The UGLY TRUTH with Starlink - Pros, Cons & Rvers STUCK in between

Couple of tips from a fellow starlink/cell user on the road. For the "setup hassle" of running it through the slideout, I moved the router into the storage bay where there is already a plug and a whole through the floor for hoses and wires to come through and run the satellite wire in through the hole. This keeps the router protected from the weather and makes it super easy to setup. Tip number B, see about getting Tmobile home internet. They provide a cellular router that does not have a data cap and... you can use anywhere you can get a signal. If you have good cell signal, put your Starlink on pause until you need it and save some hard earned money!

After 6 years of full time RVing campground Wi-Fi headaches, and Verizon data caps, Starlink was the best thing since sliced bread for us.

I've been a Starlink customer for over 2 years. There are a couple of things that you mentioned that are not completely accurate. One of the biggest is that you can't use the basic Dish while moving. Yes you can. The dish is not a straight line antenna per se. It is phased array. So it "points" electronically not mechanically. Usually when stationary it moves to set itself just once. That is to align with direction of the most saturated orbital paths, then it uses phased array technology to follow from one to the next without physically moving. One thing I saw in the comments that is also very helpful. That is with a small modification is to disable the motors, it will still follow each satellite with its technology. There are over 5 thousand Starlink satellites in orbit with more coming all the time. Disable the motor and let the phased array technology follow the satellites. That's how the more expensive ones work. They are better at it than the basic ones of course, but it'll still work most of the time. Also, The entire system only pulls around 75 watts. Not much more than an old incandescent light bulb. So a small 500 watt hour battery would last over 6 hours without recharging and of course a larger battery would last longer. And you can plug almost any AC device into them. So essentially, one solar panel and one battery would power it for pretty much the entire 24 hours. I hope this helps some people to check out these options. They work for me, and of course just standard use is amazing. I'm very satisfied.

We've had our Starlink for almost a year now. It has worked great for us, with my wife working online over Starlink.

Can confirm, we used are Starlink in CO this last Dec and saw temps below -30 F. It never lost signal and just kept going. We've also used it in 105F heat in Arizona just south of Sedona.

we don't pay extra for the mobile service that also deprioritizes. Instead we just keep it set to residential, and when we get where we're going we use the app to "update" our home address to the GPS coordinates of wherever we are (we boondock a lot). 30 minutes or so later and bang, we're up and running with no deproritization, and not having to pay the higher monthly cost :) and we keep it powered with a portable solar panel and battery, which we also use to keep our laptops going all day and night while dry camping. highly recommended! mobile phone data can't remotely compare when it comes to getting service when you're in the middle of nowhere :)

We have had Starlink for several months and have been loving it! We first started running our cable to the modem through a window but then we decided to just put the modem in the pass through and run the cable through the wet bay since there is a 110 plug and makes it a super easy set up. We live in Colorado and have had great speeds most of the time.

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We put our star link router in a weather proof box and it stays underneath the camper. So no cords to fish through slide and setup is easy and quick. We live in Canada and currently RVing in Ontario. So far owning a star link has been an excellent choice. Zero issues. Carry on…❤🇨🇦

We are getting our new rig on Monday and being a work & travel family based in Europe, we decided to equip it with a dual 5G router, external antenna and give Starlink a try as a 3rd source of internet. I am also a tech savvy person and so I will follow a few online instructions to modify the Starlink and make it 12V compatible.With this we will be able to ditch the router and have the dish connected to the dual 5G router and integrate a PoE injector to provide the required 48V to the dish. This will allow us to use only the mobile router and leave the Starlink router in the box. As we go on a South-Europe tour this summer we will have plenty of time to test the optimal install places for the dish! Greetings from over the pond

I work in Australia outback with no mobile phone covering and starlink is live saver and the best option ever.

A few things. I've been heavily modifying our rig to help "ease of use" (mainly for me..). First, have a bulkhead connector for the Starlink on the rear where you would mount via a pole on the ladder. Second, I ran another drop to the front of the rig that I can access via the front jack near the propane tank. This way, I can easily get to the front or back with the same connector (yes, I omitted the router). All I need to do is patch in the front instead of the rear. Third: You do not need 120v ac if you omit the router. I run mine from battery (yes, I installed a voltage regulator, etc). I'm running our starlink, router, switch, access point..well, everything I can from DC. This saves hassle and more efficient. Do I have AC? Yup. Full dual victron inverters, 2550w of solar and 48 Kw of LiFePO4 batteries. Lastly: install a motor disable switch on the dish. I have not done this yet. This allows you to turn off the motors so the dish will stay flat so it can pick up the Sat's directly over head. I hear this works really well, and gets better with every launch of more sats. See you on the road!

Starlink does work well in cold temps. We have had it down to -23F without any problems and lots of snow!

You guys are great! Thanks Hanks fir the straight scoop on Starlink. I have been on the fence about it since it came out. This is a tough one for full timers and as much good info as we can get always helps! Thanks again and safe travels.

My wife and I just bought a palamino 21 ft 2022 rv. We enjoy the videos you have. And we learn a lot from your adventures, thank you.

When I use my Starlink, I leave the router inside the pass-through storage area (I have a Grand Design 5th wheel too)…I run the dish cord through the hole to the outside and then plug it into the outlet above it near the hole. The Wi-Fi signal is still strong enough to broadcast from inside there to the entire trailer and around it outside.

We camped in a remote area near a small town out West, guess what everyone in the small town was using? Yep, Starlink. We would have had great service by moving less than a mile. Always check the Starlink availability map before you settle in to a spot.

Like @Studio Time, we currently have our router/modem in our passthrough and thread the wire to the dish through our wet bay. Works great there and set up and take down is quick and simple. We love our Starlink and very pleased with it. Yes, we've had times where it's been slow or visibility of the skies has been difficult, but there have also been times where our cell service has been terrible. We were on the Outer Banks a couple of months ago and cell signal was nonexistent for a day or two. Starlink meant we could keep working without an issue. For us, it is money well spent.

I purchased my Starlink in January of this year. Used for the 3 months I was in Florida. Most of that time was in Leesburg just south of Ocala. It was very successful. Other then 2 times during heavy rainstorms I had great service with downloads ranging from 20mps to 100 or more.

I'm in Georgia USA and have had Starlink for about a year or so. Trees are certainly a challenge since, here, you need a pretty wide swath of unobstructed northern sky. The population in some areas do cause the bandwidth to vary greatly as mentioned in the review as we RVers get deprioritzed. But, I work as a Systems Engineer (read computer nerd) and I RV full time and have had very good results with continuous work connections as well as streaming TV. It is reliable even during heavy storms. I thought I'd mention my experience since some have commented putting off getting Starlike because of living in/going to the SE. It has work well for me so far for what it's worth.