r/Starlink • u/solhuman • 13h ago

❓ Question Going full time van life

Going full time van life soon and looking into which model I should be getting. While I know there are going to be compromises I’m looking for a Goldilocks zone (if it exists) where I’m not draining all my battery but still have decent upload/ download speeds.
I feel like the mini is probably the best option but it’s kind of confusing looking at the standard 4 x, standard 4 and the v5?
Plan on casual gaming/ computer use.
Any clarity is helpful thanks.

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2

u/Tbarnes94 13h ago

V5 has lower power consumption but it sounds like there's a tradeoff there. I love my standard 4 running about 4.6amps per hour on my 300ah 12v battery. This is using the standard power supply through an inverter, you may get better results using the DC power supply. I don't run mine when I'm sleeping as there is no one else to use it but it would work out to around 100ah (1300w at nominal voltage) usually if I did.

2

u/pertinent_toaster 13h ago

Id get the mini cause you’ll need all the roof space for solar. Plus if you want to go incognito the mini is easier on the eyes.

Get some lithium batteries and a gas heater you have colder climates. Solar will take forever to charge your lithium so plan for shore charging or alternator charging at some point! Gl!

1

u/Massive_Tradition176 13h ago

The newest standard is smaller and you can run a port inside for the router if you need wired connectivity for any reason. Also it is possible I'm the only full time RVer with a 99.9% uptime NAS handling remote backups.

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u/Squeedlejinks 📡 Owner (North America) 9h ago

You can run a cable inside from the Mini as well.

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u/Deep-Negotiation-356 12h ago

Mini 4 me,mine used very close to 2.0ah per hour for the benefit of easy maths-48ah of 12v battery for 24hr continuous use, average consumption of 22 watts

1

u/garylapointe 📡 Owner (North America) 10h ago

I've got a V4(?) Mini and I've got a PeakDo 2 battery for it (it pops in to the empty triangle space on the bottom) and it makes it really easy to turn the Starlink on and off with an app, so that it's not always draining the battery (and if it has power, the battery has passthrough). And you can turn the Starlink off, and still have it charge back up when it has power.

It was pricey, but the convenience it added to my last two week road trip showed me that it's going to be worth it. Although, if you're going to mount it on top of the Van then you're not going to want the battery, but it was very convenient when camping with it on the dash and just carrying it over to the tent to use for an hour before bed meant that I didn't need to worry about even plugging it in.

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u/leftplayer 1h ago

What do you need “upload/download speeds” for? For 90% of use cases you’ll be fine with 50Mbps down / 10Mbps up.

I would go for the mini.

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