Solar Panel Installation - no drilling holes

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by deryk

I keep bouncing back and forth on where to Mount a panel and how large of one. I can fit something on my roof between the escape hatch and the front of the trailer 34x42' ish size that really wouldn't be very visible from the street. It would keep my batteries topped off when the caravan is sitting in my parents driveway but I usually like camping in the shade...so that wouldn't help keep the batteries charged. Do I put a 30-50 watt panel on the roof and get a 2nd larger one with a longer cable to setup in the sun for extra charging?

Too many options lol

Deryk,
My 65 Watt panel is 26" x 28" and does all I need.
Kyocera 65 Watt KC65T. Would fit nicely in that 34 x 42" space ( I believe that was what you were saying) I chose that panel because of form factor.

I keep my in the driveway battery charged with a Battery Minder. Beside the tow will top it off when I travel from home to camping site.

[Jay Moeller]

Amazon has a 100w solar panel with the same plastic "no holes drilled" mount for $238. See it at
http://www.amazon.com/Instapark%C2%A.../dp/B004OZJ4FY

[Ron F]

Solar panels will still provide some charging, even in filtered sunlight, granted, it's much less than perfectly aimed, direct sun, but with enough watts, you can still have an effective charging system. Most of the campsites where I park the trailer provide both sun and shade at different times. Solar is getting cheaper all the time and my solution is to have 185 watts on the roof, as much as I could fit with the available real estate. Even in less than ideal solar conditions, the array restores the charge in my battery in short order. When you live in the northern states, you don't have very many hours of optimum sunshine. Even at midday, the sun is seldom directly overhead.

The only change I would make if doing it again would be to use the flexible panels that Norm installed. I think they'll even customize the dimensions, which might have made it easier to add more watts.

Also, I'm with Norm. I'm lazy and don't want to be fussing with unpacking and deploying solar panels when I set up my campsite.

Ron

[honda03842]

Ron,
I choose to not think of us as being lazy but rather as older New Hampshire Yankees that recognize the shortness of life and choose to maximize 'fun' over needless labor.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Jay Moeller

Amazon has a 100w solar panel with the same plastic "no holes drilled" mount for $238. See it at
Amazon.com : Instapark® NEW All Black 100W Mono-crystalline Solar Panel, 100 Watt : Patio, Lawn & Garden

That's a pretty good premium for the mounting system. Similar panel for $125 here: Solar Cell, Solar Panel, Solar PV, Solar Products, Charge Controllers, Solar Trackers

[Jon Vermilye]

Originally Posted by Thomas G.

That's a pretty good premium for the mounting system. Similar panel for $125 here: Solar Cell, Solar Panel, Solar PV, Solar Products, Charge Controllers, Solar Trackers

And if you read the reviews it appears the mounting system does not come with the panel. Since they show both the black & white versions, I'd contact them if interested before expecting mounting hardware. While it is a fairly expensive panel, the shipping is free, which can be significant, depending on how far you are from the supplier.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Jon Vermilye

And if you read the reviews it appears the mounting system does not come with the panel. Since they show both the black & white versions, I'd contact them if interested before expecting mounting hardware. While it is a fairly expensive panel, the shipping is free, which can be significant, depending on how far you are from the supplier.

Good catch.

[jwcolby54]

Largish, but 24v and one does it.

Solar Cell, Solar Panel, Solar PV, Solar Products, Charge Controllers, Solar Trackers

[carlkeigley]

Thanks for the link John.
I've added it to my web-site book.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by jwcolby54

Largish, but 24v and one does it.

Solar Cell, Solar Panel, Solar PV, Solar Products, Charge Controllers, Solar Trackers

Holy cow, that thing is huge. And 50 lbs, wow. But boy, is that ever a good price for the wattage.

[D Davis]

Okay guys...this is off topic but I went to the website linked on the rubber brackets and saw a Solar TV...for $75.00 12 volt. I never heard of such a thing...curious...

Wholesale Solar Tv-Buy Solar Tv lots from China Solar Tv wholesalers on Aliexpress.com

[FTTRV]

I have a 120W solar panel on the roof of our Bigfoot. We made angle brackets that hold the panel 1inch off the roof. Used VHB 3M tape double sided to hold the panel to the roof. I bought a small roll for $10.00 which was more than enough for the brackets. After sticking it to the roof used proflex to cover the tape and brackets on the roof. This installation works well on fiberglass.
Chuck

[D Davis]

Chuck, do you remember the number of your VHB tape? Because I ordered VHB 4941
to attach something else and it released. Do not know what I did wrong. The tape did not come off the trailer but did come off of the plastic piece I attached it to.

