Share your Starlink RV install and experiences

[AbdRahim]

Ran across this video. Interesting.

 

[lemondrop9344]

Update..... We brought the Starlink from the home office back over to the RV today to give it another try. We are subscribed to the Home plan with portability. Our base address for the Dishy is in Southport, NC.
This time we set up the Starlink in Southport & activated portability. We then moved it over to the RV which is around 15 miles due west & located in an area that is not scheduled for availability until 2023.
It's sort of interesting to watch the Dishy search for the satellites & within a few minutes we were connected to the internet. We ran a couple of speed tests with speeds ranging in the high teens & up to 70 Mbps.
The real test will come next week when my son & his family head out to Ft. Lauderdale & will be staying in a state park for some 10 days.

 

[Scotttkd2]

Posted this in another forum, it addresses full time work situations, but still relevant IMO

In a usage situation where employment relies on a full time always up connection to the internet, I don't think there is a one size fits all answer. I have added the Starlink to my arsenal, and we rely heavily on it, but I still have the pepwave max transit duo operating with ATT and Verizon sims with the Starlink plugged into the wan port. So far its working well, and I see the potential to cut the cell plans down to a more reasonable and much less expensive size and use as backup to the unlimited Starlink. Everyone has to evaluate their needs and decide accordingly. 2years ago I was getting away with a weboost and an ATT hotspot, mostly fr entertainment. Things changed and we went full time and needed a more reliable connection. As this new technology develops I am sure it will improve, right now we are effectively beta testers, but I don't mind that. I like the options it gives me that cellular doesn't. Your mileage may vary in that respect.

 

[Tnedator]

I have a new RV lease a at a localish lake. I did the visibility test over the 4th weekend, and it's clear straight up, but has obstructions to the sides. Park wifi is better than most, but not great, and AT&T and Verizon are on the edge (0-2 bars inside, but Peplink with external antennas were getting 105-124 depending on band).

I'm hoping that Starlink will be able to hold a sat signal, even with the trees, but not sure. Next time I go up there, I'll bring the dishy and check.

 

[marc2912]

So I had canceled my order since they were taking too long to fulfill and was going to hotspot. Then I saw a v1 dish for sale at a decent price and said screw it. The specs are the same performance wise on the two dish, v1 is just bigger and heavier. The account transfer procedure when buying used was a bit more complex than necessary but I got it working at home and now it’s with us on our 11 day trip.

Originally I had grandiose mounting plans but as many thing goes it didn’t happen, instead I just chucked the dish on the roof of my jeep and ran the wire through the front door of the rv. Today we’re at the Elizabeth KOA in PA and I included both the Starlink app speedtest and the google one.

 

[Neal]

I screwed my Starlink stand into the roof and dicor'd the screws. The antenna will be stowed in the house while traveling. The stand will remain on the roof.

Speeds are anywhere from 50 to 250 down and 5-10 up.

 

[Neal]

Not quite a week of use but I have to say Starlink has been a pleasure to use. I used it solely since installing it, no other cellular sources are in play. It's been reliable in my current location of Oshkosh, WI. YouTube is no issue, everything streaming fine there.

 

[Tnedator]

Not quite a week of use but I have to say Starlink has been a pleasure to use. I used it solely since installing it, no other cellular sources are in play. It's been reliable in my current location of Oshkosh, WI. YouTube is no issue, everything streaming fine there.

In the end, are you going to use it when cell isn't good, or thinking of making it your primary.

P.S. Always wanted to go to the air show. How is it? Do you have any electric/water, or are you just in a field?

 

[Neal]

The nice thing about SL is it's pretty stable and I don't notice peak usage times like we do with the constant variations in cellular. As long as I'm not lazy I'll take the antenna up and use it and not use cellular if I'm in a good location. Cellular may become my alternate. Keeping in mind this is costing me an additional $135/mo and if cellular is giving me 100+ download speeds I'm not sure it's warranted. It's an experiment for now.

You can get sites with electric/water but they can be expensive. They advertise the sites at $75/day but that's now how it works. Those sites you have to book them early in a lottery type deal, i.e. book it before it's booked and then you pay $75/day from that day forward until the last day of the show, so it can get to 2K in a heart beat. I'm in the general camping which is $30/day and I've enjoyed putting all the systems to the test from solar, AGS with the AC's (fortunately a cool year here around 80'ish each day), and water conservation. I'm leaving a day early, tomorrow, which will be 7 nights and I'm about 50% on fresh, 55% gray, 30% black so a good system I could do about two weeks I've learned. The dumps station is right across street from me so that's an easy option too if needed and they have potable water.

The airshow is good, I'd say not as good this year as the last time I was here, probably inflation taking its toll. AVGas is 200% of what it was a year ago, or less.

 

[Tnedator]

Sounds cool. Wife and I would have to really change our ways to not be on full hookups. lol

I got Starlink, but current plan, especially since I'm barely getting to use my RV, is for it to sit in the bay as a backup for when I'm in places with no or unreliable cell, and then I'll enable Starlink for a month (lol, might have to hop in the Jeep to find cell signal to get on the app and enable it).