Off Grid Living

Australia has some of the best camping in the world, but to take advantage of the best spots you need to get off grid. How long you last off grid is generally governed by how much water you can carry, how much fresh food you can store, how much power you can hold and how quickly you can recharge your 12v. Our Z-10.0 EXPEDITION SERIES by ZONE RV has been cleverly thought out to make the most of off-road touring so here are a few key features that allow us to stay off grid for longer.

Our trailer has 2 x 90 litre tanks which will last the two of us close to 2 weeks even with a quick “spray down” shower every night. We also carry a 22 litre jerry can on the front of the trailer as an emergency supply. If for some reason we run out of water or puncture a water tank off-road we know that we will have the extra 22litres that will last us 2-3days while we drive back to civilisation.

Luckily, we haven’t had to resort to that yet! Another really cool feature we have on our Z-10.0 EXP is the creek pull system. This allows us to draw water from a lake, river or creek and fill the tanks or alternatively we can bypass the tanks and go straight to the hot water unit for showering or washing up. Doing it this way means that we don’t risk contaminating our drinking water. It’s pretty hard to beat a 5-minute hot shower next to a creek after a long bumpy day on the tracks!

With a 75 litre fridge built into the kitchen of the Z-10.0 EXP we can comfortably carry 2-weeks’ worth of fresh food in the trailer alone. We use Tupperware style containers to store any loose items. This maximises space efficiency in the chest style fridge and also increases the lifespan of things like fruit and veg so that they don't end up bruised or squished from taking bumpy off-road tracks. Top tip is to put a sheet or two of paper towel in the containers to absorb any moisture that comes off of your veg. If your fishing game is strong you might even find you can stretch our two weeks out to three, however we learnt the hard way that this isn’t always a very reliable plan!

It’s all good and well having a big fridge but you need plenty of power to run it. This is where our Z-10 EXP really shines. We have a 200amp Enerdrive B-tec lithium battery that can comfortably keep the beers cold and the lights on for a few days without being charged. To keep the battery topped up we have added an extra 2 solar panels to the roof of the camper which gives us 440w of solar and can put over 20amps into the battery with full sun.

If the weather is good this means that it’s fairly easy for the battery to be back at 100% by about 10am each morning. On the flip side if we only get a small window of sunlight to top the batteries up with, we will plug in our 200w solar blanket as well which will boost the solar charge up to 30amps! With so much power and charge onboard we can comfortably run a coffee machine, blender and induction cook top through our 2000w ePower inverter, you can kiss powered campsites goodbye!

With power, water and refrigeration well and truly covered we are able to explore further and enjoy those hidden gems for longer!