LARRY'S RV SOLAR PANEL RACKS

SITE CATEGORY - PROJECTS -  LARRY'S RV SOLAR PANEL RACKS

I was reading some of the posts in a forum on the Escapees RV Club website ... when I ran into a link to some pics & info on how one person had mounted their solar panels to their trailers roof ... This is a good and solid  installation with the added benefit of not having to drill holes in your roof ... I asked Larry Autenrieth to send us some info on how he did it ... and here's his reply & a couple of pics

"The upright plates are attached to the aluminum square tube that is the top member of the outside wall. Four threaded rivets were inserted into the
square tubing for each plate attachment and the plates were then bolted on.
The cross members are 2" x 2" aluminum square tubing connected to the upright plates with aluminum angles. No center support is needed - it is a clear span. 
Stainless fasteners were utilized for all connections. Number 6 gauge wire Tin Coated (Type 3 stranded (which is 5 to 10 times more strands
than type 2) - based on AWG (American Wire Gauge) wire sizes which are 6 to12% larger than SAE gauge wire) interconnects the panels and runs down through a gray water vent pipe through a control switch and the charge controller (Trace C35) and then to the battery bank. The four panels are
Siemens model SR100 rated at 5.9 amps each.

Happy Camping!
Larry Autenrieth"

This is a really good and solid installation . It doesn't allow you to raise the Solar Panels to a angle that gives you the best solar gain at different times of the year ...like our last buses racks did. But, on a Motor Home or Trailer that moves about a lot ...it really isn't 100% necessary to have racks that allow the panels to be raised .  It truly does help to raise the Panels at different times of the year...but it's More important that you have a really Solid Rack system like Larry Does. The last thing you want is to have some very expensive Solar Panels flying through the air ...plus it wouldn't be nice if those panels crashed through someone's car window either.

I haven't decided yet how I'll build/design on Solar system racks on our New Bus ... I'm leaning toward Racks that can be raised . Since I hate climbing up on the roof to mess around with thumb-screws ...I'm thinking of building the Racks with a 12-volt motorized setup that will allow me to flick a switch inside ...and 'Open Sesame' , the Panels will raise to an angle that will pick up the optimum Solar gain.

SITE CATEGORY - PROJECTS -  LARRY'S RV SOLAR PANEL RACKS