NIX // ROAD

HIGH ROADS, LOW VOLTS & A FULL BATTERY

Monday 19 October 2026 — Peak District, Day One

One campervan. One autumn drive into the Peak District. And a few surprisingly revealing numbers from under the seat.

There are worse ways to begin a Monday than climbing into Vanilla, turning the key and pointing her towards the Peak District.

No airport queues, no checking-in desks and no great ceremony. Just my grey Volkswagen T6.1, a road disappearing into the hills and the familiar pleasure of going somewhere simply because I can.

What I didn't appreciate at the time was that the journey would become one of the best real-world tests yet of Vanilla's electrical setup.

My Polarsteps trail recorded the journey. My Victron equipment quietly recorded what happened electrically.

Put the two together and you get a rather wonderful story.

The higher I drove into the Peaks, the healthier my Fogstar battery became.

11:31 — LEAVING MILFORD BEHIND

My Polarsteps recording begins around Milford and Shugborough at 11:31.

From there, Vanilla and I headed through Colwich, Sandon and the roads leading north towards Staffordshire's higher ground.

Near Bishton and Colwich, my GPS position corresponds to a ground elevation of approximately 71 metres (233 feet). That would prove to be the lowest sampled point of the day.

Through Meir Heath, Kingsley Moor and Ipstones, the scenery gradually changed. The land became more open, the roads more interesting and the hills increasingly obvious.

Then came Onecote, Butterton and Warslow. Proper countryside. The sort of driving I enjoy, particularly when there's no delivery slot to meet and nobody expecting a trailer at the other end.

And all the while, something rather satisfying was happening underneath my passenger seat.

THE INVISIBLE PASSENGER — MY VICTRON ORION

At 10:00, my Fogstar Drift 105 Ah lithium battery was reporting just 58.9% charge.

Not a problem, but certainly room for improvement.

Once I was on the road, everything changed.

Between the 11:00 and 13:00 hourly records, the SmartShunt measured an impressive 43.42 Ah of net charge entering the battery.

That's approximately 556 watt-hours, using the battery's nominal voltage.

Meanwhile, my 200 W roof-mounted solar panel had produced only 138 Wh over those same hourly records.

The obvious conclusion? Solar wasn't doing all that work.

My Victron Orion 30 A DC-DC charger was almost certainly making a substantial contribution while I drove.

The numbers imply approximately 418 Wh of additional charging beyond the solar harvest, although that's an estimate rather than a direct Orion measurement.

I've spent enough of my life around engines to appreciate a machine quietly doing its job without making a fuss.

Vanilla was doing exactly that.

13:09 — HARTINGTON

By 13:09, I'd reached Hartington.

The recorded position was approximately 230 metres (755 feet) above sea level, and Polarsteps shows a pause of around 42 minutes.

I love this part of the Peak District.

Dry-stone walls, limestone scenery, old villages and narrow roads winding through countryside that feels reassuringly unchanged.

After Hartington, I continued climbing towards the higher ground around Hurdlow and Pomeroy.

14:02 — THE HIGH POINT

At 14:02, near Pomeroy on the A515, my recorded GPS position corresponded to an estimated elevation of 381 metres — 1,250 feet.

That was the highest sampled point of the day.

From the lowest to the highest recorded terrain elevation, Vanilla had experienced a difference of 310 metres.

For a 110 bhp campervan, that's a proper day among the hills. She's not exactly an Alpine mountain goat, but she gets on with the job.

MILLER'S DALE, TIDESWELL AND CALVER

The route continued towards Miller's Dale, with another recorded pause around 14:17.

Afterwards came Tideswell, the high ground around Lane Head, and the descent through Middleton Dale and Stoney Middleton.

By approximately 15:30, I'd reached the Calver Arms area.

The mapped elevation there was about 142 metres (466 feet).

Polarsteps shows Vanilla remaining in essentially the same location through the evening.

A day of winding roads, higher ground and autumn scenery had brought me to the place where the campervan could become what I love most about her.

My little home on wheels.

MONDAY NIGHT — EVERYTHING RUNNING FROM THE FOGSTAR

Once parked, I had my laptop charger, phone charger and living-area lights connected to Vanilla's 12 V electrical system.

Not the Jackery. The actual leisure-battery system.

That matters because the SmartShunt could see the combined effect of those loads.

Between 18:00 and 21:00, the battery delivered 17.69 Ah — approximately 226 Wh.

That's around 128 Wh more than the corresponding period on Sunday.

The laptop, phone and lights provide a very plausible explanation for some of that increase, although the fridge, Webasto and other equipment could also have contributed.

Then something rather remarkable happened.

Vanilla settled into her normal overnight electrical rhythm.

Across the nine hourly readings from 22:00 to 06:00, the battery supplied 18.42 Ah, almost identical to the previous two nights.

That's equivalent to approximately 26 W average net electrical demand.

Three nights. Virtually the same result.

For a campervan being lived in during October, I find that rather impressive.

THE OCTOBER SUN DID ITS BIT TOO

Despite it being well into autumn, my 200 W PV Logic solar panel contributed 230 Wh over the full day, according to the Victron controller's daily history.

Its peak output reached 120 W.

Not bad for 19 October in the Peak District.

The hourly solar export totals 222 Wh, a small difference that I've retained in the detailed analysis rather than pretending the measurements agree perfectly.

But the real discovery was how effectively the different parts of Vanilla's system work together.

• The solar panel produces electricity when conditions allow.
• The Orion replenishes the Fogstar while I'm travelling.
• The lithium battery supports the van when I'm parked.
• The Jackery units remain available for additional equipment.

It's not simply a campervan with a leisure battery any more.

It's a small, mobile electrical system that I can actually measure and understand.

TUESDAY MORNING — 60.7% REMAINING

By 07:00 on Tuesday 20 October, the Fogstar was reporting approximately 60.7% state of charge.

After a proper evening in the van, charging my devices, using the lights and running the usual equipment, that was a perfectly respectable result.

I'd travelled through Staffordshire, climbed to more than 1,200 feet, enjoyed the Peak District and spent the evening comfortably off-grid.

And I still had well over half my leisure-battery capacity remaining.

I've always liked knowing how things work.

Perhaps that's the old marine engineer in me. Perhaps it's years of driving heavy vehicles. Either way, I'm far happier when a number on a screen tells me something useful about the real world.

Now I can see exactly where I drove, how high the landscape was and how much energy the van gained and lost.

Vanilla didn't just carry me into the Peak District. She quietly recharged herself along the way.

That's my sort of technology.

And that's my sort of road trip.

NIX // ROAD

Technical note: GPS locations are from Polarsteps. Elevations are terrain estimates at recorded positions, not direct altitude measurements. Electrical data comes from Victron SmartShunt and SmartSolar exports. Orion output is inferred rather than independently metered. Watt-hour estimates derived from amp-hours use a nominal battery voltage of 12.8 V.