The Ultimate DIY thread - Ubuilding (Pics)
Hey all, There is another, albeit smaller, side to this whole RV thing - those crazy folks who build their own for whatever reason. Whether you've scratch-built it from the ground up, assembled a kit...
Forum Discussion
Thx westend - been building boats for a long time, which is exactly how I got the idea !
The roof doesn't have any transverse framing and, just forward of there, is the curb for the vent...so there's a 16" square hole in the roof.
Once the roof is completely glassed, I will run similar stringers fore and aft on top from the back wall/roof corner forward to just past that stringer - those are the ones that the panels will physically mount to.
I'll glass them on after the roof so that the fasteners don't pierce the structural outer skin. Should I change the layout up there later, I can grind off those stringers without affecting the roof's integrity.
So yeah, I'm adding the mounting provision (stringers) at the structural phase. The solar panels' fasteners won't break through the trailer's shell and the weight will be supported by the back wall to the rear and by the side walls via that stringer in the front.
The potential downside is that the foam will take the compression loading from the weight of the panels, but it's spread over a large area so I'm not worried about it.
Another boat trick I'm using is to bed a 1/8" X 1" aluminum strip along the top of each of the three mounting stringers on top of the foam and under the glass. That way, the fasteners on the panels get more to bite than just glass - engine stringers in glass boats are done this way so they can be drilled and tapped for the mounts.
One could do the same pretty easily with wood, but I'd rather not use wood coring on the roof. This way, if the fasteners leak over time I'm not introducing rot.
Since a pic is worth a thousand words...
The roof doesn't have any transverse framing and, just forward of there, is the curb for the vent...so there's a 16" square hole in the roof.
Once the roof is completely glassed, I will run similar stringers fore and aft on top from the back wall/roof corner forward to just past that stringer - those are the ones that the panels will physically mount to.
I'll glass them on after the roof so that the fasteners don't pierce the structural outer skin. Should I change the layout up there later, I can grind off those stringers without affecting the roof's integrity.
So yeah, I'm adding the mounting provision (stringers) at the structural phase. The solar panels' fasteners won't break through the trailer's shell and the weight will be supported by the back wall to the rear and by the side walls via that stringer in the front.
The potential downside is that the foam will take the compression loading from the weight of the panels, but it's spread over a large area so I'm not worried about it.
Another boat trick I'm using is to bed a 1/8" X 1" aluminum strip along the top of each of the three mounting stringers on top of the foam and under the glass. That way, the fasteners on the panels get more to bite than just glass - engine stringers in glass boats are done this way so they can be drilled and tapped for the mounts.
One could do the same pretty easily with wood, but I'd rather not use wood coring on the roof. This way, if the fasteners leak over time I'm not introducing rot.
Since a pic is worth a thousand words...
