FOGSTAR 105Ah | THE DAY VANILLA CUT THE CABLE

FOGSTAR 105Ah | THE DAY VANILLA CUT THE CABLE

Lithium under the seat. Solar on the roof. Five kilowatt-hours aboard. Winter suddenly looks very interesting.

5 OCTOBER 2026.

Remember that date.

Because I think that was the day Vanilla changed.

Not visually.

There was no new set of wheels.

No orange detailing.

No enormous accessory bolted to the roof.

Nobody walking past would have noticed anything whatsoever.

A black battery went underneath the passenger seat.

That was it.

Except it wasn’t.

Because with one swap, Vanilla went from being a campervan capable of spending nights away from electric hook-up…

…to a campervan I am now deliberately building around not needing electric hook-up at all.

⚡

The battery is a Fogstar Drift 105Ah LiFePO₄.

And this might be the upgrade that changes where I go, how long I stay and, perhaps most importantly, how little I think about electricity when I’m there.

This is the beginning of the Fogstar Era.

For years, campervan electricity has followed a familiar pattern.

Drive.

Arrive.

Plug in.

Orange cable across the grass.

Done.

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But that isn’t really how I want to use Vanilla anymore.

I want Friday-night pub stops in December.

I want completely unplanned weekends.

I want festival fields.

I want isolated photography locations.

I want Torque on the back, drones in the cupboard and absolutely no idea where I’ll be sleeping tomorrow night.

I want France.

Spain.

The Costa del Sol.

I want to arrive somewhere spectacular at six in the evening and make the decision to stay because the view is incredible.

Not because there happens to be a blue 16A socket nailed to a wooden post.

That was the real reason for lithium.

Not specification-sheet bragging rights.

Freedom.

And beneath Vanilla’s passenger seat there is now about 1.3kWh of dedicated LiFePO₄ energy helping to make that possible.

Before I get into what it has changed in Vanilla, this is Fogstar’s own introduction to the Drift range.

Now back to Vanilla.

Because the interesting bit isn’t what the battery can theoretically do.

It’s what it lets me do.

105Ah SOUNDS ALMOST BORING

Here’s the funny thing.

The old Exide AGM battery said 110Ah.

The Fogstar says 105Ah.

So I’ve apparently removed five amp-hours.

Worst upgrade ever?

😂

Except those numbers disguise a massive difference.

AGM and lithium are very different animals.

With the old battery, I was always conscious of how deeply I was discharging it.

Voltage sagged.

Capacity felt precious.

There was a constant temptation to preserve it.

Lithium changes the behaviour of the whole system.

The voltage stays much flatter during discharge.

Much more of the stored energy is realistically usable.

It accepts charge quickly.

And the Fogstar has its own BMS watching the cells from inside the battery.

Then there is Bluetooth monitoring.

Built-in cold-weather heating.

Grade A EVE LiFePO₄ cells.

A 100A BMS.

IP67 protection.

And the whole thing weighs around 10kg.

There is some serious engineering hiding beneath that seat.

But specifications are not why I bought it.

I bought it for 2AM.

Forget laboratory tests.

This is my test.

It is two in the morning.

Outside, October has turned properly cold.

The wind is moving through the trees.

Vanilla’s windows are black.

Inside, the Webasto is holding the temperature at around 21°C.

The compressor fridge decides it wants another little burst of electricity.

My phone is charging.

The 5G router is alive.

Maybe a tiny LED is still glowing somewhere because apparently I am incapable of finding every switch before bed.

And I’m asleep.

That is when I want my electrical system to work.

Not when I’m standing over it with the bonnet open and a multimeter in my hand.

At 2AM.

Quietly.

Automatically.

Without drama.

And without me waking up thinking:

What’s the battery at?

That is the real lithium test.

Anyone who spends nights off-grid will understand this little ritual.

Battery says 86%.

Fine.

Twenty minutes later:

82%.

Still fine.

Three minutes after that:

81%.

Hang on.

Why have I checked it again?

Seventeen minutes later:

79%.

Right.

WE ARE CLEARLY IN AN ENERGY CRISIS.

😂

Suddenly you’re turning lights off like a wartime air-raid warden and wondering whether refrigeration is really necessary.

I’ve done it.

Probably everybody has.

The Fogstar hasn’t given me unlimited electricity.

Physics remains stubbornly involved in the project.

What it has given me is much more useful.

Confidence.

Because the battery isn’t working alone.

It is sitting in the middle of an entire little energy ecosystem.

And that is where this gets properly exciting.

Look at the roof.

There is a 200W PV Logic solar panel up there.

Even when Vanilla is parked, she can be producing energy.

The panel feeds a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 75/15.

