My sister-in-law drove our 1995 Chevy Roadtrek from Seattle to Anchorage. And now we’re going to drive back to Seattle. The plan is to boondock (not stay in paid campgrounds) most of the time and work using a Starlink satellite dish. I’m excited to see the beautiful scenery ahead of us, and I’m equally excited to see how well Starlink performs. I know that it requires a clear view of the sky, so I’m a bit concerned that The Boreal Forests in Alaska and Northern Canada will be a problem. We’ll just have to look for wide open spaces. Seems like setting up next to lakes should be a good bet!
In Anchorage, I’ve got an oil change, filled the water tanks in the van, charged up the battery, and stocked the van with food for the journey.
Before leaving Seattle, I upgraded the electrical system in the van. It had an old Onan generator that never ran very well. I removed the generator and replaced it with a 280 amp hour (3600 watt hour) battery, 2 kilowatt inverter, and a battery monitor so I can see the real-time status of the system. I haven’t installed solar panels yet, so we’ll just be charging the battery by either plugging in to shore power or via the alternator while driving. I’m curious to see if this will be sufficient to power our laptops, the Starlink, the exhaust fans, lights, etc. We’ll see!
