My name is Julia, and my family has been living and traveling on the road for almost 11 years. After welcoming another family member, we moved from our large adventure truck into a much smaller van, so every part of the setup had to make good use of the limited space.
We spend around 90% of our time off-grid. Two of our kids attend online classes, and both adults work online, often at night, so having a reliable power setup is essential to our daily routine. We need enough stored energy to support work, school, and family life even after the sun goes down.
More Ways to Recharge
Solar is our main source of power, but we did not want to rely on sunshine alone.
Our setup includes a 165Ah Bluetooth lithium deep-cycle battery, a 30A MPPT Bluetooth solar charge controller, a 12V 40A DC-to-DC charger, and a 40A lithium battery charger. That means we can recharge from solar, while driving, or from campground power when needed.
That flexibility is especially useful during long stretches of cloudy weather, when work and online classes still need to continue.
How It Fits Into Our Everyday Life
Most of our appliances run on 12V. For the rest, our 1000W pure sine wave inverter supports things like a smoothie maker, portable piano, laptops, and tools.
We also use a 500A battery monitor with a shunt to keep an eye on power usage and battery status. Even the kids can quickly check it before plugging in their devices.For the way we use the van, the battery capacity gives us several days without charging. We can use rainy days to catch up on work and save the sunny days for getting outside and exploring.
More Time for Life and Discovery
What matters most to us is not having to think about power all day.
A reliable setup supports the responsibilities that come with life on the road—work, school, charging devices, and everyday routines—while giving us more freedom to stay longer in remote places and spend more time outside together.
For us, that balance is what Life & Discovery looks like: reliable power in the background, and more time for learning, family, and the adventures that brought us onto the road in the first place.
