  Do not stack it directly on the ground where it will absorb moisture and start to rot.  Put in on a pallet or "skids" to allow air to circulate beneath the pile.  Cover the top to keep rain and snow off, but leave the sides open so the pile can breathe.  Completely wrapping it with a tarp or plastic sheet will trap moisture inside and may encourage insects, vermin and mold.  Termites might turn your stack of firewood into a pile of sawdust.  Mold probably won't affect the quality of the wood much, except by retaining moisture, but it could make it nasty to handle and might give off strange odors when it burns.  And you DON'T want to breathe mold spores when you handle the wood. They can be toxic.

Splitting firewood.  You will normally want or need to split firewood.  There are several reasons for doing this.  First, split wood will dry more quickly, making it usable faster than logs.  Secondly, split wood is usually easier to ignite than whole logs.  And, third, you cans split it into sizes that are convenient to stack, store, transport, and use in your fire.  You will also probably need to split firewood to make kindling to help get your fire going.  Some people use a large axe to split firewood but it is usually faster, safer, and easier to use a wedge and a sledge hammer.  For even more convenience, use a log splitter.  As previously mentioned, electric or gasoline powered splitters are the easiest to use but manual splitters powered by a hand operated hydraulic jack are still a lot easier, faster, and safer than splitting logs with an axe or even a hammer and wedge.  You will probably use an axe or hatchet for splitting kindling.  Use a stick -- not your fingers --to steady the piece you're splitting.  It is no big loss if you chop the end off your stabilizer stick, but would definitely be a big deal if you chopped off one or more fingers!  And remember, "when you cut  your own wood, it warms you twice!"

Spiders and other insects may take up residence in wood piles so always wear gloves and be observant when handling firewood.  Most spiders are benign, but black widows and brown recluse spiders are very poisonous to human beings.  If you suspect you've been bitten by a poisonous spider, seek professional medical help as soon as possible.  Capture the offending critter if you can so they can confirm the nature of the bite.   Black widow bites are seldom fatal but they, along with brown recluse bites, can cause extreme discomfort.  Wasps and yellow jackets are also common residents of wood piles and wood sheds.  Although their stings are not life-threatening (unless you are allergic to them), they are very painful.  Some kinds of ants are also prone to biting or stinging.  Insects left in or on wood placed into your fire will quickly be eliminated.   However, a wasp or yellow-jacket nest inside a hollow piece of wood might be aggravated when placed in a fire and could send stream of angry insects in your direction.  Try to remove or otherwise neutralize nests before adding the wood to your fire.  If you are allergic to bees or wasps, be sure to have your epi-pen handy in case you do get stung.

An alternate source of fuel often used by American pioneers on the prairie where wood was scarce were "buffalo chips" -- dried buffalo manure.  Dried manure is reasonable fuel in an emergency, but most people are loath to handle it and fear it may give off odors when burned.  Actually it is mostly undigested grass and burns fairly cleanly.  Dried dung from grazing cattle is often a good source of survival fuel.  Deer and elk dung is mostly like pebbles and not suitable as fuel for a fire.  Dung from predators and other meat eaters including humans definitely does not make good fuel.  Unless you are camping in an area used frequently for cattle grazing, you aren't likely to find many "chips" lying around and you probably don't want to use up valuable space transporting it from home and it can get disgusting if it gets wet.

Fire it up!