I took my Ram ProMaster City out for three nights of camping, but this trip had a specific purpose.
I wanted to test my equipment before depending on it farther from home.
I've traveled and boondocked for years, and one thing I've learned is that buying equipment is the easy part. Finding out how it actually performs in real conditions is another matter entirely.
So I loaded the van with my current setup:
- Jackery Explorer 2000 v2
- Renogy 400W portable solar blanket
- 12V refrigerator
- Side awning
- Butane cooking backup
- Sleeping setup
- E-bike and carrier
- Electronics, camera equipment and the everyday gear I'd normally travel with
Then I spent three nights at a wooded campsite without relying on an electrical hookup.
The woods made it a better test.
I wasn't sitting in an open field with perfect sunshine. There were tall trees, moving shadows, changing weather and only certain windows when the solar blanket received strong direct sunlight.
That was exactly what I wanted.
Some things performed better than I expected. Some things taught me how to use them differently.
And a couple of things came home and got changed immediately.
That's the point of test camping.
A driveway can tell you whether something fits. A manufacturer's specification can tell you what something is supposed to do. Reviews can tell you what happened to somebody else.
But none of those can tell me what will happen when I live with my equipment for several days.
Could I keep the refrigerator running continuously?
Could portable solar replenish the power I actually consumed?
Could I manage the awning alone?
Was the van comfortable after the novelty of the first night wore off?
Was I carrying equipment I didn't need?
And perhaps most importantly: what would I discover that I hadn't thought to ask?
Those were the tests.
This wasn't about seeing whether I could camp for three nights.
It was about finding out whether my equipment could.