I have already seen solar production climb beyond 130 watts in good conditions.

That means when I’m sitting outside Vanilla drinking coffee…

Vanilla can be charging.

When I’m flying the drone…

Vanilla can be charging.

When I’m riding Torque…

Vanilla can be charging.

When I’m sitting in a pub doing absolutely nothing productive whatsoever…

Vanilla can be charging.

That idea still feels fantastic.

Sunshine lands on the roof.

Some electronics perform their invisible wizardry.

And it eventually becomes a warm campervan at two o’clock the following morning.

SUNLIGHT BECOMES HEAT.

That is brilliant.

BUT WHAT IF THERE’S NO SUN?

Easy.

Start the engine.

Vanilla has a Victron Orion Smart 30A DC-DC charger.

So driving is no longer simply transportation.

Driving is energy recovery.

Use electricity overnight.

Move somewhere else the next day.

The alternator wakes up.

The Orion gets to work.

The Fogstar begins drinking electrons again.

So my travelling pattern naturally helps the system.

Sleep.

Use power.

Drive.

Recover.

Stop.

Solar.

Sleep.

Repeat.

It is becoming beautifully circular.

That gives Vanilla three routes back to a full leisure battery.

Solar through the SmartSolar.

Alternator through the Orion.

And, when required, mains charging through the Victron Blue Smart charger.

There is no longer one umbilical cord.

There are options.

And options are what remove anxiety.

I’ve configured the Victron solar system around the Fogstar.

Absorption is 14.20V.

Float is 13.50V.

Solar charging is limited by the MPPT to 15A.

Meanwhile my SmartShunt sits there quietly watching what’s happening.

And this is where NIX inevitably turns into a laboratory.

Because I want the data.

All of it.

Solar harvested.

Amp-hours consumed.

Overnight losses.

Heater usage.

Fridge cycles.

Charge recovery.

Driving days.

Stationary days.

Cold nights.

Bright days.

Awful days.

I don’t want to know what a Fogstar might do in a theoretical van.

I want to know what mine actually does in Vanilla.

This longer real-world campervan look at the Drift is worth watching because it shows why lithium has become such a big deal in vans like mine.

And that brings me to the part where my setup starts getting a little ridiculous.

The Fogstar runs Vanilla.

The Jackerys are something else.

Forge.

My Jackery 2000 v2.

Kindle.

The Jackery 1000 v2.

Plus the smaller portable units.

They are separate battery banks rather than one giant electrically connected battery.

And I actually prefer that architecture.

Fogstar handles the things Vanilla needs.

Webasto.

Fridge.

Lights.

Water system.

12V habitation electrics.

The Jackerys handle the things John wants.

Induction cooking.

240V equipment.

Camera chargers.

Drone batteries.

Laptop.

Entertainment.

Occasional bigger loads.

That separation is important.

If I’ve been cooking something ludicrous on induction, I haven’t emptied the battery responsible for keeping Vanilla warm overnight.

Two worlds.

Two jobs.

One campervan.

ROUGHLY FIVE KILOWATT-HOURS.

That is what Vanilla now carries across the Fogstar and Jackery ecosystem.

Read that again.

5kWh.

In a Volkswagen Transporter.

🤣

That is faintly ridiculous.

And completely brilliant.

Solar generation.

Alternator generation.

Lithium leisure storage.

Portable lithium storage.

MPPT management.

DC-DC charging.

Battery monitoring.

240V capability.

Emergency energy transfer.

This sounds considerably grander than the reality.

The reality is a Volkswagen van with some orange bits parked outside a pub.

But technically?

Vanilla has become a little mobile microgrid.

And the most interesting thing isn’t how much equipment I can turn on.

It is how long I can remain comfortable.

That’s the real game.

December.

Friday afternoon.

Cold.

Dark before I’ve even properly finished the working week.

I throw some clothes into Vanilla and go.

An hour or two on the road puts charge into the Fogstar through the Orion.

I find a country pub.

Park.

Handbrake.

Engine off.

Curtain closed.

And then one button changes everything.

WEBASTO ON.

Outside: December.

Inside: 21°C.

The fridge is running.

Lights are on.

Phone charging.

Music playing.

No hook-up cable.

No campsite reception.

No pitch number.

No bollard.

I go inside the pub.

Couple of pints.

Something enormous involving chips.

Back to Vanilla.

Door shuts.

Warm air.

Bed.

The heater cycles through the night.

The fridge keeps working.

Fogstar quietly gets on with the job underneath the seat.

Next morning?

Breakfast.

Coffee.

Check the data.

Then decide where to go next.

Start the engine and the charging cycle begins again.

That is exactly how I want to use Vanilla this winter.

