I told a few of you that I would post my Solar build here as well so here we go.I had originally planed for an 800 watt array but since then I decided to double the size and I'm now at 1650 watts.As some of you are aware I purchased six (6) SolarWorld ‘Sunmodule Protect’ series 275 Watt panels for my project. After much research I personally believe the SolarWorld ‘Protect’ panels are the most rugged and robust solar panels on the market today.Here’s a pic of them coming in off the truck. The panels are a 24 volt 60 cell configuration that’s roughly 66” x 38” in size, here’s a look at the panel.The panels come pre-drilled for a two rail mounting system but being this was not going to be a standard static mount I decided to set them up as a three rail mount system. Here I’m drilling the panel side rails third (center) mounting hole.I wanted the panel mount system to be fully tiltable in one axis. Here in this pic you can see the mounting system on one panel completed and ready for roof top installation.

That's going to be some serious power. Excellent.

Here you can see the feet or shoes (whatever you want to call the) that I fabricated to accept the mounting rails. These would be caulked and screwed down to the roof deck of the trailer.And here is a close up of the mounting rail connection

Being that all the mounting points needed to align properly I built jigs that I could use during the fabrication of the shoes and mounting rails, here’s a few pics of them.And here you can see the tilt range

Once the bench top assembly was complete it was time to install the panels on the roof top. In order to facilitate the roof top assembly I built a transportation pallet that I could have my friend next door lift for me.Here’s that look ……

Nice work!Is the project chronologically current?

BoonHauler Solar Project | Good Sam Community

2oldman
Explorer II
Mar 14, 2016
What controller? That's a lot of amps to be pumping to the (presumably) 12v batteries.
BoonHauler
Explorer
Mar 14, 2016
Here’s a look with four of the six panels installed.

And here’s a close up of the mount. I used a ¼” clevis pin as the hinge pin. The hairpins were installed once the wiring was completed.

Once the panel installation was completed I began the installation of the roof top wiring.

Being that the panels were 275 watts at basically 24 volts I decided to use #10 wire from the panels down to the circuit breakers. Being that most of this wire was going be exposed I chose to use two conductor SOOW cord.

The panels were going to be wired in parallel so this meant six wire home runs coming through the roof in the garage. In order to facilitate the roof penetration I decided to use a standard 7 hole NEMA 3 junction box and ½” weather tight cord connectors (all from Home Depot) to accomplish this task. The junction box needed to be modified with a much larger seventh hole, a 2 ½” hole to be exact.

Here’s a few pics
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Mar 14, 2016
Nice work!
Is the project chronologically current?
BoonHauler
Explorer
Mar 14, 2016
Once the bench top assembly was complete it was time to install the panels on the roof top. In order to facilitate the roof top assembly I built a transportation pallet that I could have my friend next door lift for me.

Here’s that look ……
BoonHauler
Explorer
Mar 14, 2016
Being that all the mounting points needed to align properly I built jigs that I could use during the fabrication of the shoes and mounting rails, here’s a few pics of them.

And here you can see the tilt range
BoonHauler
Explorer
Mar 14, 2016
Here you can see the feet or shoes (whatever you want to call the) that I fabricated to accept the mounting rails. These would be caulked and screwed down to the roof deck of the trailer.

And here is a close up of the mounting rail connection
2oldman
Explorer II
Mar 14, 2016
That's going to be some serious power. Excellent.

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