'71 Starcraft Wanderstar- "The Hilton"
Thought I should post this up because the "Search" feature doesn't return any results and there might be some useful info for older Starcraft owners or those that are mad enough to embark on a complet...
Forum Discussion
JiminDenver wrote:
Every since I found our panels, I have been mentally mounting them. (boy that sounds bad lol )
I have thought of ways to make them tilt and rotate in a effort to get the most out of them. Most recently I thought of using large TV turn tables for the rotating part but as it gets more and more complicated I realized I really want to mount them flat and not have to get up on the roof or worry about the wind ripping them off. The 230w showed 8.8a max and the 220w should be less, so mounted flat they should be within the abilities of the Eco-worthy. Running them portable next season will tell me if flat will do or not.
Yes, there is a lot of elegance to installing them flat.
I'm at 45 Lat. N (and may go even further North) so everything I've read tells me tilting is going to get me at least 15% more in the Winter. I too, would dread getting on a ladder, frequently, messing around with tilt mechanisms. I was giving some thought to linear actuators to raise and lower the panel but I think I'd rather have a solid fastening system over ease of operation. Another consideration is how often you need to deploy the panel into tilt? If someone was going to camp for a week in the same spot, two trips to the roof doesn't seem excessive. Another aspect of the Hilton, currently, is the deployment of the antennas. As it is, I'll probably be breaking out the ladder to get those deployed so it really isn't any more work to tilt, other than removing a pair of star wheel bolts and securing the tilt strut. Sounds easy.....I wonder what I'll think about that during a snow storm, lol.