THE WINTER OF PUB STOPS.

⚡🍺🚐

This is another big change.

Before, somewhere in the back of my mind there was always a countdown.

How much battery?

How much water?

Where am I going tomorrow?

Now the electrical side is becoming less of a limiting factor.

Friday night becomes Saturday.

Saturday becomes Sunday.

And if the numbers say everything is comfortable?

Why not Sunday night too?

The roof will have harvested whatever daylight Britain has bothered to supply.

Driving puts more back.

And the Fogstar gives me a much deeper usable energy reserve to work from.

Suddenly, going away for three nights doesn’t feel like stretching Vanilla.

It feels normal.

Cannock Chase.

Vanilla parked.

Torque comes off the back.

I’m gone for hours.

While I’m burning through the Bosch e-bike battery, Vanilla’s solar panel is quietly doing the exact opposite.

Collecting energy.

Back at the van.

Bike away.

Fridge opens.

Drink out.

Heater on if it’s cold.

DJI batteries charging.

And eventually, if required, Torque itself can be recharged from the portable power side of the system.

That’s the clever bit.

Vanilla isn’t just somewhere to sleep after the adventure.

She is the base station for the next one.

This one is pure NIX.

Remote location.

Great landscape.

Mini 4 Pro in the air.

Mavic 2 Pro ready.

Action 4 recording.

Ray-Bans catching the bits in between.

Vanilla parked nearby.

5G running.

Camera batteries charging.

Laptop available.

Food cold.

Webasto ready for later.

Solar on the roof.

Fogstar underneath me storing the harvest.

Jackery charging the high-draw kit.

The van becomes part campervan, part newsroom, part charging station and part tiny electrical laboratory.

Exactly what I wanted.

This article really needs its own NIX video eventually.

No ten-minute talking head.

No endless introduction.

Start outside Vanilla at dusk.

Cut underneath the passenger seat to the Fogstar.

Victron app.

Solar graph.

SmartShunt.

Webasto starting.

Fridge compressor kicking in.

Lights going down.

Night.

Then morning.

Open the phone.

Show the remaining state of charge.

One caption:

EVERYTHING RAN ALL NIGHT.

Cut to black.

Orange NIX logo.

That will eventually become the third embedded video in this article.

Now we’re getting serious.

Thursday arrival.

Friday.

Saturday.

Sunday.

Monday departure.

No EHU.

That used to sound like an energy-management exercise.

Now it sounds like fun.

The summer sun has a huge chunk of daylight in which to work on the 200W roof panel.

The Fogstar keeps Vanilla’s essential 12V systems alive.

The Jackerys carry the heavy stuff.

Drone charging?

Easy.

Phones?

Noise.

Speakers?

Of course.

Induction?

Yes.

Air fryer?

Potentially.

Laptop?

Easy.

Fridge?

Just another background load.

The goal isn’t to spend the festival staring at energy graphs.

Quite the opposite.

The goal is to build enough capability that I forget the graphs exist.

Although, knowing me, I’ll still look.

Frequently.

😂

SCENARIO SIX | WHAT IF EVERYTHING GOES WRONG?

This is where having separate energy stores gets clever.

Imagine several miserable winter days.

Solar harvest is rubbish.

I’m stationary.

The Fogstar has been running the fridge and heater.

Its state of charge is getting lower.

But sitting elsewhere in Vanilla is a Jackery containing a large reserve of energy.

I can use the Victron mains charger from the portable power side when genuinely necessary and push useful energy back towards Vanilla’s leisure system.

I’ve already seen around 143W being drawn during that kind of charging arrangement.

Is converting stored DC to AC and back again perfectly efficient?

No.

Absolutely not.

Would I choose it as my normal charging method?

No.

But as an emergency reserve?

Brilliant.

Because redundancy is worth more to me than theoretical perfection.

If Plan A is solar, Plan B is driving and Plan C is another battery bank…

I can live with that.

This is where the whole project starts making even more sense.

Three weeks.

Vanilla.

Western France.

Spain.

South.

Eventually down towards the Costa del Sol.

Aires.

Occasional campsites.

Wild stops where legal and appropriate.

Long drives.

Short drives.

Days where I don’t move at all.

And sunshine.

Actual sunshine.

Not Staffordshire’s occasional grey suggestion of it.

☀️⚡

That 200W panel should finally get the sort of conditions it deserves.

Imagine it.

Spanish morning.

Vanilla parked.

Sliding door open.

Coffee outside.

Solar already coming in.

Fogstar recovering yesterday’s usage.

Drone batteries charging elsewhere in the system.

No cable.

No generator.

No noise.

Nothing happening.

Except sunlight quietly turning into tomorrow night’s electricity.