[hotfishtacos]

No need for any drilling and tape has it's drawbacks, especially if the surface isn't perfectly clean, dry and warm. Reace from Escape had a bad experience with tape so he doesn't use it for exterior mountings anymore. I put another solar panel on my 19' Escape and after doing some research selected 3M Marine Adhesive Sealant Fast Cure 5200. I sanded the bond surfaces of the aluminum panel mounts to enhance adhesion then cleaned the fiberglass surface with alcohol and lightly sanded it. I then just glued them on. For what I've read you will have to rip the gelcoat to get those mounts off. Notice that I mounted my panels up 3" off the roof to avoid any shadows so this is really a worse case condition and they are not going anywhere.



Steve

[honda03842]

We use high bond strength on the gel coat for our solar panels and on the wall for our plastic spice rack. Panels on for 3 years, spice rack for one.

I tried another plastic box on the bathroom wall and it came off. Cleaned wall with acetone and added more tape and its stayed up. The bathroom wall is not gel coat and is rough painted fiberglass.

I use Scotch exterior vhb from amazon. 100 inch roll is $14.95.

[Jay Moeller]

I asked Grape Solar, located in Eugene Oregon, how to best apply their panels to the roof of a fiberglass RV. Grape Solar panels get very positive reviews at Home Depot, Lowes, Amazon and Costco websites. I am considering the Grape Solar 100w GS-S-100-Fab36 that sells at Home Depot for $150. Here is Grape Solar's response:

"All Grape Solar 100W panels would provide the same amount of output, whether they be PhotoFlex, Star, Fab36 or TS.

I recommend against drilling holes in your roof. Believe it or not, 3M double sided tape does an amazing job of mounting panels to a roof. I recommend buying some “C” channel aluminum, drilling holes in it, and bolting that to your panels. Then, use the double sided tape to attach that apparatus to your roof. This is the tape I recommend: 3M(TM) Double Coated Urethane Foam Tape 4056 Black, 1/2 in x 36 yd 1/16 in [PRICE is per ROLL]: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Costco does not sell the Fab36 but homedepot.com does."

[hotfishtacos]

High bond strength tape has been used successfully in many exterior solar mounting applications but after hearing directly from Reace (Escape Trailers) about one customer who had their panel blow off while on the road during the winter and personally having one hook fall off a wall using the same tape I decided to go with a very permanent, highly reliable solution with the 3M Adhesive.

[Jay Moeller]

I too fear the loss of a rigid glass monocrystalline solar panel flying off the Bigfoot roof as I drive into the sunset. I asked Garret Towne of Grape Solar if I could use 3M(TM) Double Coated Urethane Foam Tape 4056 Black, 1/2 in x 36 yd 1/16 in [PRICE is per ROLL]: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific to glue their 100w flexible monocrystalline solar panel http://www.grapesolar.com/images/pdf...oFlex-100W.pdf directly to the roof and thus cure my “flying solar panel phobia”. This is his response:

“Panels perform best when they are cool because the atoms have less space between them and electrons can flow easier. No panels “require” space behind them, but they do perform better with airflow keeping them cool. The effect on performance is actually pretty minimal. For example, a difference of 10 degrees C on a 100W panel only changes the output by 3.8W.

Also, you can think of the surface the panel is directly attached to as a heat sink, which would dissipate heat probably just as well as airflow. There probably wouldn’t be any difference in temperature.
That being said, you can directly mount the panel with no airflow and it will work just fine.”

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by D Davis

Chuck, do you remember the number of your VHB tape? Because I ordered VHB 4941
to attach something else and it released. Do not know what I did wrong. The tape did not come off the trailer but did come off of the plastic piece I attached it to.

I suspect the issue was the plastic. Some plastics, for example, just can't be glued.

Here is a spec. sheet for all the 3M VHB tapes, which might be useful. Last link under "Documents" 3M™ VHB™ Tape

[multi-task]

I have a 215 watt 35 pound panel on the roof of my Trillium, dimensions are 62.2x31.4x1.8 (inches). It’s secured with 8 brackets. 4 are the original z brackets which were bolted through the roof for my older panel, 4 others are secured with 3M 4941 VHB tape to disperse the weight near the corners of the panel. I built an aluminum roof rack and attached that to the roof, then the panel to the rack. I also used Dicor and covered all of the brackets attached to the roof to prevent water making its way into the VHB tape or through any bolt holes.

My panel also sits almost 2” above the roof. I check it before and after all trips, it has yet to ever move.

If a panel this size stays on my roof I expect most of you won’t have any issues with the smaller panels no matter which method you use.