Mounting solar panels side-to-side vs front-to-back

DaveG39 wrote:
What's important is that the sun hits them without shadows from other equipment.

Yes, and whether you'll be tilting, need room for more in the future and can still walk on the roof.

One benefit from lots of panels is shade for your roof. Possibly prolongs its life.

I only have two places on my OFF-ROAD POPUP roof one being on each side of the front roof mounted fantastic fan running length wise along the roof. The other spot is between the air conditioner and the rear of the roof mounted across the roof.

I hope it doesn't matter haha... I will have two panels in one direction almost side by side and one panel in the opposite direction about four feet away from the other two panels.

In my case it appears the three 120WATT panels will only be used for trickle battery charge or long term charging when parked. I will not get enough power out of the three 120WATT panels (approximately 15AMPS maybe around high noon) to re-charge my battery bank to its 90% SOC in a quick three-four hour run in the sun... I need around 14.4VDC @ 20AMPs per battery to pull this off in a short three hour period. My current battery bank is three 85AH 12VDC Interstate batteries producing around 255AHs capacity.

Even knowing this the solar panels will still be a big upgrade for me keeping my batteries re-charged.

Roy Ken

What's important is that the sun hits them without shadows from other equipment. Side to side ma create issues finding room for walking on the roof. If there is room, orientation won't make a difference.