That might be my favourite thought in this entire project.

There is something immensely satisfying about that.

The Webasto consumes energy overnight.

Next day the roof gets some of it back.

I drive.

The alternator adds more.

Stop somewhere else.

Solar continues.

It’s not infinite.

Of course it isn’t.

But the system is dynamic.

That is the key.

I am not simply starting the weekend with a full battery and watching a gauge travel towards zero.

I am continuously producing, consuming and recovering energy.

That’s what makes this feel different.

I’ve never understood why off-grid has to mean pretending electricity wasn’t invented.

I’m not disappearing into the wilderness to grow a beard and whittle cutlery.

I like technology.

I like warm feet.

I like cold beer.

I like music.

I like Wi-Fi.

I like induction cooking.

I like drones.

I like cinema in the van.

I like waking up warm.

My version of off-grid isn’t about abandoning those things.

It is about building Vanilla so I can take them with me.

That’s the difference.

OLD-SCHOOL FREEDOM. MODERN POWER.

A campervan still gives me the same basic thing campervans have always given people.

A key.

A road.

A bed.

And the ability to disappear for a bit.

The clever electronics simply extend the radius.

Winter is coming.

Good.

Bring it on.

I want cold nights.

I want December solar.

I want miserable grey days.

I want frost.

I want Webasto data.

I want a full evening followed by a full night followed by breakfast.

I want 24-hour fridge figures.

48-hour figures.

72-hour figures.

I want to know what one complete winter night genuinely costs Vanilla in amp-hours.

Then I want to know how long the Orion takes to put it back.

Then I want to compare it with a sunny day.

Then spring.

Then France.

Then Spain.

There will be graphs.

There will be many graphs.

Possibly an unreasonable number of graphs.

📊⚡😂

Because this story has only just started.

This is the important bit.

A good modification improves the van.

A great modification changes the adventure.

The LV4 wheels transformed Vanilla’s appearance.

The General Grabber AT3s changed the places I’m comfortable taking her.

The Webasto extended the camping season.

The 200W solar panel increased independence.

Torque changed what happens once Vanilla is parked.

But the Fogstar?

The Fogstar changes the decision I make before I leave home.

Bad weather?

Go anyway.

Cold?

I’ve got heat.

No EHU?

Fine.

Pub stop?

Perfect.

Three nights?

Probably.

Festival?

Definitely.

France?

Yes.

Spain?

Keep driving.

That is what this battery has really bought me.

CONFIDENCE TO SAY YES.

There is another film forming in my head already.

Vanilla moving.

Drone shot overhead.

Country pub.

Cannock Chase.

Festival field.

Fogstar app.

Solar graph climbing.

Night interior.

Webasto glowing.

France.

Spain.

Road disappearing towards the horizon.

Then the words:

NO HOOK-UP.

NO ITINERARY.

NO BATTERY ANXIETY.

VANILLA POWERED.

That video belongs here when I make it.

And by then, hopefully, I’ll have months of real data to go with it.

And maybe that’s the nicest thing about all of this.

I don’t actually want to spend my adventures thinking about a Fogstar battery.

I want to forget it’s there.

The perfect battery isn’t one you spend all weekend admiring.

It’s the one buried underneath a seat that quietly does its job while you’re somewhere else having an adventure.

The fridge stays cold.

The van stays warm.

The lights work.

The water runs.

The electronics charge.

And eventually you realise you haven’t thought about electric hook-up for three days.

That’s success.

So this is where we are.

200W of solar on the roof.

Fogstar 105Ah lithium underneath the seat.

Victron SmartSolar managing the sun.

Victron Orion 30A recovering energy while I drive.

SmartShunt watching the numbers.

Jackery reserves waiting for the serious stuff.

And roughly 5kWh of total distributed energy travelling with me.

In a short-wheelbase Volkswagen Transporter.

Utterly excessive?

Possibly.

Do I love it?

Completely.

🍊⚡🚐

5 OCTOBER 2026 WASN’T BATTERY DAY.

It was the day the orange cable stopped being an assumption.

The day winter became interesting.

The day three-night trips became easier.

The day festival power stopped worrying me.

The day next year’s European adventure suddenly looked even better.

And perhaps the day Vanilla finally became what I’ve been building towards all along.

Not simply a campervan.

A self-contained travelling base.

A tiny power station.

A warm room in the middle of nowhere.

A drone base.

A bike base.

A cinema.

A kitchen.

A bed.

A way of waking up somewhere completely different.

And somewhere underneath the passenger seat…

105Ah of lithium quietly making all of it easier.

Welcome to the Fogstar Era.

Welcome to Vanilla Powered 2.0.

Now let’s see how far we can push it.